2009 Athletics Report

Sydney High went into this year’s athletics season hoping to build on the success achieved in 2008. With the summer sports season concluded, a large number of students, particularly in the senior years, returned for another year of GPS athletics, while some embarked on their first. The coaches, who have been integral to the improvements seen in High’s athletics results over the past few years, were all back to help. In addition, the log book system, which involves students recording each of their sessions, was implemented, ensuring our athletes would become more diligent and attentive to their training programs. Evidently this system was a success, with large turnouts to sessions over the course of the season, including holiday sessions.

Many students had been carrying out their training regimes since term 4 of last year, whether in Jason Tassell’s sprint and endurance sessions, or in the High Harriers, the long distance group coached by old boy Edward Ovadia. This extra work was invaluable, and we went into the seven-week season well prepared.

The season officially commenced with the school athletics carnival, held at E.S. Marks on the 30th and 31st of March. Many students took part, embracing this opportunity to test their levels of speed, strength and endurance. The outstanding performers were Anton Brokman, Lloyd Perris, Michael Phung, Christopher Morrow and Joshua Tassell, who would all go on to represent the school at the GPS championships, with the exception of Joshua Tassell, who unfortunately suffered an injury in the final few weeks of the season.

On the 6th of April, one week into the season, there was a festive atmosphere among the large crowd present to witness the inaugural ‘Jaggar Gift’. Organised by Mr Devlin and the PE department, it was a 1.6 km handicapped run in Moore Park West, contested by the best 15 distance runners in each year. In the junior race, Joshua Leo (15 seconds handicap) crossed the line first, followed closely by Lloyd Perris (110s), and Andrew Shi (5s). Alden Kwok was the first runner out of the blocks in the senior race, eventually won by Vlad Boulavine (30s), followed by Laurence Liu (25s) and Antony Paul (40s). It was an exciting day for all the runners and spectators, and I am sure this tradition will continue on with just as much success in the future.

Seven weeks of hard training had led to great improvement among our athletes during the season, as evident during the four invitational carnivals, and after the final week of lighter training, we were fresh and well-prepared to defeat our rival GPS schools in the final and most important carnival of the season. This carnival was the 114th Annual Combined Athletics Championships, held on the 16th of May at Sydney Olympic Park. Despite the windy conditions, an impressively large number of High supporters, from students to parents to teachers, were present in the stadium, filling the bay our school had been given this year.

Like last year, we achieved two individual victories – a great result. Christopher Morrow easily defended his high jump win from last year, jumping 1.9m in the 16s – 14cm higher than his closest competitor. Ivor Metcalf also found success while jumping, clearing 1.7m to take out the 14s high jump, before achieving 3rd place in the 90m hurdles.

Our runners in the 13s age group performed exceptionally, showing great promise for future years. Anton Brokman displayed remarkable endurance in competing in the 400m, 800m, 1500m, 90m hurdles and shot put, picking up valuable points with a 4th and three 5th places. Maurice Lam also ran well, placing 3rd in the 200m, and 4th in the 100m. Another impressive performer in this age group was Eugene Lee, who took 4th in the long jump. To cap off the success of the 13s, Hayden Lam finished 3rd in the 100m division, and Dominic Mah 2nd in the 90m hurdles division.

High’s success in the high jump continued in the 15s, with Harry Heo jumping 1.68m for 3rd. Mention must also go to Michael Phung in the 15s, who placed 3rd in the 100m (12.19) and 3rd in the long jump (5.58m). Brian Kelly in the 16s had a memorable day, with three 4th places, in the 100m (11.81), 200m (24.00) and long jump (5.73m). Now with the label of High’s fastest runner after Joshua Tassell’s unfortunate injury, Kerrod McPherson ran superbly to finish 3rd in the Opens 100m (11.44) and 4th in the 200m (23.39). Jeremy Rajendram was also a stand out, jumping 6.1m in the 17s long jump for 2nd place. Sydney High’s relay teams overall put in a great performance, with 4th places in the 13s, 14s and opens, and a 6th place in the junior 4x400m.

High’s middle and long distance runners also performed admirably. In the 14s, Lloyd Perris amazed everyone in the stadium with his devastating kick, coming from behind to achieve two 2nd places in the 800m and 1500m. In the 16s 1500m, Samuel Lane of year 10 finished 4th with a great time of 4:22.2 after competing in the 800m. Not to be outdone, his older brother Harrison ran his fourth and last Opens 3000m, running a personal best time of 9:18.9 to take 4th place, before running bravely from the front of the pack in the Opens 1500m, again finishing 4th. And finally, Adam Booth of year 9 showed great promise in the Opens 3000m, and is sure to improve on his solid effort in the coming years.

With so many outstanding performances in all ages, we keenly awaited the announcement of the results for the junior and senior teams. A 6th place in the junior division equalled our position last year, as did our 8th in the senior division. That a slight sense of disappointment among our athletes accompanied these results shows how far our athletics program has come over the last few years. In the junior division we finished only 12.5 points behind Grammar, while in the senior division only 7 points separated us. Nevertheless it was a superb effort by our athletes, maintaining our success from last year in the junior division and extending it to the senior division, where we improved our points score by almost 14%. If not for a few key injuries and absences, we may well have been celebrating a 5th place for the juniors, and a 7th place for the seniors, something that has never seemed possible during my time at this school.

This vast improvement is a testament to the tireless effort put in by athletics MIC Mr Devlin, whose work behind the scenes in developing and organising our program ensures each year that we are well prepared to perform. I must also thank the invaluable support of the volunteers, the teachers – Mr Ayre, Mr Codey, Mr Creer, Mr Baldock, and Mr Gainford, and the coaches – Mr and Mrs Morrow, the sprint coaches Davina Strauss, Rebecca Elliott and Jason Tassell, and the long distance coach Edward Ovadia. And finally, I thank all the athletes for their dedication to the program.
Jeremy Ireland
Athletics Captain 2009

GPS Athletics

The following placings were achieved at the Annual GPS meeting on 10th May 2009

Sydney East Regional Athletics

The Sydney East Regional Athletics Carnival was held over two days (11/8/09 and 12/8/09) at the Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre. As always, the competition at this regional carnival was hot with numerous records broken (one of them being Chris Morrow in the 16s). Sydney Boys High represented the Eastern Suburbs Zone with most of the athletes from the zone coming from High as we dominated the zone carnival. With the GPS athletics season well done and dusted, a lot of our athletes weren’t at their peak performance but they were certainly close to their best.

In the hurdles which were run on the first day of competition, Sydney High had four qualifiers through to the CHS State Carnival. Joshua Leo ran 2nd in the 12 years 80m hurdles (15:49), Ivor Metcalf ran 2nd in the 14 years 100m hurdles (15:85), Stephen Yoon ran 2nd in the 17+ years 110m hurdles (17:57) and Chris Morrow ran 2nd in the 16 years 110m hurdles (16:93) and 2nd in the 400m hurdles (1:04.18). In the walks High entered two competitors; both made it through to the state carnival. Adam Booth walked to 2nd place in the 15 and under 1500m walk (12:21.82) and surprise package Christian Katsikaros came 2nd in the 17+ years 3000m walk (19:39.47). The middle distance races only saw two athletes qualify for the CHS State Carnival. Anton Brokman ran strongly in the 13 years 800m to win (2:18.18) and Lloyd Perris has retained his killer form from the GPS season, winning both the 14 years 800m and 1500m races (2:15.66 and 4:36.04). Samuel Lane, a race favourite, was unlucky going down with glandular fever days before the regional carnival.

High didn’t have much luck in the sprints with a lot of the sprinters from the other regions being in a class of their own – in the 17+ years the winner from Heathcote ran a record 10.78. However, Isnad Zaman in the 200m did have some luck when the runner in second place began to overstride in the last 50 metres and fell before he could cross the line; this placed Isnad in 2nd place, still in a fast time (24.52). Edward Zhang ran extremely well in the 14 years 100m to cross the line in 1st place (12.23). Brian Kelly, the sprinting sensation, was unfortunately struck down by a hamstring injury which prevented him from competing – however, he did manage to compete in the 400m.

The boys did very well in the field events with six going through to the state carnival. Ivor Metcalf displayed his amazing height-jump ratio claiming 1st place in the 14 years high jump (1.72m), Joseph Lui jumped to place 2nd in the 13 years high jump (1.48m), Sam Higgins placed 2nd as well in the 17+ years high jump (1.70m) and a very special mention must go to Chris Morrow who jumped 1.93m to claim the Sydney East record in the 16 years high jump (Chris has also previously jumped 1.95 and came close to jumping 1.96m at this carnival). In the 17+ years long jump Jeremy Rajendram was only 2cm from first place jumping 5.97m. Big Max Kite did well in the 17+ years shot put coming 2nd with a throw of 13.13m. Chris Morrow was also our only triple jump qualifier winning with a jump of 12.21m. Once again our relays were our strongest event with the 12, 13, 14 and 17+ years 4x100m relays all making it through to state. The 12 years relay ran 56.91 coming 2nd, the 13 years relay ran 51.64 being narrowly beaten and coming through in 2nd place, the 14 years relay crossed the line in a blistering 48.35 in 1st place and Kerrod McPherson ran down Woolooware’s anchor runner to take 1st place in the 17+ years relay in 46.05.

Bronze medallists: Kerrod McPherson (17+ 100m and 200m), Dominic Mah (13 years 90m hurdles), Maurice Lam (13 years 100m.), Scott Renzenbrink (15 years high jump), Kumudika Gunaratne (15 years 100m hurdles), Tim Siu ( 17+ 400m hurdles), Harrison Lane (17+ 1500m) and the 15 years 4 x 100m relay. Well done to all our competitors. Dr Jaggar stated that with 9 gold, 14 silver and 11 bronze, these results were the strongest he have seen this century at High. Overall the Sydney East Regional Carnival was a highly successful one with plenty of Sydney High participants and plenty going through to the CHS State carnival.
Michael Phung

CHS Athletics Finals

Chris Morrow won the U16 high jump with a leap of 1.98m. Our 12 years relay (Anthony Chen, Anthony Yuan, Philip Lam, Joshua Leo) and 14 years relay (Edward Zhang, Patrick Krakovsky, Ming Chin, James Chotiyanonta) teams, both won gold. With spikes and sage advice from Mr Ayre, our 12 years boys lowered their PB by a massive 2.49 seconds in the final! Bronze medals were won by Edward Zhang in the 14s 100m, Ivor Metcalfe in the 14 years High Jump and Lloyd Perris in the 14s 1500m. High won the Kippax Cup (Boys Pointscore) at the Finals for the first time since 1989.

The Inaugural Jaggar Gift

The inaugural Jaggar Gift was held this past Monday. Students crowded the finish line to cheer on all of the participants who were vying for the grand prize of forty dollars. The Junior race proved to be exciting with people at both ends of the handicap finishing in the top three, with a thrilling sprint at the end to finish the first of hopefully many races to come. The Senior race showed the handicaps really giving an even chance to everybody, with the top three finishers having mid-field starts. Overall the Jaggar Gift is a new and exciting concept that we can all hope to see for many years to come.
Chris Morrow
Junior Captain of Athletics