Entering perhaps its 50th edition, the Australian All Schools Championships have been the proving ground for the nation’s best young athletes. Since the first edition in 1974*, the meet has evolved through several age-group formats including U19/U17/U15, later U20/U18/U16/U14, and today’s U18/U17/U16/U15/U14 structure — but its essence is relatively unchanged: the best school-aged athletes in Australia, lining up for national titles.
* A 1951 event, commemorating the Jubilee of Australia’s Federation, was held in Hobart #TarbyStats
Underage records often feel like crystal balls: sometimes they give a clear glimpse of future glory, and sometimes they capture a single, brilliant performance from an athlete whose life heads in a very different direction. A look through the meet records has a bit of both — future global stars and phenomenal school-age performances that, for all sorts of reasons, didn’t translate into long senior careers.
To mark the 50th edition, we’ve taken all meet records in the current events and applied the World Athletics Scoring Tables (adult tables) to compare performances across events and generations:
- Junior hurdles/throws using youth heights or implements are excluded by the adult tables.
- Wind readings are ignored, just as they are for meet records.
- Only events still contested today are included, with a few outstanding U17 marks joining the U18 list.
After standardising half a century of meet record results, these are the 10 highest-scoring All Schools performances of all time.
#1 — Gout Gout (QLD)
20.04 | 200m | 2024 | 1214 points
Gout Gout’s 20.04 in 2024 is, by any measure, outrageous for a schoolboy.
On the World Athletics tables it doesn’t just edge the field; it sits firmly in global senior class, the sort of number you expect from men in major championship finals. As an underage performance, it’s almost off the charts.
Regardless of the chapters still to come, this performance has set a new benchmark for what Australian juniors can aspire to.
#2 — Gout Gout (QLD)
10.04 (w) | 100m | 2024 | 1193 points
The 200m wasn’t a once-off lightning strike.
In the 100m, Gout stopped the clock at 10.04 with a tailwind — a time that, even adjusted in your head for conditions, is barely believable in an All Schools singlet. The scoring tables treat it as an elite performance regardless of age.
Together, his 100m and 200m from 2024 form the most dominant sprint double the meet has ever seen. Whether this becomes the launchpad for a long international career, or remains a meteor streaking across junior history, it’s already etched in the record book.
#3 — Eleanor Patterson (VIC)
1.96m | High Jump | 2013 | 1180 points
Some underage records turn out to be previews rather than outliers. Eleanor Patterson’s 1.96m is one of them.
Clearing 1.96m at All Schools put her in rare company – a World Youth Best – with a performance even senior athletes would envy. On the World Athletics tables it sits deep in the “medal-contender” band, and time has vindicated it: the following year Patterson went on to become Commonwealth Games Champion, and in 2022 World Champion.
This is one of the clearest examples in the list where a spectacular junior mark was not a peak, but a starting point.
#4 — Sally McLellan (QLD)
12.98 (w) | 100m Hurdles | 2003 | 1152 points
In 2003, a teenage Sally McLellan (now Pearson) sprinted and attacked the hurdles in a way that hinted strongly at what was to come.
Her 12.98 over senior-height hurdles, even with a big tailwind, is a time that the adult tables treat with deep respect. Very few Australian women have ever run faster, at any age.
Here again, the pattern is clear: a stunning All Schools performance, followed years later by Olympic glory and global titles.
#5 — Terrell Thorne (QLD)
45.64 | 400m | 2024 | 1136 points
The men’s 400m is a cruel event, but Terrell Thorne made 45.64 look controlled at All Schools 2024.
The tables score it as a high-calibre senior mark, good enough to be competitive in national finals and beyond. As with Gout Gout, the open question now is how this translates into the next decade: will this be the first chapter in a long 400m story, or the unforgettable peak of a schoolboy career?
Either way, in the context of 50 years of All Schools history, it’s the very best lap ever run.
#6 — Jana Pittman (NSW)
51.80 | 400m | 1999 | 1134 points
Some records feel almost mythic because they refuse to budge. Jana Pittman’s 51.80 from 1999 is one of those.
Still the meet record a quarter-century later, it scores only a fraction behind Thorne’s 45.64 on the World Athletics tables. For a teenager, 51.80 is a statement that you can belong at the top level — and in Jana’s case, it was a promise she kept, with world titles and Olympic finals to come.
#7 — Riley Day (QLD)
11.36 | 100m | 2016 | 1123 points
Riley Day’s 11.36 in 2016 was the moment many people first sat up and took notice.
As a raw time, it’s electric; on the tables, it cracks comfortably into the 1100-point territory, which is rare air for a junior. Day went on represent Australia at the Olympics, but like many young athletes, her career has had to navigate injuries and the realities of life beyond the track.
Her All Schools record stands as both a highlight in its own right and a reminder of just how thin the line is between promising junior and long-term international athlete. She’s now looking to step up to the 400m as the second phase of her career.
#8 — Amaya Mearns (QLD)
23.15 | 200m (U17) | 2024 | 1119 points
Amaya Mearns’ 23.15 as a U17 in 2024 is one of the most striking recent additions to the record book.
At face value it’s a brilliant performance; in the World Athletics tables it scores among the very best female sprints in All Schools history. At this stage, it’s a snapshot of possibility — a moment that says “this athlete could be anything”.
Only time will tell whether this becomes the beginning of a long senior career, or a treasured line in the junior record lists. Either way, it belongs in this top-10 conversation.
#9 — Thewbelle Philp (QLD)
11.38 | 100m (U17) | 2024 | 1118 points
Just behind Mearns, both on the clock and on the tables, sits Thewbelle Philp.
Her 11.38 at U17 level is world-class junior sprinting, translating to 1118 points. In another era it might have stood alone; in 2024, it was part of a wider surge in women’s sprint quality.
Like several others on this list, Philp’s record is a fork in the road: it could be the launchpad for senior national teams, or it might remain the kind of performance people recall with “remember when…?”
#10 — Jana Pittman (NSW)
56.93 | 400m Hurdles | 1999 | 1113 points
Pittman appears again, this time in the 400m hurdles, with a 56.93 that still looks sharp even by modern senior standards.
Running that kind of time at All Schools is rare; doing it in the same meet as a 51.80 flat 400m is almost unheard of. At the time it was the sixth fastest time ever by an Australian, underlining just how far ahead of her age group she really was. Less than a year later the SOPAC track the mark was recorded on was the Olympic warm up track, and Pittman made her Olympic debut.
In her case, the underage record was not an exaggeration of her talent; it was a preview.
What These Records Tell Us — And What They Don’t
Looked at through the World Athletics Scoring Tables, these ten marks are the purest, most comparable performances across 50 years of Australian All Schools history.
Underage records are snapshots: sometimes they’re early chapters in a long story, sometimes they’re perfect short stories all on their own.
2025 Australian All Schools
The 2025 Australian All Schools run from 4 – 8 December 2025 at Lakeside Stadium. We’ll provide editorial coverage of Sunday’s events, though full photo galleries won’t be available on our platforms due to existing partnerships. We’re still excited to showcase the some of the meet’s best stories.
