The Gippsland Sports Academy develops the sports skills, and personal skills, of talented young athletes through its sports programs.
Our pages provide information about these young athletes and their sports. We also acknowledge the individuals and sponsoring organisations whose support has enabled their high achievements.
4 February 2010 - Tennis trio to Optus Nationals
Three promising young members of the Academy's tennis squad have made the cut for the Optus National Grasscourts12-years and 14-years Championships.
Chloe Downie and Mitchell Allman (14-years) and David Hough (12-years) will be playing at the Championships, at Mildura, in two weeks' time.
All three have had solid tennis results last year which earned them their invitations to play against Australia's best.
At the Championships players will be supported by the Academy's Head Coach, Graham Charlton.
2 February 2010 - Badminton pair hoping for Vic team
Grace Hanratty and Mihar Nandha have hopes of selection into the Victorian squad for the Australian titles in April.
Last weekend Grace and Mihar competed in the Victorian under-17 Badminton Championships, which is one of the major selection events. Final team selection will consider these results, as well as those from selection tournaments conducted late last year, and from a further trial this coming weekend.
Last weekend the pair's best results were when they partnered together in the mixed doubles event and reached the quarter finals.
Selections are expected to be announced next week.
29 January 2010 – Swimmers on target in Country titles
Academy swimmers achieved excellent results at the Country Championships at Warrnambool over last weekend.
The Championships also provided swimmers with an opportunity to take on a heavy racing program and assist their fitness for the Australian Championships in two months' time.
The most intensive work loads were undertaken by Andrew O'Connor, Brayden Waltham and Dylan Wyatt who all competed in 11 individual events, most of which involved preliminary races and finals.
The outstanding performers were Stephanie Morgan (6 wins), Jeremy Meyer (5), Dylan Wyatt (4), Andrew O'Connor (4), Alice Lieshout (3), Kate Sommerfield (3) and Brayden Waltham (3).
Stephanie Morgan and Jeremy Meyer also won Australia Day medals for performances closest to world records.
Other winners were Kirsten Lieshout, Lily Collins and Ben Geard. Elliott Shaw took two silver medals and one bronze.
29 January 2010 - Bowlers win Yarragon fours
An Academy team won the fours tournament at Yarragon earlier this week. The successful team were Sam Atkinson (skip), Will McIlwain, Ryan Bell and Alex Houston.
The team members were delighted with their win especially as it is the same event which they won last year.
The green was heavy and took some adjusting to but Ryan Bell played superbly. Sam Atkinson was the ideal choice as skip as he plays extremely well there, his home ground, on which he is the club's champion.
This is the last of the squad's official club tournaments so it was a high note on which to finish the season.
26 January 2010 - Athletics achievers at Country titles
Six of the Academy's athletics squad competed in the weekend's Victorian Country Athletics Championships.
The best results were from uner-14 girls Lauren Matthews and Sharna Warry. Lauren won the high jump, triple jump and the 100-metre sprint. She also finished second in the long jump and 200-metre race.
Sharna's wins were in field events, the discus and javelin. She also placed third in the triple jump.
James Ogden (under-16) had field event successes as well with bronze medals in shot put and discus.
Ryan Buttner, now moving up to the under-18s, finished second in the high jump.
25 January 2010 - Lawn bowlers at Regional Junior titles
The Academy's lawn bowls squad returned to Daylesford last week for the Victorian Regional Junior Championships carrying high hopes of qualifying for the final rounds.
Those attending were Matt Leicester, Will McIlwain, Scott Wegener (skip, first team), Sam Atkinson, Alex Houston, Gareth Rich (skip, second team), Jesse McEwan, Ryan Bell, and Rhys Pywell (skip, third team).
Despite some very good bowling, the teams had insufficient wins to make the finals.They had losses to strong Bendigo and Geelong teams but scored a firm win over the Bayside Dolphins.
Whilst our squad will be looking forward to returning to this tournament next year they will also be eager for a rematch against Bayside Dolpins in the annual academy challenge match in March.
19 January 2010 - Fine swims at Victorian Open
Jeremy Meyer's two gold medals were the high spot of Academy swimming performances at last weekend's Victorian Open titles.
Meyer set the scene with a remarkable win in the 100-metre breaststroke final. Coming from behind Meyer won by just one-hundredth of a second.
Meyer's second win was in the 200-metre event where he was able to control the race from the beginning.
Other young swimmers with fine performances against open-age competitors were Kate Sommerfield, Stephanie Morgan and Brayden Waltham who all made finals.
Amongst the more seasoned swimmers, Ben Geard's fifth place in the final of the 50-metre breaststroke was another of the great performances of the championships. Andrew O'Connor and Elliot Shaw both swam well across a number of events and different strokes.
Sports stars win overseas recognition and Gippstars
Weightlifter Adam Kok and soccer player Stephen Maselli have been respectively named as senior and junior Gippstar winners for December.
Kok is the Australian 105kg champion and was invited to compete in the South Pacific Championships in New Caledonia.
After a training spell in Europe Maselli has been signed to Vicenza Calcio for the Seria B second level Italian league.