By LIAM TWOMEY
Celeste Mucci was a standout performer at the Australian Junior Athletics Championships last week, claiming a stunning four gold medals. The rising star was a dominating force in the under-15 age group, securing top honours in the long jump (5.33m), high jump (1.64m) and the 90m hurdles (13.15sec).
The three events were conducted on the one day.
She then backed up that performance in the under-16 100m relay event with another gold while also claiming silver in the 100m with a time of 12.48sec.
The good news didn’t stop there for the Williamstown Athletics Club when, just a few day’s earlier, Daniela Roman raced to victory in the Under-18 100m hurdles (13.67sec) and in doing so achieved the qualifying standard for the 2013 IAAF World Youth Championships to be held in Donetsk, Ukraine in July.
Roman then stepped up an age group and won the Under-20 100m in the time of 12.01sec. To finish off her campaign she placed sixth in the Under-20 200m in 24.91sec.
“It’s a pretty good result,” Roman said.
“I knew from the start of the season that there were qualifiers out there to chase and that’s been an extra motivation to push myself.
“It’s been so much fun here. I’ve been really lucky to perform well in the 100m and the 100m hurdles.
“I don’t know what I am capable of in Donetsk. I’ll do lots of training and then we will see.”
In his first year of athletics, Sweeney Preston also performed exceptionally well achieving a third place bronze medal in the Under-16 400m in the personal best time of 51.81sec. Preston backed up in the 200m the next day coming sixth in the final in the time of 23.46sec. On the final day of the Championships he joined his Victorian team mates to finish a very close second in the four by 200m relay, missing the gold by five one-hundredths of a second.
Other Williamstown athletes to compete included Ryhan Thomas, who finished ninth in the Under-15 800m in a time of 2min 10.43sec and Sean Hardemen in the Under-18 Javelin who threw 45.12m to come 10th overall.
Sean’s sister Catie finished seventh in the Under-15 javelin with a best throw of 29.29m.
