Queensland State Athletics Championships – QSAC 2021

The Spartan Athletics Squad had a huge weekend in Brisbane for the Queensland State Athletics Championships with many outstanding performances from our amazing student athletes. Overall, we won four Gold, three Silver and six Bronze medals with 10 Personal Best performances and 11 National Qualifying performances.

This is an outstanding achievement at this level and testament to the hard work our Spartans put in after a very difficult and interrupted past 12 months.

Results

• Felix Jackson-King – Gold Open Triple Jump 14.58m; Gold u20 Triple Jump 14.43m; Silver u20 Long Jump 7.16m
• Stephanie Sprague – Gold u20 Pole Vault 3.00m PB• Lucy Twigg – Silver u18 100m 12.17sec PB; Bronze u18 200m 25.34sec PB
• Cru Scott – Silver u15 800m 2.07min PB; Bronze u15 1500m 4.29min; (Gold u15 3km 9.36min in Feb)
• Starr Scott – Bronze u18 800m 2.15; 4th u18 1500m; (4th u18 3km 10.28min in Feb)
• Kade Reynoldson – Bronze u17 Javelin 42m PB; Bronze u17 400m 51.38sec PB; 5th u17 Long Jump 6.23m PB; 6th u17 200m 22.99sec 
• Indie Seccombe – Bronze u20 1500m 4.46min
• Miku Adachi – 5th u20 800m 2.19 PB (Very impressive run from Miku!)
• Sophie Clements – 7th Open Long Jump 5.40m PB (as a 15yr old)
• Kenny Ming – 9th u16 800m 2.20min PB; 16th u16 1500m 4.56min

Felix Jackson-King and Stephanie Sprague were both outstanding once again, and as our Athletics Captains lead the way winning Gold medals in their respective events of Triple Jump and Pole Vault. Congratulations to you both. Two newcomers to Somerset College this year were Lucy Twigg and Cru Scott, both winning Silver and Bronze medals. Lucy had never competed at the State Championship level before and after working in our Spartan Athletics programme for the past few months achieved fantastic results with two big Personal Bests, two medals and two National Qualifying times – finishing second in the 100-metre to the Australian Champion! Well done Lucy! Cru was also outstanding with three medals at States (with a Gold medal in the recent 3km State Championships in February) running some great races and two National Qualifying times. Well done Cru!

Starr Scott won Bronze in the 800-metre in a tough race that had some difficult circumstances with the electronic timing not working initially with a call back, after only a couple of minutes they all set off again making it pretty tough to clock a fast time, Starr handled it very well and was rewarded accordingly. Starr also finished with a fourth place in the 1500-metre (also fourth at the 3-kilometre State Champs in February). Kade Reynoldson who is also the recent State Multi Event Champion, competed in four events with heats, finals, and a hectic schedule over the weekend with early mornings and late evenings. He won Bronze in the 400-metre in a big PB, Bronze in the Javelin with another PB, placed fifth in the Long Jump in another PB and finished sixth in the 200-metre, his final event of the Championship with another PB. A big future in Decathlon awaits Kade and we have a fantastic group of support coaches in our Spartan programme with me, Phil Newton, Jess Hughes and Howard Arbuthnot who are all working together with some lofty long-term goals ahead for Kade.

Indie Seccombe bounced back from long term injury to claim a Bronze in the 1500-metre running a strong race and we look forward to seeing her continual improvement over the coming year as we head towards APS Cross Country and the School Track and Field Season in Term Three and Four. Miku Adachi was a standout for me with her fifth place in the Under 20 800-metre. having never competed at the State Championships before and with a PB of 2.21 going into the final, Miku shaved off two seconds and ran an outstanding 2.19-minute. Miku is one of our hardest working and most disciplined athletes and juggling her Year 12 studies has her sights on the school track season and running even more PB’s this year. Terrific result, well done!

Sophie Clements was very happy with her new PB in the Long Jump, jumping a very good 5.40-metre in the Open Age competition and finishing in seventh place. Sophie was unable to compete in her age group of Under 17 earlier in the weekend, so jumped in the Open Age. Her 5.40-metre would have placed her third in the Under 17 age group. Great jumping Sophie, who is also one of leading Hurdlers and Sprinters. Kenny Ming had a couple of solid hit outs in the 800-metre and 1500-metre running an 800-metre PB and very close to his PB in his 1500-metre.

Seven of these athletes have qualified for the Australian Championships which doubles as this year’s Olympic Trials and will be heading to Sydney in April to compete. We wish them all the best at this event and are looking forward to seeing how they perform. Our resident Somerset Physiotherapist and Senior athlete, Alex Beck has been undefeated over 400-metre this season and has been running personal bests over both 200-metre and 400-metre and will also be competing for a place at the Tokyo Olympics this year at the Australian Championships, he has been a fantastic mentor to our Spartans and we wish him all the best for his selection.

Congratulations to all our athletes for such a great weekend of competition. I will be travelling to Sydney to support our athletes and will report back with results and experiences after Australian Championships.