Day 3: 129th NSW Open Championships and HART Sport 55th Little Athletics NSW Championships

22 March 2026

Day 3: 129th NSW Open Championships and HART Sport 55th Little Athletics NSW Championships

Occasional rain and a constantly wet track did not stop an display of stunning performances, along with three 40+ year-old records broken.

There was some exceptional performances on day three of the 129th NSW Open Championships and HART Sport 55th Little Athletics NSW Championships, but none better than Matthew Hunt’s 400m hurdles win in 49.75 seconds. Last weekend in Adelaide he clocked the fastest time by an Australian for 14-year, when running 49.48 seconds. Last nights run was his third sub-50 clocking. Rohan Laurendet won the NSW silver medal (running just outside his PB with a time of 51.55.

National leader in the event, Jemma Pollard continued her all conquering undefeated season winning her first NSW open 400m title in a time of 52.79. Her main competition was 16-year-old training partner Alice Hill who stunned with a second PB in 30 hours, clocking the leading junior time in Australia of 53.48. Coach of the pair, Tim Eschebach, presented the medals. Hill’s grandmother won the NSW open 100 yards, 220 yards and 80m hurdles titles in 1962 – 64 years ago. Her next step is the Australian U20 Championships/World U20 trials in Brisbane in April.

In the men’s Luke Van Ratingen set his second PB in a week, running 45.10 seconds, and moving up to number 17 Australian all-time. No surprise it was the fastest time in the history of the championships, however Steve Solomon did run 45.28 and 45.39 in 2022.

The stunning rise of Brenton Kerr continued winning the silver medal in the 400m in a time of 46.09 seconds. After starting the season with a best of 47.84, he has run four PBs - 47.58, 47.28, 46.40 and 46.09. Incredibly, Kerr has no coach and only started athletics three years ago to improve his speed for AFL.

“Originally I planned to do 1500s in distance, but just got better and better at the fours,” said Kerr.

“I’m self-coached at the moment and looking into getting a coach after this season. UTS Norths has got some good coaches around at the track. I’m always watching and looking for tips there.”

He reads widely with his university course – studying third year Sports Science at Macquarie University.

“My uni course it a lot of research papers and stuff like that.”

Three of the oldest records in the books were broken in the NSW Little Athletics Championships. Glen Murgatroyd’s (Campbelltown) 1975, 51-year-old 9s 400m record of 64.4 was broken by Manly Warringah’s Liam Lowe who ran 63.20. In the 1970’s Murgatroyd competed just twice at the State Championships, in the maximum four events on each occasion and set records in every event. His only record remaining is the 9s 200m.

For the third consecutive year, Harlow Pate has broken the 400m record – which had stood for 47-years. This year in the 12s, after previously taking the 10s and 11s record. Pate clocked 56.70 to lower the old mark of 57.5 set in 1979 by Manly Waringah’s Nicole Leistenschneider. In 1984, five years after setting the record, Leistenschneider would compete at the 1984 Olympic Games for Germany. Last year we made contact with Leistenschneider and she updated us about her life that she is now a surgeon in Germany.

The third historic mark to be broken was Peter Stellino’s 1983 12s 1500m record of 4:27.20. It was smashed by Camden’s Levi McKenzie who ran 4:24.81.

On a wet track Olivia Inkster ran a quick time of 11.65 to regain the 100m title she first won four-years ago as a 17-year-old. After early help from Olympian Georgia Winkcup, Jaylah Hancock-Cameron ran away with the 1500m title in a quick time of 4:12.39 minutes. Winkcup finished in 4:19.62. In third, 15-year-old Eliza Lawton was just outside her PB, clocking a season’s best time of 4:22.68. Annabelle Miller was smiling as she crossed the line in fifth place, obviously aware she had smashed her PB clocking 4:23.82. She removed over three seconds from her best. Patience and persistence has seen her clock lifetime bests from 800m to 3000m in the last month. 16-year-old Pippa Schwarz just missed her PB, clocking another World U20 Championships qualifier of 4:24.30.

Another junior in blistering form in the metric mile is 16-year-old Evan Rowbotham who clocked an excellent 3:49.91 for fourth in the open 1500m. Leading most of the way, he was eventually swamped by Bankstown pair Isaac Shaw (3:49.39), Harm Schaap (3:49.50) and Sydney Uni’s Tom Davies (3:49.85).

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW
Image: Matthew Hunt (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)