Deniliquin High School shot putter Connor Wilson smashed an Australian age record for shot put as multiple marks fell at the NSW Combined High Schools Sports Association (NSWCHSSA) Secondary Athletics Championship.
Held across three days at Sydney Olympic Park Athletic Centre, the event saw more than 2400 students competing from across the state.
Five able-bodied records for the meet were logged, as well as 27 multi-class records (10 broken and 17 new).
Year nine student Wilson threw 18.68 metres in the boys’ 15 years shot put to cut an incredible 77cm from the carnival record – 51cm better than the national record for his age group.
Other impressive records included: Annabelle Vella (Galston High School) trimming more than three seconds off the longstanding girls’ 12-14 years 3000m record; Manaia Coulter (East Hills Girls High School) in the girls’ 17-19 years shot put; and Tallara Joseph-Riogi (Canterbury Girls High School) in the girls’ 15 years javelin.
Tallara also won the shot put and the discus.
Other triple gold medallists were Oscar Turnbull (Galston High School) in the boys’ 14 years 200m, 400m and 800m; Sienna Vassella (St Ives High School) in the girls’ 13 years 100m, 200m and long jump; and Reki Roberts (Hurlstone Agricultural High School) in the girls’ 16 years discus, long jump and shot put.
Among the multi-class stand-outs, Maximas Papacastantinou (Menai High School) claimed gold in the boys’ 16-19 years 100m, 800m, long jump and shot put; Anouk Laverty (Bellingen High School) took out the 800m, javelin and shot put for the girls’ 15 years; and Michayla Espie (Kingswood High School) won the javelin, shot put and discus in the girls’ 12-15 years.
New events at the 2024 meet included the 4 x 200m for athletes 12-15 years.
NSW Department of Education Secretary Murat Dizdar attended the event, which also attracted more than 20,000 views online via the stream on days two and three.
“We saw three outstanding days of competition at Olympic Park and some remarkable performances across the able-bodied and multiclass divisions,” says Leader School Sport Unit, Peter Banks.
“Our pathways to representative school sport are class leading and I have no doubt some of the young athletes we saw during competition will be right in the mix to represent their country at the Brisbane Olympics in eight years’ time.”
