On The Rise: Tryphena Hewett Excited for Adelaide Invitational

The 2025 Adelaide Invitational, part of the Chemist Warehouse Summer Series, is already starting to take shape, with one of South Australia's rising stars looking to defend her title.

Tryphena Hewett took part in last year's Invitational, taking home the title in the Women's Pole Vault despite being a junior competing against open-aged athletes.

"I came into the Adelaide invitational as a junior without any expectation of taking out the comp," she said.

"At the time I didn't know many of my competitors and was looking forward to gaining experience in Opens.

"This year I come in knowing who most of my competitors are and expecting it to be an even tougher competition."

The last 12 months have seen Hewett's stocks rise exponentially; her hard work taking her to her first ever International meet at the Busan International Pole Vault Meet, where she placed second. 

It wasn't all easy going, though. Tough weather persisted throughout the event, and she had to use borrowed poles - not wanting to deal with the hassle of travelling with her own.

"It was great competition even in the drizzle and a good learning experience of being adaptable for all conditions," Hewett said.

"The volunteers at that comp need to be commended as they held umbrellas over us athletes all the way until we began our run and sheltered us as soon as we left the mat.

"Me and Liv (Olivia Gross) hyped each other up in the rough conditions to both get solid heights of 4.15 and 4.20 respectively."

This was followed by arguably her biggest achievement of 2024 - a third place finish at the World Athletics U20 Championships. 

"On the camp the team went on the month before, I remember we had to write down our goals for the comp and my first was to make the final. They also requested a perfect scenario result and I said placing 5th in the final," she said.

"I had a gruelling month of training but in the days before the comp it was starting to come together and I was finally finding some confidence in the work I'd put in. 

"Although the qualifier was long (close to 4 hours) with 45min rests between jumps, I produced some of the best vaults of the year, with a clean card to boast.

"The final was not so pretty. It was a surprise I made a height at all, but I luckily managed to struggle over each bar on the 2nd and 3rd attempts, getting what I needed to secure a place on the podium.

"It was the furthest trip I'd ever been on in a country I knew little to nothing about. But from being able to train with the next generation of elite athletes, to receiving world athletics merch and being able to wear the green and gold, the experience was phenomenal."

Hewett has currently set her eyes on competing at the World University Games in Germany in June, using the Invitational as a springboard in her preparation.

"I've been looking to do a lot of technical and strength development and have three high level meets lined up to compete in to hopefully achieve the qualifier, the Adelaide invitational being one of them," Hewett said. 

And the chance to compete again at home is not lost on her - the atmosphere and fact it's her home meet making it extra special.

"Although I've competed at higher level competitions in the last year, the Adelaide Invitational has been my favourite, being a home meet with many of the people I know able to come watch," she said.

"The atmosphere there last year was amazing and there was a lot of incredible results, with the discus right next to the pole vault meaning lots of action all in one spot.

"I can't wait to vault in it this year."

The Adelaide Invitational will take place on February 15th, 2025 at the SA Athletics Stadium. 

Tickets are currently available for purchase HERE.