Success for Taree athletes at regional titles

From a team of 43 at Tamworth, 14 have qualified for the State championships in March.

Ivy Hoadley, 12, was a standout performer winning gold medals in the under 13 girls 80m hurdles, 200m hurdles and javelin. Ivy also won silver medals in the triple jump and discus, qualifying for State in five events. She was also a member of the senior girls relay team which won bronze.

Jannali Simms, 14, was also a triple gold medallist, winning the under 15 girls 200m hurdles, breaking the regional record by more than a second with a time of 50.95s. Jannali also won gold in the 90m hurdles and triple jump, qualifying for State in three events. She also took home bronze in the 100m and 200m and was part of the bronze-winning senior girls relay team.

Jarrah Butler, 9, won three gold medals in the under 10 girls 100m, 200m and 60m hurdles. Jarrah also won silver in the long jump and qualified for State in all her four events.

Cade Van Ewyk-Campbell, 13, won gold medals in the under 14 boys 200m hurdles and javelin, as well as silver in the discus.

Paxton Summerfield, won silver in the same javelin event, giving Taree the top two spots and two State qualifiers in this event.

Millah Dennes, 10, was a standout in the under 11 girls javelin, breaking the regional record with her throw of 21.24m beating the previous record of 20.11m. Millah also won gold in the 80m hurdles.

Taree athletes worked hard under coach Jenny Wyllie in the lead up to the competition, despite the track at Taree Recreation Grounds being unusable for running events.

"We've been unable to use our track all season due to the bad state of the grounds," team manager Linda Hoadley said.

"We've been walking across to the football fields for our races each week, and having to re-mark the whole track every few weeks, which has been costly and time consuming.

"We're really proud of the commitment our athletes have shown under these circumstances, as well as the support of our families in helping out.

"At Regional we wanted to focus on personal bests rather than medals, so we kept a PB noticeboard throughout the event. Athletes wrote on post-it notes each time they achieved a personal best time or distance in their event. and by the end of the weekend the noticeboard was covered with notes, as dozens of personal bests were achieved."

Top two finishers in events in age groups under 9 or older qualify for the Little Athletics State Championships, to be held in Sydney on March 18-19 March. Taree athletes who qualified are: Ivy Hoadley, Jannali Simms, Jarrah Butler, Millah Dennes, Cade Van Ewyk Campbell, Braxtyn Squires, Cooper Hulbert, Mia Currie, Violet Trevail, Brooke Hosgood, Paxton Summerfield, Laine Wyllie, Tegan McCallum and Hunter Davies.

Taree's regional medal winners: