Tasmanian Talent On Display

Athletics Tasmania has had a bumper start to the new year with some brilliant performances from athletes already. The long weekend clearly brought forth some inspired performances with some of Tassie's best making history.

Tasmanian talent was on display in ACT and NSW for the Capitol Athletics State Track & Field Championships, and the NSW Combined Event Championships.

The ACT State Championships has always been a popular event as a precursor to the Summer of Athletics Track Classic meets at arguably the favourite track in the Country, renowned for being fast.

Tasmania had a strong showing with one coach, Rosie Coleman saying "it was an awe inspiring meet to watch in person."

Five Tasmanian Institute of Sport (T.I.S.) scholarship holders were present at the ACT Championships and took it to the rest of Australia.

Jacob Despard produced one of the best sets of runs for the meet winning his heat with a tidy performance following that with a 1st place in the final in a time of 10.15 (+1.5) which is a new personal best. This also elevates him to 9th fastest all time in Australia. With sprinting in Australia at an all-time high, it's great to see Jacob performing consistently and winning races. There are now a few men in Australia eyeing off the individual Olympic qualifier in the future.

Jack Hale also ran in the 100m event in Canberra finishing just outside the top eight in the 100m heats, but winning in true style the B Final in a time of 10.35 (+1.9).

We saw a stunning performance from Northwest wunderkind - Chelsea Scolyer who outclassed the field in the U/20 100m, wining the heat in a windy 11.41 (+4.9), and running superbly in the final to win in a time of 11.50 (+0.3). This was not only a World Junior Qualifier but marked the successful clean sweep of state 100m records from Chelsea from U13-Open at just 17 years of age. It wasn’t the only quality performance by Chelsea across the weekend also picking up a World Junior Qualifier in the 200m – 24.02 (+1.3)

Prior to the Men's Open 100m event, Alexander McKillop (T36) ran in the Open Men's Para 100m where he finished second in a time of 12.19 (+3.4). Alexander followed this up in the final where he won the gold medal in the Multi-Class Open Men's Para Final – 12.26 (+2.3). Both of these performances were big PB's and were well inside the Paralympic B Qualifying standard, however, were outside the legal wind requirements.

Laura McShane ran superbly in the Open Women's 400 to come in with the 6th fastest time of 54.16. This season is shaping up to be a big one for the Eastern Suburbs athlete.

One of Tasmanias most decorated Para athletes, Dion Kenzie ran 4:07.60 in the Para Open Mens 1500m event. 

Husband and wife Kiara and Simon Calvert ran strongly in the Open 100m events, both with personal best performances of 12.07 (+2.0) and 12.34 (+2.1) respectively.

Another brilliant World Junior Qualifier was achieved in the Supernova 10,000m Race Walk event by Will Bottle. Will has achieved 3 WJQ performances since moving to South Australia.

Only a short distance away, Alex Wojcik was contesting the Athletics NSW Combined Events Championships at SOPAC where he put together a good series of events.

As a result of their brilliant performances, we should be keeping an eye out for our athletes at the Adelaide Invitational, Maurie Plant Meet, Canberra Track Classic and much more in the lead up to the Australian Athletics Championships in Adelaide in April.

We look forward to what the rest of the athletics season for 2023/24 has in store for us!

*we know we might not have covered it all, so please reach out if there is anything we've missed*