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Excellent athletics results at Pacific Games, 9 December 2008
Daniel Jackson, Ryan Buttner and assistant coach Zachariah Nelson competed in the Pacific School Games track and field events. All three did particularly well.
Daniel Jackson (14 years) would have to win the prize for most unlucky record-breaker. Knocking nearly 10 seconds off the event record for the 2000 metres steeplechase should have been good enough for anyone to take the gold. However, Daniel's impressive 6 min 22 sec. time was only sufficient for second spot behind another Queensland runner.
Daniel also backed up in the 800-metre and 1500-metre races but was unplaced.
Ryan Buttner, also 14, had some disappointment as well. Despite clearing 1.78 metres in the high jump, just 3 centimetres below his personal best, Ryan finished 7th. The event may have been the most competitive junior high jump event ever, with all of the top 10 gaining 1.75 metres or better and 1.81 being required for a medal.
Zachariah was second in the pole vault and fourth in the long jump with two international competitors ahead of him in the latter event.
Since the Games also embraced the Australian Schools Championships, Zachariah was also awarded Australian silver medals for each of his events. Daniel also won an Australian silver as well as a Games silver for his steeplechase performance.
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Medals at Schools Championships, 10 November 2008
Three Academy athletes won medals at the Victorian All Schools Athletics Championships. The events were held over three days and concluded yesterday.
Daniel Jackson won the U15 2000-metres steeplechase and finished third in the 800-metres final. Daniel's hopes of a third medal were spoilt when he came home fourth in the 1500-metres.
Lauren Grant also finished third in her 800-metres final. Lauren, a girls' U17 middle distance runner, had a 5th place in the 1500-metres.
In the boys' U15 high jump Ryan Buttner , unfortunately below his best, still achieved a third place .
Sherrie Hibbs, Jay Robbie and Ryan Halford all competed in several events without achieving places.
Two further medals were won by Zachariah Nelson, a former athlete who is now an Academy trainee coach. Zachariah won both of his events, the U18 long jump and pole vault.
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Athletes qualify for Pacific School Games, 18 September 2008
Eight Athletics Squad members competed in selection trials for the Pacific School Games with four of them being successful. The trials were conducted last weekend at Olympic Park when wet and windy conditions made selection standards difficult to achieve in many events.
Daniel Jackson dominated the boys' U15 2000 metres steeplechase, winning by 25 seconds, and well inside the qualifying time. Daniel set himself a heavy schedule of distance events but was unfortunately unable to qualify in his other events, the 800 and 1500 metres.
In winning the boys' U15 high jump, Ryan Buttner's 1.81 metres equalled the qualifying height. Ryan also was comfortably above of his opposition.
Zachariah Nelson and Abbie Freestone, both working with the squad as assistant coaches, qualified for the Games.
Zachariah met the standard with an easy win in the U18 pole vault. However, on the second day wet and windy conditions seriously affected high jump and long jump performances so that no U18 competitors could achieve the standards. Zachariah finished second in both events but, fortunately, he has previous results which meet the selection criteria.
Abbie finished second in the pole vault and has been selected by virtue of a prior qualifying performance (3.15 metres)
Lauren Matthews, Ellica Evans, Jay Robbie and Ryan Halford were less successful. All proved themselves capable of qualifying for event finals but unfortunately, at this early stage in the season, were unable to meet the Pacific Games requirements.
All four qualifiers are expected to attend the Games in Sydney during the first week of December.
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Great performances by athletes at Youth Track & Field titles, 25 February 2008
In the weekend's Victorian Youth Track and Field Championships Academy athletes produced some outstanding performances.
Once again Zachariah Nelson and Abbie Freestone were the top achievers. Zachariah won the long jump for U18 men and placed third in the 200 metres sprint.
Abbie won the U18 women's pole vault with a personal best performance of 3.10 metres. She turned the tables on South Australian Sally Wilson who had previously beaten her, but it was only after a nail-biting count back.
Ryan Buttner achieved third place in the U16 high jump. In the U14's Ellica Evans finished second in the 400 metres, and she was breathtakingly close to places when she finished 5th in a blanket finish in the 100 metres.
Sherrie Hibbs, Hayley Matthews and Cassandra Yiannacou all competed across a number of U16 women's events with solid performances in finals but without achieving places.
A number of athletes were new to championships of this scale and we hope the experience will be useful for their future development.
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Athletes in Melbourne Shield competition, 18 February 2008
In the Athletics Victoria Club Shield's final competition on the weekend Abbie Freestone and Zachariah Nelson both performed well.
Most of the state's best athletes were competing for their club's points.
Abbie won the women's U18 years pole vault, while Zachariah's best results were in the men's U18 100 metres (6th) and high jump (8th).
Both athletes have been competing intensively in Melbourne in the Shield competition and other events in the lead up to the Victorian Youth Championships next weekend.
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Abbie vaults to Victorian medal, 15 February 2008
Abbie Freestone secured a medal at the Victorian U20 Track and Field Championships last weekend.
Abbie finished third with a vault of 3.0 metres, 0.4 metres behind the winner.
Abbie joined the Academy last season as a jumper and sprinter and her results have progressively advanced. Her biggest gains have been in the pole vault where she has benefited from technical coaching, and it has become one of her favourite events.
In the same event last year Abbie finished fifth.
Athletics coach and former Academy athlete Hamish Nelson also competed in the pole vault event but finished 6th in a close contest, just 0.2 metres behind the third place-getter.
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Ryan's record ratified, 5 February 2008
Ryan Buttner's 1.82 metre high jump at the Australian All Schools Championships last December has been acknowledged as a new Victorian Country record.
Ryan cleared 1.82 m, an improvement of 6 cm over his previous best, and an outstanding performance for an under 14 boy.
The previous record, at 1.80 metres, had stood for 10 years.
Ryan also holds the Victorian and Victorian Country records for the U13 90 metres hurdles, which he broke early last year.
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Athletes at country titles, 4 February 2008
Six athletics squad members competed successfully at the Victorian Country Track and Field Championships on the long weekend. They were Ellica Evans, Hayley Matthews, Sherrie Hibbs, Cassandra Yiannacou, Ryan Buttner, and Zachariah Nelson.
Best results were for Zachariah Nelson with wins in the men's U18 high jump, pole vault and long jump, and second places in the 100 metres and javelin. Abbie Freestone had the best women's results with a win in the U18 pole vault and second in the 200 metre sprint.
In the U16 girls, Hayley Matthews was second in the 200m hurdles, third in 90 m hurdles, third in triple jump, and a member of the second-placed relay team. In the same age group Sherrie Hibbs was 2nd in the high jump. Both girls also qualified for finals of both 100 and 200 metre sprints.
Also in the U16s, Cassandra Yiannacou achieved personal bests in 800 metres and triple jump although she missed out on placing in either event. She made up for it in the 4 x 100 relay where her team placed third. Ellica Evans, competing in a higher age group, and Sherrie Hibbs, were also in the team.
Ryan Buttner was second in the U16 110 metres hurdles and high jump, and also third in the triple jump.
Another encouraging result was in the girls U14 200 metres where Ellica Evans ran a personal best (30.04 seconds) to finish second.
Squad coach Hamish Nelson won the open javelin and was second in the pole vault.
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Sound results at Australian All-Schools, 17 December 2007
Last week four Academy athletes competed in the Australian All-Schools Championships.
Ryan Buttner won the U14 high jump, astonishing many because he was competing against a big field including significantly taller boys. It was not an easy win, for Ryan was tied with another boy at 1.82, and both were equal after the count back. In a deciding jump-off, after 2 hours in hot and humid conditions, Ryan successfully took the title.
Ryan cleared 1.82 m, an improvement of 6 cm over his previous best, and an outstanding performance.
Zachariah Nelson finished second in the long jump and third in the pole vault.
Ben Hopcraft was 9th in the U14 javelin, and Abbie Freestone was also 9th in the pole vault.
The results are encouraging as the All Schools are highly competitive, sometimes with higher standards than the Australian Championships. Our squad members are still in the build-up phase of their preparation and should be pleased with the results.
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Ryan jumps into National Championships, 13 November 2007
Ryan Buttner won the boys U14 high jump at the Victorian All Schools Championships on Sunday. Ryan's leap of 1.76 metres was comfortably ahead of the second place-getters 1.67 m clearance. The height qualifies him for the Australian All Schools titles in Sydney early next month.
Ryan also ran in the 90 metres hurdles where he again qualified for Sydney. Although he was not in contention for a place, he had the satisfaction of a personal best of 14.71 seconds.
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Two athletics records to Ryan, 4 July 2007
Ryan Buttner's win in the Victorian Youth Athletics Championships back in February was in a record time. Ryan won the U14 90 metres hurdles event in 15.53 seconds, and it has now been ratified. Ryan now has the honour of holding both the Victorian and Victorian Country records.
The records are for U13, run in an U14 event, which is not surprising as Ryan often competes in more competitive, higher-age events.
The verification procedures conducted by Athletics Victoria are extremely rigorous, and Ryan's records were announced recently by AV, along with a number of other new marks.
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Victorian Youth Track & Field medals, 26 February 2007
Three Academy athletes competed at last weekend's second round of the Youth Track and Field Championships. Hamish Nelson was our most successful winning the U20 pole vault and placing second in the long jump. Hamish, who has specialised in the 10-event decathlon, tested himself in a total of 5 events.
Hamish was also in reasonably close contention in the high jump (equal 4th and 10 cm behind the winner), and 400 metre (6th and 1 second down).
Zachariah Nelson, after good showings in the U18 events two weeks ago, competed in the U20 pole vault and long jumps, achieving 5th and 6th places, which were remarkable outcomes for a 16 year old.
Abbie Freestone competed in 4 jump and sprint events with best results in the pole vault (5th) and high jump (7th).
An Athletics Squad member from last year, Adam Daldry, who specialises in throwing events, had 5th places in both the javelin and hammer throws.
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Medals at Vic Youth Athletics Titles, 5 February 2007
Zachariah Nelson and Ryan Buttner were the Academy's gold medal winners at the Victorian Youth (U23) Track and Field Championships. Zachariah won the u18 long jump and Ryan the U14 90m hurdles.
Ryan also finished second in the long jump. As there was no U14 high jump, Ryan entered the U16 event, but was only able to place fourth.
Zachariah, up an age group this year, found the competition much greater. In the pole vault he soared to 3.60 metres, but could only achieve fifth place. Last year Zachariah won the U16 age group with a much more modest 2.90 metres.
Abbie Freestone placed second in the U18 women's high jump. She also competed in the pole vault, where she finished fifth.
Emma Doderico was an exception in not being entered in a jumping event. Emma achieved third place in the u18 women's javelin.
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Stand-out performers at Country Athletics Championships, 23 January 2007
The Academy had several stand-out performers at the Victorian Country Athletics Championships at Bendigo last weekend.
In his first season with the Academy, Ryan Buttner showed his great potential with wins in both his events, the U14 high jump and 90 metre hurdles.
Brothers Hamish and Zachariah Nelson, established multi-event specialists, respectively won 7 of 8 events entered, and two of 5. While the scorecard looks better for Hamish, Zachariah's losses were by narrow margins. Some of Zachariah's U18 results were also very close to his elder brother's performances in the U20s.
Stacey Pearson (U16) showed great versatility by competing in a string of events from 100m to 1500m as well as the triple jump. She was successful with a second place in the 800m, and a close fourth in the 100m. In the triple jump Stacey also finished fourth, but this was an event in which the top five finishers were quite close.
Emma Doderico (U18) finished with second places in the javelin and shot put. Chelsea Caple (also U18) placed second in the 3000m and third in the 1500m. Emma and Chelsea ran in the U20 4 x 100 relay team which placed second.
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Hamish Nelson wins Victorian U20 Decathlon, 10 January 2007
Hamish Nelson won last weekend's U20 Victorian Decathlon Championship. Although Hamish had hoped for a better result, he achieved a personal best result of 6638 points. Hamish won the same event last year with a score of 6278, showing a significant improvement over the last 12 months.
As with last year, Hamish's final score was also ahead of the winner of the open-age Victorian event.
Both Hamish and other Gippsland Group Training Athletic Squad members will compete at next weekend's Country Championships.
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