A WORLD champion decathlete at Masters level, Geoff Shaw broke the triple jump record for the 70-plus age group in Saturday’s third leg of Flack Advisory Bendigo Region’s welcome back series at Flora Hill. Shaw reached a mark of 9.73 metres, beating the previous best for the star from Bendigo Harriers of 9.52m.
There were many highlights across the three sessions run at the La Trobe University Bendigo Athletics Complex in Flora Hill, with competitor numbers for each session capped at 50.
A national open shot put champion and previous winner of Athletic Bendigo’s Athlete of the Year Award, Emma Berg took to the circle in session two.
Emma has switched her technique from glide to rotation and at Saturday’s meet she achieved a best of 12.75m.
Fastest in the 200m were South Bendigo’s Oliver Muggleton, 23.04, and James Woods, 23.49; Eaglehawk’s Alec Colturi, 25.01; Collingwood’s Hunter Staples, 25.21; Bendigo Harriers’ Abbey Conquer, 26.88, and Gretel Holmes, 27.25m.
The great run by Lonain Burnett from Bendigo Harriers rolled on in the 800m. Burnett was in hot form throughout last summer’s Victorian Athletic League action and won Saturday’s 800m at LUBAC in a time of 2:08.94.
It was a Harriers trifecta in the second of the 800m heats as Jackson Eadon, 2:07.18, led the way from Lewis Gillett, 2:13, and Joshua Evans, 2:36. Mychael Baker from Bendigo Harriers lowered his seed time by more than 10 seconds as he won the next heat in 2:21 from South Bendigo’s Greg Hilson, 2:25.18, and Aaron Norton, 2:25.47.
A great afternoon for Alec Colturi included a leap of 11.79m at triple jump as clubmates David Chisholm, 10.11m, and Jorja Morrison, 9.80m, performed well.
Hammer made a welcome return to the competition schedule. Best in the first flight were Bendigo Harriers’ Geoff Jordan, 22.12m, and South Bendigo’s Carol Coad, 20.84m. Eaglehawk’s Georgia Lee won the hammer in session two on 27.43m as clubmate Peter Savage achieved a PB of 19.01m. Best mark of the day at hammer was by Eaglehawk’s Craig Graham, 33.82m.
In a triple jump flight marked by Shaw’s record leap, James Woods reached 11.58m as clubmates Jessica Grigson, 8.84, and Lainey Pollard, 8.46, were also in fine form.
Flight two was led by Caitlin Evans from Bendigo Harriers on 9.83 and Joshua Evans, 8.83m.
Session three kicked off with the 400m.
The exciting duels between Harriers’ clubmates Abbey Conquer, 1:03.51, and Gretel Holmes, 1:04.37, continued. Other heat winners were Caitlin Evans, Charli McInerney, Anne Buckley and University’s Janet Hodnett.
In the first of the men’s 400m heats, Oliver Muggleton was victorious in 52.78 from James Woods, 55.36, and Nicholas Alexander, 60.93. Eaglehawk’s David Chisholm, 1:00.24, won a closely-fought race from South Bendigo’s Luka Markovic, 1:00.68, in heat two.
There was an exciting duel in the 1500m, which kicked off session three. Lewis Gillett from Bendigo Harriers won a great 1500m battle with South Bendigo’s Bernard Nihill as they crossed the line in times of 4:36 and 4:39 as South Bendigo’s Taryn Furletti was third in 4:50.
Flight one of shot put was led by David Chisholm, 8.47, and Harriers’ Rebecca Soulsby, 8.16m.
