School Sport ACT 2024 Secondary Championships

The members of the FAST Track program have had a stellar outing at the School Sport ACT 2024 Secondary Track and Field Championships at the AIS, Australia’s fastest track.

Leading the way were two outstanding performances from Siena Towndrow and Daniel Nwaobi in the 100m and the 200m sprint events. In the last 5 years, neither athlete has been defeated in these events at the ACT School Sport level. This is a feat unmatched in living memory in sprinting in the ACT. Both athletes posted faster times in their respective events compared to the same time last year.

Not to be outdone, Olivia Jose (100m), Lewin Ainsworth (400m), Simeon Omosigho (100m), and Tom Madigan (400m) all won their respective events at the Championships. For Simeon and Tom, they go back-to-back in defending their titles from 2023. Another stellar performance from the exciting young Canberra sprinters.

Olivia who placed 5th last year in the 100m, took a second off her time and using blocks for the first time in her career, claimed the Gold and her right to compete at All Schools in December. Lewin equally had a marvellous championship with two auto qualifiers in the 200m (2nd) and the 400m(1st). Lewin has taken 6 seconds off his 400m time since the beginning of this year and continues his rise amongst the gifted 400m squad at FAST Running. Lewin has never qualified for the ACT Championships before in the 100m, 200m and 400m, and was the only Athlete to place top 5 in all three sprints, a good well rounded performance.

Tearia Mortimer the talented ACT basket baller, qualified for All Schools by finishing 3rd overall in the Shot Put. Tearia also produced outstanding performances at Regionals in the 100m and the 200m to qualify for ACT Champs in those events too for the first time. Focussed on the 100m this year, Tearia has finished 5th overall in a new Personal Best.

Isabel Winikerei is another member of FAST who had not previously competed at the ACT Championships. Like Lewin, Isabel competed in all three sprint events, finishing top 10 in each, and finished 5th in the 400m.

Georgia Reilly like Isabel, had never raced at this level before 2024, and competing in the sprint treble, finished in the top 8 in all three, with a best place of 6th in the 100m, running 0.2s faster than her time at Regionals.

Leo Donald shone bright at these championships, placing 5th in both the 100m and the 200m. The Southside flyer, had never qualified in the 100m for ACT Champs before and improved 1.4 seconds on his 200m time from last year, where he finished 8th in 2023.

Tylan Morris who also had never qualified at this level previously, improved 1 second on his Personal Best at Regionals this year, to finish 4th in the 200m overall. The Bungendore local is now keen to secure a place at next year’s Australian Junior Championships.

Mathias Lal who qualified for his first ACT Championships in the 200m didn’t disappoint. In the last year Mathias has taken 1 second off his 200m and secured yet another Personal Best on Tuesday in placing 8th overall. In previous year’s Mathias did not compete in the 200m at Regionals and focused on the shorter 100m sprint event. Mathias also competed in the Long Jump, joining Tearia to represent FAST Running at this level in 2024.

Brooklyn Montana is another of the talented jumpers in the squad and competed for the first time at the ACT Championships in the Triple Jump. At Regionals this year, Brooklyn qualified for the ACT Champs by finishing third with a leap of 11.04m.

Grace York competed in the 400m following a lengthy soccer season where her team made it into the finals. Grace finished 4th overall in the final.

Nicholas Porter who finished 7th (100m) and 4th (200m) last year (2023), has taken a massive 1 second and 1.5 seconds off both events in the space of the year to finish 4th and 5th respectively in 2024. The young soccer player will be looking to concentrate on sprinting over the football offseason to further improve his performances.