A great weekend for SA's young throwers

Published Mon 14 Feb 2022

Tea Tree Gully Athletics Centre's Marley Raikiwasa threw another World Athletics U20 Championships Discus qualifier during Friday night's Copyworld Toshiba Interclub meet, headlining a stellar night for SA's up and coming athletes.

The 16-year-old Shot Put and Discus thrower managed a distance of 49.97m in the circle to win the U18 competition, while U16 Tea Tree Gully teammate Taylor Larsson threw an Australian Track and Field Championships Qualifying distance of 40.62m.

The National Championships will be held in Sydney from March 26, while the World Athletics U20 Championships are set to be hosted in Columbia in August.

Raikiwasa - who is a member of Athletics SA Emerging Athlete Program (EAP) - threw a Women's U20 and U18 State Record 51.19m on October 23, 2021, which qualified her for the World U20 Championships and placed her on top of Australia's 2021 Women's U18 Discus rankings list.

Copyworld Toshiba Interclub 9 Results

Copyworld Toshiba Interclub 9 Photographs

Marley Raikiwasa of the Tea Tree Gully Athletics Centre.

Raikiwasa also finished 2021 ranked third (Nationally) in the Women's U18 Shot Put, recording 15.23m on November 27.

Larsson finished 2021 fourth on the Australian Women's U16 Discus rankings (42.79m) and seventh in the Women's U16 Shot Put (14.21m).

Raikiwasa holds four State Records - Women's U18 Shot Put and Women's U20, U18 and U16 Discus, while Larsson holds the Women's U16 and U14 Shot Put Records.

Saints Athletics Club's Darcy Miller won the Men's U20 Discus competition with a throw of 55.59m on Friday night, before going on to break the Men's U20 Discus State Record (56.36m) at the Chemist Warehouse Adelaide Invitational on Saturday night.

William Evans of the Western Athletics Club finished second in Friday night's U20 Discus competition, throwing a National Qualifying 41.33m.

Northern District's Schoepf brothers also had a good night on Friday, with Noah winning the Men's U16 Discus and Hammer Throw competitions with National Qualifying attempts of 62.91m and 45.44m respectively, while Lachlan won the U18 Discus and Hammer Throw with attempts of 45.57m and 50.06m.

Noah Schoepf of Northern District.

Northern Jet Bailey Pfeiffer (46.26m) and Felix Bowden (44.17m) of Pembroke also threw U18 National Qualifying distances in the Men's U18 Hammer Throw.

Men's F21 Discus (31.33m) and Shot Put (11.30m) World Record holder Hugo Taheny threw 31.08m in the Men's Para Discus on Friday night, while Lillee Wakefield threw 21.64m in the Para Women's Discus and 33.40m in the Para Women's Hammer Throw.

Young Saints runner Jack Williams broke the Men's U14 1500m State Record on Friday night.

Williams, who won the 2021 Men's U14 Cross Country title, finished fourth in Heat 2 of the Men's 1500m, running 4:12.06 to break what was Cameron Clohesy's 2013 record of 4:12.33.

Jack Williams of the Saints Athletics Club broke the Men's U14 State Record on Friday night, running 4:12.06.

Hills Districts Athletics Club's Dylan Krenczeck won the Men's 1500m race on Friday night in 3:53.24, ahead of Flinders Athletic Club duo Robert Killmier (3:56.24) and Clohesy (3:56.04), while Molly Cook of the Pembroke Athletics Club won the Women's 1500m in 4:41.23.

Western's Alex Dunn (15.28), Flinders' Nicholas Schroder (15.51) and Northern Jet Logoh Tligi (16.21) each ran National Qualifying times in what was a quick Men's U18 110m Hurdles race.

Others to achieve National Qualifying efforts on Friday night were Hurdlers Fraser Western (Men's U20 110m Hurdles, 16.99), Aleisha Coolen (Open Women's 100m Hurdles, 15.73) and Dean Pastrello (Open Men's 110m Hurdles, 14.80); Jordi McMillan in the Open Women's 100m (11.95); Mia Devlin in the Women's U16 Long Jump (5.39m); and Men's Pole Vaulters Orlanzo Bernhardt (4.30m), William Mattinson (3.45m) and Ken Ferrante-Tanikawa (3.15m).

This weekend the SA Athletics Stadium will host the State Track and Field Championships from Friday, February 18 to Sunday February 20 - best of luck to everyone that's competing.

Copyworld Toshiba Interclub 10 will be held on Saturday, February 26.