VIVA All Schools Championships

This was an important weekend for the Ignatius athletes as the competition this week gave them a chance to gain an invitation to the Australian All Schools Championship to be held in Perth in December. Isabelle Cherry won an impressive gold medal in the U14 Discus and Tom Kavanagh brough home the gold medal in the U18 3000m. Eva DiIulio raced superbly to win the silver in the U18 400m hurdles and Tom Kavanagh secured the silver medal in the U18 1500m. Isabelle Cherry worked hard to win the bronze medal in the U14 Shot Put while Lola Whiteman jumped a personal best in the U14 Triple Jump to take home the bronze medal. Congratulations to all athletes who represented Ignatius over the weekend including Jack Pontt, Lily Roberts, Josh Kavanagh and Rafael Rivera who were competing at this level for the first time. Well done to Lily McBain and Tehan Arachchi Appuhamilage Don who performed brilliantly in tough competitions.

On Saturday, Isabelle Cherry threw a massive personal best (26.21m), only missing a medal through a technicality. She backed this performance up with a strong shot put competition, winning a bronze medal with a distance of 9.45m and then winning a gold medal (33.95m) in the Discus on Sunday. Eva Di Iulio performed well in the 90m hurdles after coming back from an achilles injury in recent weeks. She followed up with a silver medal in the 400m hurdles (1.12) which was an exciting race to the line. Lola Whiteman was confident in her U14 hurdles race, crossing the line in a time of 14.90 and then racing back to jump a personal best in the Triple Jump of 9.67m. This distance was enough for Lola to claim a bronze medal in the U14 category. Jack Pontt made his debut in Athletics at this level and performed well, placing 6^th in the U14 shot put with a distance of 10.18m. Jack followed this up with a great Javelin competition in windy conditions finishing a close 4^th with a distance of 23.31m. Rafael Rivera also debuted this weekend, placing 10^th in a vey competitive timed final for the U14 100m race. He backed up on Sunday in the 200m and again, he qualified for the 200m final and finished 7^th fastest in a time of 28.19. Lily McBain had an unlucky lane draw that made her 400m race even harder than it needed to be. Lily ran strongly and finished in a good time of 1.15.90. Josh Kavanagh (4^th 4.35), Lily Roberts 4^th (5.52) and Tom Kavanagh (2^nd 4.19) all tackled the 1500m races at the end of Saturday with great courage and wonderful results. Tom returned to the track on Sunday and won a gold medal in the U18 3000m (9.10.62) in a strong performance. Josh ran a personal best to come a close 4^th (9.52.19) in the 3000m and finished the day with fast 800m time (2.17.45). Tehan Arachchi Appuhamilage Don showed his early season strength, running 24.88 in his 200m heat and then placing 5^th in the final in a time of 24.57. He also jumped brilliantly in the U16 long jump, recording a measurement of 5.78m to place 4^th which was an impressive performance.

Miriam Doyle
Teacher-in-charge of Athletics