It was a huge weekend of Athletics for the Sydney University Athletic Club (SUAC) with the much anticipated Nitro series kicking off in Melbourne, the Sydney Invitational and NSW Junior Championships held at Homebush and the naming of Emily Ryan in Australia’s World Cross Country Championships team.
Firstly, Nitro. The club has 3 athletes going around at this event over the three meet series. They are Annie Rubie, Justin Merlino and Michelle Jenneke. In action night one were Olympic Semi-finalist Annie Rubie and Olympian and the reigning national champ Michelle Jenneke. Rubie found herself running the 600m leg of the Medley Relay and she brought her A-game, running a huge leg for Team Australia and setting up a unbeatable lead for team captain Ryan Gregson who was never challenged and sailed to victory. In the women’s 100m hurdles Michelle Jenneke served notice that her hamstring troubles of the last couple of months may be behind her having won the event comfortably from rival Abbie Taddeo.
SUAC also enjoyed similar success at the Sydney Invitational. The standout was Josh Clarke having his first run back since a horrible run of injury leading into the Rio Olympics. Clarke was dominant, winning the 200m in a very slick 20.88 season debut.
Nick Hough continued his good form winning the 110 hurdles in a very solid 13.88. Jenny Blundell opened her account for the season with a win in the 1500m, Holly Campbell was 2nd recording a personal best 4.15, with sister Paige Campbell also recording a personal best of 4.22 for 6th, Em Augustine was 10th, Sarah Marvin 11th and Jo Cubis 13th.
Josh Ralph had his first run over 400m for the year getting the win in 47.50, with Alex Pettigrew 7th and Lewis Horenko 8th, Christian Lozada was 2nd in heat 2. Tavleen Singh also had a win in the 100m in a time of 12.03, with Emily Duve 4th in the same race. Matthew Mountford threw a 2m personal best to win the discus on the back of a PB in the Hunter last week.
In other results Maddy Bergfield was just shy of her personal best in both the discus and shot, finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively and Nick Van Gelder was 4th in the men’s Long Jump.
At NSW Junior Championships, para athlete Sarah Clifton-Bligh came away with 7 Gold medals across 7 events in the T/F33 classification. This was a phenomenal effort given the extreme heat just missing PBs. Sarah will now compete at NSW Open Championships.
In international news, Emily Ryan’s second place at World Cross Country trials in Canberra last Sunday has officially earned Emily selection in the 24 strong Australian team at the 2017 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. These will be held in Kampala, Uganda on 26 March.
SUAC athletes will this weekend compete at the Nitro Series on Thursday Night and Saturday and an allcomers meet in Sydney next weekend.
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