Athletics Sport
T
his year the Trinity Athletics team retained the Alcock Shield for the third consecutive year, when the boys responded to a strong challenge from Aquinas College to win by a narrow margin of 44.5 points.
After a fairly low key meet with Iona to get the season underway, there were two important selection meets held in the lead up to the Inters – the College Age Championships and the Tri–meet with Aquinas and Hale. Mr Stephen Leahy Director of Sport
Results from the College Age Championships, held on the third Saturday of the season, demonstrated that the team would be well balanced with an even spread of talent within each age group. It was also reassuring that there were no obvious areas of weakness in the make up of the team. Eventual winners of their respective age groups were Jordan Carlino, Francis Baptist, Joshua Hicks, Anthony Lipari and Daniel Evans – well done boys. The Tri–meet was held the following week under lights on a Friday evening at the Ern Clarke Athletics Centre. The superb surface and the novelty of a night meet helped many boys produce outstanding performances, making the selection of the team to compete at the Inters the following week even more difficult than we had already anticipated. The Inters were held on a Friday for the first time in PSA history. For much of the day the team held a narrow lead over the other six schools, which was extended to a more significant margin by the 400m runners, who accrued 136 points – a great effort. The final individual races, the gut busting
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1500m events, saw Aquinas come strongly back into contention, and by the start of the relays our lead had been reduced to single figures. Three firsts, one second and one third from the five relays was enough to get the team home in an absorbing finale to the carnival – a great effort from all the boys. Two new Trinity records were set this year, both in the under16 age group – Matthew Cowie threw the discus 56.44 metres and Joshua Hicks ran the 800m event in a time of 1 minute and 59 seconds. Anthony Lipari won the Old Boys’ Award for the most points scored by an individual athlete at the Inters for the third consecutive year. Congratulations to all the Year 12 athletes on being involved in three successive Inters wins, and especially to the open relay team who have won their event every year since Year 8. The leadership all these boys demonstrated set a fine example to the younger athletes who will in time step into the team leadership roles. Thank you to the many parents who assisted over the season with the many jobs which needed to be done – timekeeping, officiating, recording, sausage sizzles, the team dinner and coaching to mention but a few of the tasks undertaken by the parent body. Thank you also to the ten coaches, most of them staff members, who brought the team together with their blend of expertise, goodwill and good humour. A final thank you is extended to all the athletes for their efforts over a short but intense season and especially to the team reserves who did not compete on the day, but were very important contributors towards the final result. Mr Stephen Leahy Director of Sport
