First-time milestones, a series of outstanding sprint performances and a breakthrough long jump highlight a remarkable weekend for FAST Running.
The latest Capital Athletics Summer Series meeting at Woden delivered one of the most exciting weekends of the season for FAST Running, with athletes moving up our all-time performance rankings, breaking important time barriers and continuing to demonstrate the progress being made across our training groups.
There was plenty of assistance from the wind, particularly in the sprint events, but that didn’t diminish the excitement of watching our athletes compete. The men’s 100m featured a +4.7 m/s tailwind, while the leading women’s heat recorded +2.2 m/s. Those conditions mean the performances cannot be recognised as wind-legal personal bests, but they remain valuable competition results and contribute to our FAST all-conditions historical rankings.
What made the meeting particularly enjoyable was the breadth of achievement. Established national-level sprinters continued pushing towards the top of our historical lists, developing athletes reached milestones for the first time, and some of our younger competitors made significant improvements across both track and field events.
Daniel and Sam lead the way
Daniel Nwaobi and Sam Blood opened proceedings with an outstanding 60m race, finishing first and second in 6.95 and 6.97 seconds respectively. With only 0.02 seconds separating them, it was another demonstration of the quality and competitiveness developing within our sprint group.
The pair then returned for the 100m, where Daniel won in 10.60 seconds and Sam recorded 10.88 seconds, both assisted by the +4.7 m/s tailwind. Daniel’s performance keeps him second on the FAST all-time men’s 100m rankings, now tantalisingly close to Vivian at the top of the list.
For Sam, the race marked a particularly significant milestone. His 10.88 was his first recorded 100m performance under 11 seconds, moving him into equal third place on the FAST all-time list. Although the wind assistance means it isn’t a wind-legal personal best, breaking that barrier in competition is an encouraging step for an athlete who has worked hard to develop his acceleration, maximum velocity and race execution.
Watching Daniel and Sam compete alongside one another has become one of the highlights of our training and competition environment. They challenge each other regularly, and their performances reflect both their individual development and the benefits of training in a group where athletes continually raise expectations.
Ewan makes a remarkable leap
One of the biggest movements in our historical rankings came from Ewan McElhinney, who recorded 11.23 seconds in the same wind-assisted 100m heat.
Before the meeting, Ewan sat outside the FAST all-time top ten. His performance has propelled him directly into seventh position, pushing former FAST athlete Nick Donaldson into eighth. That’s a substantial movement in a single race and an encouraging indication of Ewan’s developing sprint ability.
Ewan’s progress has been particularly pleasing because his performances are beginning to reflect the work he’s been putting into training. His acceleration, upright running mechanics and ability to maintain speed are all areas we continue to develop, and competing alongside faster, more experienced athletes provides another opportunity to learn.
Aqlan Taufik was also in that heat, recording 11.51 seconds for another improvement in consecutive weeks. Having only recently begun his track and field competition journey, Aqlan is already approaching the FAST all-time men’s top ten, with Jordan Green and Jeremy Maranan among the athletes whose positions are now within his sights.
We’ve recently shared Aqlan’s story, from arriving at FAST in borrowed spikes to winning his first sprint races. His continued progress demonstrates what enthusiasm, consistency and a willingness to learn can achieve, particularly when an athlete is still relatively new to competitive athletics.
Cecilia and Annabelle reach important milestones
Our women’s sprinters also produced some excellent performances, with Cecilia Ador and Annabelle Renda both featuring prominently in the historical rankings.
Cecilia recorded 7.85 seconds in the 60m with a +3.5 m/s tailwind before running 12.39 seconds in the 100m, assisted by a +2.2 m/s wind. The 100m equalled her fastest recorded performance under any conditions and maintained her position as the third-fastest female 100m sprinter in FAST history.
For Cecilia, the performance was particularly encouraging given the challenges she’s worked through in returning to consistent sprint training. Rebuilding confidence, restoring technical consistency and progressively increasing running intensity have all been important parts of her development. Matching her fastest time in competition is another positive step, even with the wind assistance.
Annabelle achieved a milestone of her own, breaking the 13-second barrier for the first time with a 12.96-second performance in the same heat. The result moved her into ninth position on the FAST all-time women’s 100m rankings, passing Laura Scollen in the process.
For a developing sprinter, breaking a time barrier for the first time can be an important moment. It provides a tangible indication of progress and often changes an athlete’s understanding of what might be possible. Annabelle has now joined the FAST sub-13-second group under all conditions, with the next challenge being to reproduce that level of performance in legal wind conditions.
Bree Madigan Wong also competed in the 100m, recording 13.16 seconds, before winning the U14 girls’ 80m hurdles in 13.27 seconds with a +2.5 m/s tailwind. Her performances continue a productive period of competition following her recent Ginninderra hurdles record achievements.
Seth climbs the long jump rankings
While the sprint events produced plenty of excitement, one of the most significant improvements came in the long jump.
Seth Samarakoon produced a jump of 5.26m into a 1.8 m/s headwind, winning the men’s 14–15 long jump competition. His performance was especially impressive given that the favourable winds assisting many of the sprinters were not available to him during his best jump.
The result moved Seth from 20th to eighth on FAST’s all-time top 20 long jump performances list, passing FAST coach and former athlete Nate Halpin along the way.
That connection between our current athletes and the people now helping to coach them is one of the enjoyable aspects of maintaining FAST’s historical performance records. The rankings recognise what earlier generations achieved while providing today’s athletes with benchmarks to pursue.
Seth also recorded 7.77 seconds in the 60m and a wind-assisted 12.20 seconds in the 100m. His sprint performance leaves him just outside the FAST all-time top ten for boys aged 14–15, with Joshua Beale’s position now under pressure.
Developing speed and horizontal jumping ability together is an important part of our approach, and Seth’s weekend provided an encouraging example of those qualities contributing across multiple events.
More progress across FAST
Abigail Dunn continued her development with a 14.79-second 100m performance in a legal +0.6 m/s wind, moving into equal fourth position alongside Bethany Wilson on the FAST all-time girls’ 9–10 years 100m rankings. Abigail also competed in the long jump, recording 3.58m.
Afsa Chowdhury won her 100m heat in 13.51 seconds with a +0.6 m/s wind, while Finnley Knight competed over both 60m and 100m, recording 9.17 and 15.13 seconds respectively. Joby Cyriac gained further competition experience in the 100m and long jump, recording 16.08 seconds and 3.67m, with his best jump assisted by a +3.1 m/s wind.
Our FAST Accelerate athletes Aria and Izabella Jukic also competed in the long jump. Aria recorded 3.50m in still conditions, while Izabella reached 3.47m with a +0.3 m/s wind. Both continue to gain valuable competition experience while developing the speed, coordination and jumping skills that underpin their longer-term progress.
Clare Rice demonstrated her versatility across another busy program, recording 3:37.94 in the 1000m, 17:36.63 in the 3000m race walk and 4.04m in the long jump. Clare’s willingness to compete across such different disciplines reflects the broad athletic development we encourage, particularly among younger athletes who are still exploring their strengths and interests.
The value of our all-time rankings
One of the reasons we maintain FAST’s historical performance records is to give our athletes a connection with the generations who came before them. Every position on those lists represents an athlete who trained, competed and contributed to the development of our squad.
This weekend, we saw Daniel continue his pursuit of Vivian’s leading 100m mark, Sam move into equal third, Cecilia maintain her place among our fastest women, and Annabelle and Ewan establish new positions inside their respective top tens. Aqlan and Seth are now approaching rankings that would have seemed a long way off not so long ago, while Abigail has joined Bethany Wilson in equal fourth position in her age-group list.
The wind conditions are an important part of interpreting the sprint results, and we distinguish between wind-legal personal bests and the fastest performances recorded under all conditions. Both tell us something useful, but they aren’t interchangeable. Our historical rankings provide a way to recognise those performances while keeping the circumstances of each result in perspective.
For FAST, the most encouraging part of the weekend wasn’t simply the number of ranking changes. It was seeing athletes at different stages of development produce performances that reflected their training, commitment and growing confidence in competition.
Some are already competing at national level, others are beginning to establish themselves in senior competition, and our youngest athletes are discovering what they can achieve across a range of events. Each has a different starting point and a different pathway ahead, but all are contributing to the next chapter of FAST Running’s history.
With the season still developing, there will be plenty more opportunities to improve those performances, challenge the historical rankings and, importantly, turn some of those wind-assisted sprint times into wind-legal personal bests.
Event 1022 Mixed 10-99 60 Metre Sprint AACT Pool 1
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Comp# Name Year Team Seed Finals Points
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Section 1 Wind: 0.7
1 # 2498 Nwaobi, Daniel M09 Ginninderra-AUS 7.00 6.95
2 # 2689 Blood, Sam M09 Ginninderra-AUS 6.90 6.97
5 # 2842 Taufik, Aqlan M08 Gungahlin At-AUS 7.05 7.36
8 # 2338 Samarakoon, Don S M12 Ginninderra-AUS 7.50 7.77
Section 2 Wind: 2.4
4 # 2356 Knight, Finnley M15 Ginninderra-AUS 9.00 9.17
Section 3 Wind: 3.5
2 # 2557 Ador, Cecilia W09 Ginninderra-AUS 7.98 7.85
Event 1023 Mixed 10-99 100 Metre Sprint AACT Pool 1
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Comp# Name Year Team Seed Finals Points
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Section 1 Wind: 4.7
1 # 2498 Nwaobi, Daniel M09 Ginninderra-AUS 10.98 10.60
3 # 2689 Blood, Sam M09 Ginninderra-AUS 11.09 10.88
4 # 2500 McElhinney, Ewan M10 Ginninderra-AUS 11.75 11.23
6 # 2842 Taufik, Aqlan M08 Gungahlin At-AUS 11.19 11.51
Section 2 Wind: 3.3
2 # 2338 Samarakoon, Don S M12 Ginninderra-AUS 13.00 12.20
Section 3 Wind: 2.2
1 # 2557 Ador, Cecilia W09 Ginninderra-AUS 12.39 12.39
3 # 3619 Renda, Annabelle W10 Tuggeranong-AUS 13.03 12.96
4 # 2253 Madigan Wong, Bre W13 Ginninderra-AUS 13.06 13.16
Section 4 Wind: 2.3
5 # 2356 Knight, Finnley M15 Ginninderra-AUS 14.50 15.13
6 # 3618 Cyriac, Joby M16 Tuggeranong-AUS 15.70 16.08
Section 5 Wind: 0.6
1 # 4167 Chowdhury, Afsa F W11 Woden Athlet-AUS 13.36 13.51
6 # 1019 Dunn, Abigail W16 Belconnen Li-AUS 15.26 14.79
Event 1002 Girls 10-13 1000 Metre Run Non Standard Event
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Comp# Name Year Team Seed Finals
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Finals
4 # 1966 Rice, Clare 13 Corroboree A-AUS 4:10.00 3:37.94
Event 1016 Girls 12-13 80 Metre Hurdles 76.2cm Under 14
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Comp# Name Year Team Seed Finals Wind Points
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Finals
1 # 2253 Madigan Wong, Bre 13 Ginninderra-AUS 12.50 13.27 2.5
-- # 1991 Gye, Sophia 16 Corroboree A-AUS DNS 2.5
Event 1029 Girls 10-13 1500 Metre Race Walk Non Standard Event
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Comp# Name Year Team Seed Finals Points
================================================================================
Finals
1 # 1991 Gye, Sophia 16 Corroboree A-AUS 10:43.04
Event 1030 Girls 10-13 3000 Metre Race Walk AACT Pool 1
================================================================================
Comp# Name Year Team Seed Finals Points
================================================================================
Finals
2 # 1966 Rice, Clare 13 Corroboree A-AUS 17:18.00 17:36.63
Event 2017 Girls 10-13 Long Jump < 5.00 Metre AACT Pool 2
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Comp# Name Year Team Seed Finals Wind Points
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Finals
3 # 1966 Rice, Clare 13 Corroboree A-AUS 4.44m 4.04m 1.2
3.98m(0.9) FOUL(-0.1) 4.04m(1.2)
5 # 1019 Dunn, Abigail 16 Belconnen Li-AUS 3.99m 3.58m 1.7
3.58m(1.7) 3.44m(-1.4) 3.09m(-0.1)
6 # 4339 Jukic, Aria 15 Woden Athlet-AUS 3.47m 3.50m +0.0
3.31m(1.3) 3.50m(+0.0) 3.15m(-0.4)
7 # 4338 Jukic, Izabella 15 Woden Athlet-AUS 3.51m 3.47m 0.3
2.81m(2.9) 3.47m(0.3) 3.37m(-1.9)
8 # 1991 Gye, Sophia 16 Corroboree A-AUS 3.50m 3.24m -0.5
3.21m(+0.0) 2.98m(+0.0) 3.24m(-0.5)
Event 2017 Boys 10-13 Long Jump < 5.00 Metre AACT Pool 2
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Comp# Name Year Team Seed Finals Wind Points
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4 # 3618 Cyriac, Joby 16 Tuggeranong-AUS 3.99m 3.67m 3.1
3.67m(3.1) 3.33m(-0.1) 3.45m(-2.0)
Event 2017 Men 14-15 Long Jump < 5.00 Metre AACT Pool 2
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Comp# Name Year Team Seed Finals Wind Points
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1 # 2338 Samarakoon, Don S 12 Ginninderra-AUS 4.50m 5.26m -1.8
FOUL(2.1) 5.26m(-1.8) FOUL(-1.6)
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