Gout Gout, Isaac Beacroft and Daniel Okerenyang all broke Australian Under 16 records at the Australian All School Championships in Adelaide.
Cover image courtesy of Athletics Australia
Competing on the freshly laid blue track at the SA Athletics Stadium, the trio set records in the 200m, 3000m Walk and Triple Jump respectively.
Queensland’s Gout took three-tenths-of-a-second off the previous record, running 21.15 seconds (+1.8) in the heats, followed by 21.14 seconds (-0.1) in the final. It was his second national record of the season, following a 10.57s 100m clocking in Queensland last month.
“It feels good. I wasn’t expecting it but to come out here and do two in a day feels good,” said Gout.
“I started getting improvements very fast because I was barely doing any training before. My first race was GPS in 2020 for Ipswich Grammar. I won by 100m and 200m and came third in the 400m,” he said.
“I just need to keep putting in the hard work, keep getting faster and see what’s next for me.”
Gout also took out the 100m in his age group, in 10.71 seconds.
The fastest sprinting of the meet came from NSW’s Under 18 national 100n record holder Sebastian Sultana, who clocked 10.57 (-1.7) and a meet record 20.71 in the 200m, albeit aided by a 4.5 m/s tailwind. World Junior representative, Aleksandra Stoilova, set a new personal best of 11.60 seconds (1.1) to beat NSW teammate Olivia Rose Inkster (11.75), with Inkster winning the 200m in 23.92s (+3.1).
Isaac Beacroft from NSW bettered a 27-year-old national record in the 3000m walk, finishing in 12:04.09 despite hot 35 degree conditions.
“I was pretty nervous coming into the race but I just tried to trust my ability, I have done all the training,” Beacroft told Athletics Australia.
“[Second placed] Owen [Toyne] and I are always very close, it’s great competition. I stayed cool all day but I wanted to put the heat aside and go for it, at the end of the day it’s nationals and you have nothing to lose.”
The final day of competition in the three-day meet was headlined by Daniel Okerenyang leaping to 14.79m (0.0) in the triple jump, breaking the national record by 23 centimetres.
“The main reason I came to Adelaide today was to get the Australian record. I competed a few weeks ago in Canberra and after getting 14.43, I was excited to come here and get it.” Okerenyang told Athletics Australia.
“I didn’t really do a pre-season this year because I did soccer and footy so I had two weeks of pre-season, so it’s been a big surprise to jump so well, but it gives me a lot of confidence going into the future so we’ll see what we can do.”
Numerous meet records fell during the competition, including:
- Delta Amidzovski, 13.45 in the U17 100m hurdles after also winning the long jump in 6.10m (-1.4). The hurdles performance broke the NSW U18 record of 13.46 held by Michelle Jenneke.
- Hudson McKay, 12.66s in the U16 100m hurdles
- Ivy Boothroyd, 2:05.81 in the U16, also finishing second in the 400m in 54.89.
- Daniel Williams, 1:51.95 in the U16 800m.
New South Wales dominated the medal tally with 220 medals, ahead of Queensland’s 162 and Victoria’s 120; while South Australia made the most of their home town advantage to finish with 54 medals, ahead of Western Australia’s 38.
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