Harry Sly earned silver in the under-18 400m hurdles at the Junior National Championships. Photos: Echuca Moama Athletics
Echuca Moama Athletics representatives earned exceptional results at the recent Australian Athletics Junior Underage Championships.
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The club brought home two medals from the titles in Brisbane, but unfortunately injuries hampered other competitors’ chances of doing the same.
The good news stories came from Hannah Downward and Harry Sly, who scored silver medals in their events, Downward in the under-17 high jump and Sly in the under-18 400m hurdles.
Downward matched her personal best in the high jump, clearing 1.69m at her second attempt.
Much like last year, where an early clearance saw her claim silver in the under-16s, getting over the height with only one miss pushed her into second ahead of third place which also cleared at that height.
“The pressure that is on a field event athlete to be out there for up to an hour in the heat, grinding through a high jump competition, having to bring yourself up to jump again, to jump higher, or to jump PBs, it isn't as easy as it looks,” Echuca Moama Athletics president Kate Downward said.
“It is a difficult thing to do, and she did it with absolute professionalism to secure that second silver medal.”
Hannah Downward won silver in the under-17 high jump, her second consecutive silver in the event.
Sly smashed his own personal best in the hurdles, shaving a massive 1.38 seconds off his previous efforts to finish in 53.6 seconds.
After narrowly missing the podium in fourth last year, Sly has scored back-to-back silvers in the All Schools and now national championships.
His performance earned him a call-up to the Australian team for the Oceania Championships, held in Darwin from May 18 to 23.
“(Harry’s) a young man who has a great belief in himself and his talent,” Downward said.
“He put faith in the training that we had done in the lead up and that training does get quite technical with 400m hurdles.
“We trained for a particular stride pattern to the fifth hurdle that allowed him to use his speed endurance to come home strongly in what was a very close finish.”
Fellow Echuca Moama athlete Scarlett Southern will represent the Regional Australia side at the Oceania championships after contributing to a fourth place finish in the 4x400m relay with Victoria, and making the semi-final in the individual event.
Competing in the open age group, Southern will be battling Australian Olympians Ellie Beer and Mia Gross in the 400m.
Georgina Farrell took on a gruelling seven events over two days in the under-17 heptathlon, scoring three personal best efforts in the 100m hurdles, shot put and 800m to improve her best overall event score by 198 points to 3478.
The last two Echuca Moama athletes at the championships had their events interrupted by injury.
In doubt going in, state champion Harper Shiels was unable to compete in the under-17 400m hurdles, while multi-discipline competitor Phoenix Wise pulled out of the under-16 high jump and was forced to withdraw from the final in the 100m after qualifying sixth fastest.
The Oceania titles are fast approaching and the club is also moving into its cross-country season over the winter months.
Local races begin Sunday, May 24 at 9.30am, while club athletes Benji Carfoot and Tommy Quirk will carry local hopes into the Athletics Victoria cross-country season.
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