Vic Track Relay Champs 23
Glenhuntly Athletic Club - Latest News
Saturday 25th November, 2023
Glenhuntly Athletics was prominent at this year's Victorian Track Relay Championships. We fielded 31 teams on the day across all events and achieved fabulous results. Nineteen of our teams made the podium, bringing home 7 gold, 9 silver and 3 bronze medals. We smashed out 1 Victorian record and 5 club records. It was fabulous to see so many of our club members come together and participate on the day – the relays are always loads of good fun and this year they provide us the opportunity for the Hunters flame to shine brightly. Congratulations to everyone who competed and to everyone who supported the Glenhuntly teams.
Gold medal teams
F16 4x100m: Adele Roche, Laura Wong, Allegra Orso, Julia Zaitseva 49.67 *Club record
F18 4x100m: Isabel Zhang, Alice Hollingsworth, Isabella Hollins, Amber van Eede 49.05
FOP Sprint Medley: Julia Phillips, Shauna Herbst, Sophia Hanlon, Jemima Tennekoon 4:05.58
F50 4x1500m: Lisa Deramond, Gill Highnam, Michele Forbes, Rozlyn Walker 27:57.64 *Club record
F50 4x400m: Svitlana Korchova, Kara Gilbert, Rozlyn Walker, Evette Cordy 4:52.48 **Victorian record *Club record
F50 4x100m: Svitlana Korchova, Evette Cordy, Kara Gilbert, Louise McLean 60.69 *Club record
M40 4x400m: Michael Ryan, David Jahshan, Jamie Rossjohn, Kulan Ranasinghe 5:16.31
Silver medal teams
M16 Sprint Medley: Cooper Acklom, Matthew Milias, Suvan Sujeendran, Bradley Ryan 3:41.8 *Club record
M18 Sprint Medley: Bruce Dusmez, Sasha Ung, Jaikiah Horner, Liam Mischel 3:39.90
MOP 4 x 1500m: Rhydian Cowley, Chris Winter, Denyan Claxton, Samuel Toll 16:45.34
MOP Sprint Medley: Anthony Lieu, Josh Steyn-Ross, Asare Amoato, James Hatton 3:32.28
F16 4 x 400m: Brae Bernasconi, Scarlett Bilsborough, Alix Rezsneki Carrere, Adele Roche 4:21.00
WOP 4 x 1500m: Kate McDonald, Emma Wadley, Serene Bryant, Alexandria Anthony 19:43.21
F40 4x1500m: Kim Nanscawen, Kara Gilbert, Anna Munro, Evette Cordy) 23:12.53
F40 4 x 400m: Kim Nanscawen, Lisa Deramond, Patricia Menendez, Gill Highnam 6:03.33
FOP 4 x 400m: Jemima Tennekoon, Ashleigh Palmer, Sophia Fighera, Sophia Hanlon 3:48.25 *Final held at Zatopek10 on 2nd Dec 2023
Bronze medal teams
F18 4x400m: Isabel Zhang, Isabella Hollins, Tamzyn Dolgoy, Amber van Eede 4:12.20
F40 4 x 100m: Patricia Menendez, Michele Forbes, Anusha Kankanamage, Victoria Haritos 74.56
M40 4 x 100m: Jamie Rossjohn, David Jahshan, Kulan Ranasinghe, Leigh Phelan 55.36
Highlights
Open Women
Glenhuntly Open women had a great showing at State relays this year. The 4x1500m girls started the day off amazingly taking the silver medal in a time of 19:43.21 well done Kate McDonald, Emma Wadley, Serena Bryant, Alexandria Anthony!
Next event up was the Sprint Medley where the women’s team won gold comfortably. Julia Phillips and Shauna Herbst set the team up well after running two great 200m’s, Sophia Hanlon ran a great 400m leg setting Jemima Tennekoon to run a perfectly tactical 800m leg winning the event in 4:05.58.
Shortly after Sophia Hanlon and Jemima Tennekoon were joined by Sophia Fighera and Ashleigh Palmer in the 4x400m running a very competitive race securing the teams spot at the Zatopek Final on the 2nd of December – where they ran brilliantly to finish on the podium with a silver medal.
The final event for the open women to contest was the 4x100m A and B team. The B team of Katharine Wright, Alice Hollingsworth, Madeleine Parris, and Alix Rezsneki were up first missing the final but running a great race in 52.26. The A team was next up placing third in the heat and progressing though to the final (Jennifer King, Julia Zaitseva, Julia Phillips, Shauna Herbst 47.60). The team narrowly missed the podium running 47.54 in the final. Great effort by the girls in one of the clubs fastest 4x100m’s also only 0.1 behind the 1984 club record of 47.44.
Special thanks to Julia Zaitseva, Alix Rezsneki and Alice Hollingsworth to backing up their runs in the junior races to compete again in the open teams.
Photos on the far left and far right above by Neal Conder (via Athletics Victoria Facebook page).
Open Men
Well done to the open men on a great effort at this year's relays. We fielded teams in 4 events and achieved podium finishes in 2 of them.
Congratulations on achieving a silver medal in the 4 x 1500 m relay to Rhydian Cowley, Chris Winter, Denyan Claxton, and Sam Toll and in the Sprint Medley relay to Anthony Lieu, Josh Steyn-Ross, Asare Amoato, James Hatton.
It was super to see our 4 x 400 m relay team hold up well in the preliminary round for a qualifier into the final. Nice work by Asare Amoafo, Kevin Zhou, James Hatton and Josh Steyn-Ross. The team of Jaikiah Honner, James Hatton, Josh Steyn-Ross and Asare Amoafo took on the final at the Zatopek10 meet a week later to finish in 7th place.
Underage Women
The club was proud to have 19 junior girls represent Glenhuntly and enjoy the spirit of Sate Relays. We fielded 6 girls teams with 4 featuring on the podium.
The cover photo to this article is a fabulous moment capturing the 8 girls together from the winning U16 and U18 4x100m teams. Slick baton changes in the final were executed by both our teams. Congratulations to Adele Roche, Laura Wong, Allegra Orso and Julia Zaitseva (F16) and Isabel Zhang, Alice Hollingsworth, Isabella Hollins and Amber van Eeede (F18).
A tremendous effort from our U16 4x400m (silver) and U18 4x400m (bronze) teams. A special mention to Scarlett Bilsborough and Alix Rezsneki Carrere for their first AV State medal.
It was a gallant run by our U14 4x100m team of Emma Wilson, Ivy Auchettl, Talia Franchina and Amy Russo, in their first AV State Relays, to finish 4th.
Underage Men
Our Under Age Men had 8 teams competing and both the U16 and U18 medley teams won silver medals. Congratulations to our U16 silver medallists – Cooper Acklom, Matti Milias, Suvan Sujeendran and Brady Ryan and our U18 silver medallists – Bruce Dusmez, Sasha Ung, Jaikiah Honner and Liam Mischel.
A few callouts in relation to the team. Firstly, we had quite a few late withdrawals due to injury which was really unfortunate for those team members with injury. However, it was great that several team members were prepared to step into the breach and fill the gaps with a number of these team members not necessarily race ready.
Thanks to Joshua Cronin, Lucas Faber, Bryton Morris, Hayden Edwards, Suvan Sujeendran, Bruce Dusmez, Austin Voges, Rotem Eckhous, Henry Dwyer, Ethan Miller and Niduka Ranasinghe Arachchig who all expanded their programs or stepped in to cover a gap in the days and hours leading up to competition time.
Joshua Cronin sprained an ankle at school sport in the morning and fronted up to run a great 200m medley leg under duress.
Ethan Miller stepped into the team at the last minute whilst not 100% well and Jaikiah Honner also fronted up to complete his events despite being unwell in the days prior to competition.
Matthew Cox ran a cracking 800m in the U18 medley despite having no training for a distance event.
And finally Niduka Ranasinghe Arachchig stepped into into the final of the U18 4x100 after one of the team who ran the successful heat pulled up sore. He was in the middle of the action at the last change and it was a great experience.
A big thankyou to the high jump squad who were keen to step into the relay teams to complete team numbers. Bryton Morris ran a 4x100 in the U16s, Lucas Faber 4x100m in the U18s and Matthew Cox is also a high jumper. We also nearly had Henry Sutherland another high jumper in the U18 200 medley but transport let him down at the last moment. Thanks to the high jumpers it was a great demonstration of team that you guys displayed.
Masters Women
There were so many good results for us this year. We are super proud that Glenhuntly Athletic Club fielded teams in every possible women's master race for W40 and W50. We acknowledge Athletic Victoria's genuine engagement of our Master Women by introducing the W50 age category for the first time in the state relay championships, aligning the competition offerings for our Masters men and women. This paves the way for future W50 and we anticipate increased participation in years to come. Well done, AV.
It was terrific to see Evette Cordy and Anna Munro back running with us after injury, and in pretty damn good form at that. Well done to Patricia Menendez and Anusha Kankanamage for their first-time participation in rely competition. They both nailed perfectly those baton changeovers.
Special callout to our W50 4 x 1500 m team who took the gold medal in this inaugural running of the W50 race. While the opposition was lacking (they must have been scared away on hearing our Hunters women were lining up), our women have set the bar for future W50 teams and we will no doubt see this event grow in the future (much the same way as the XCR W50 category has done since its introduction 5 years ago). It was also a new club record for our team of Lisa Deramond, Gill Highnam, Michele Forbes and Rozlyn Walker.
The line-up for the W40 4 x 1500 m was quite "full-on". Ballarat was definitely going to be our major challenge, fielding a very consistent and fast team, and they did prove to be the strongest in the end. We did well to place 2nd behind them and keep at bay the remaining 4 teams, many of them our rivals in XCR competition. Well done to Kim Nanscawen, Kara Gilbert, Anna Munro and Evette Cordy.
Our W50 4 x 400 m team blitzed their opposition as well as all of the W40 teams competing in the same race. Svitlana Korchova, Kara Gilbert, Rozlyn Walker and Evette Cordy smashed not only the Glenhuntly Athletic Club record but also the Victorian record. Awesome work!
Congratulations to our W40 team 4 x 400 m team who finished a gallant 2nd behind the formidable Doncaster team. It was terrific to see Gill Highnam in action after a hiatus from the track and a great performance by Patricia Menendez in her first ever Vic Champ relay. Kudos to Kim Nanscawen and Lisa Deramond (and also Gill!) for fronting up for this event on the back of the 1500m relay earlier in the day. Worthy to note that this team beat the second Doncaster team (W50) in the combined W40/W50 race on the day. Great work, team!
As for the W50 4 x 100 m team, they landed beautiful baton handovers (phew!). They so clearly out-classed the field from the gun-go, and Louise McLean stormed home to leave onlookers in awe. Congratulations to Svitlana Korchova, Evette Cordy, Kara Gilbert and Lou McLean - they won the gold medal and shaved 3 seconds off the 2022 club record.
A big kudos to our W40 4 x 100 m team who snared the bronze medal. They all claimed to be not 100 m specialists but, hey ... they were less than 1 second off grabbing the silver medal from our "friendly" rivals at Doncaster. Victoria Haritos was on fire bringing the team home down the final stretch of the track. We can't wait to see Patricia Menendez, Michele Forbes, Anusha Kankanamage and Victoria Haritos all lining up again in 2024.
Photos above by Neal Conder (via Athletic Victoria's Facebook page)
Masters Men
The male Masters entered only two teams this year, owing to some of our members being plagued by injury or simply enjoying a holiday.
Stellar effort by Jamie Rossjohn (long distance specialist) who flew in from the United Kingdom that very morning to rock up at the track in the afternoon and turn his legs over in a couple of sprints!
Well done to our bronze medallists in the M40 4 x 100 m, Jamie Rossjohn, David Jahshan, Kulan Ranasinghe and Leigh Phelan.
Good work by our gold medallists in the M40 4 x 400 m team of Michael Ryan, David Jahshan, Jamie Rossjohn and Kulan Ranasinghe. They made up for last year's DQ due to a simple mess up of the position order at changeover (Rule TR 24.20).
Glenhuntly Athletic Club Results – as posted on the Athletics Victoria Results Hub
Female OP
Medley Relay: (Julia Phillips, Shauna Herbst, Sophia Hanlon, Jemima Tennekoon) 4:05.58 (1st);
4x100m: (Jennifer King, Julia Zaitseva, Julia Phillips, Shauna Herbst) 47.54 (4th); (Katharine Wright, Alice Hollingsworth, Madeleine Parris, Alix Rezsneki Carrere) 52.26 (P); (Jennifer King, Julia Zaitseva, Julia Phillips, Shauna Herbst) 47.60 (P);
4x400m: (Sophia Fighera, Ashleigh Palmer, Sophia Hanlon, Jemima Tennekoon) 3:49.91 (P);
4x1500m: (Kate Mcdonald, Emma Wadley, Serena Bryant, Alexandria Anthony) 19:43.21 (2nd);
Female 18
4x100m: (Isabel Zhang, Alice Hollingsworth, Isabella Hollins, Amber van Eede) 49.05 (1st); (Isabel Zhang, Alice Hollingsworth, Isabella Hollins, Amber van Eede) 49.34 (P);
4x400m: (Isabel Zhang, Isabella Hollins, Tamzyn Dolgoy, Amber van Eede) 4:12.20 (3rd);
Female 16
4x100m: (Adele Roche, Laura Wong, Allegra Orso, Julia Zaitseva) 49.67 (1st); (Scarlett Bilsborough, Brae Bernasconi, Irushi Ranasinghe, Alix Rezsneki Carrere) 55.28 (P); (Laura Wong, Allegra Orso, Adele Roche, Julia Zaitseva) 49.85 (P);
4x400m: (Brae Bernasconi, Scarlett Bilsborough, Alix Rezsneki Carrere, Adele Roche) 4:21.00 (2nd);
Female 14
4x100m: (Emma Wilson, Ivy Auchettl, Talia Franchina, Amy Russo) 55.07 (4th);
Female 40
4x100m: (Patricia Menendez, Michele Forbes, Anusha Kankanamage, Victoria Haritos) 74.56 (3rd);
4x400m: (Kim Nanscawen, Lisa Deramond, Patricia Menendez, Gill Highnam) 6:03.33 (2nd);
4x1500m: (Kim Nanscawen, Kara Gilbert, Anna Munro, Evette Cordy) 23:12.53 (2nd);
Female 50
4x100m: (Svitlana Korchova, Evette Cordy, Kara Gilbert, Louise Mclean) 60.69 (1st);
4x400m: (Svitlana Korchova, Kara Gilbert, Rozlyn Walker, Evette Cordy) 4:52.48 (1st);
4x1500m: (Lisa Deramond, Gill Highnam, Michele Forbes, Rozlyn Walker) 27:57.64 (1st);
Male OP
Medley Relay: (Anthony Lieu, Josh Steyn-Ross, Asare Amoafo, James Hatton) 3:32.28 (2nd);
4x100m: (Anthony Lieu, Josh Steyn-Ross, Tom Templeton, Asare Amoafo) DQ;
4x400m: (Asare Amoafo, Kevin Zhou, James Hatton, Josh Steyn-Ross) 3:30.44 (P);
4x1500m: (Rhydian Cowley, Chris Winter, Denyan Claxton, Samuel Toll) 16:45.34 (2nd);
Male 18
Medley Relay: (Rotem Eckhous, Joshua Cronin, Will Orchard, Matthew Cox) DQ; (Bruce Dusmez, Sasha Ung, Jaikiah Honner, Liam Mischel) 3:38.90 (2nd);
4x100m: (Tom Templeton, Sasha Ung, Jaikiah Honner, Niduka Ranasinghe Arachchig) 45.04 (5th); (Xavier Siruelo, Niduka Ranasinghe-Arachchige, Rotem Eckhous, Lucas Faber) 47.27 (P); (Tom Templeton, Sasha Ung, Jaikiah Honner, Bruce Dusmez) 44.34 (P);
Male 16
Medley Relay: (Cooper Acklom, Matthew Milias, Suvan Sujeendran, Brady Ryan) 3:41.48 (2nd); (Hayden Edwards, Austin Voges, Henry Dwyer, Ethan Miller) 4:05.07 (10th);
4x100m: (Henry Dwyer, Cooper Acklom, Hayden Edwards, Matthew Milias) 46.25 (6th); (Austin Voges, Suvan Sujeendran, Joshua Cronin, Bryton Morris) DNF; (Cooper Acklom, Henry Dwyer, Hayden Edwards, Matthew Milias) 46.69 (P);
Male 40
4x100m: (Jamie Rossjohn, David Jahshan, Kulan Ranasinghe, Leigh Phelan) 55.36 (3rd);
4x400m: (Michael Ryan, David Jahshan, Jamie Rossjohn, Kulan Ranasinghe) 5:16.31 (1st)
Contributors: Team Managers - Jenny King (Open Women), Carl Hollins (Underage Women), Michael Halloran (Underage Men), Kara Gilbert (Masters Women)
Curated by: Kara Gilbert
Date published: 7th December, 2023
This article has been published in good faith, drawing on available data. Please contact kara@kmgcommunications.com.au if you notice any errors or omissions in the above results or would like to see additional content included.