Day 4: NSW Junior Championships

16 March 2026

Day 4: NSW Junior Championships

On day four of the NSW Junior Championships, being held on the new Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre surface, tailwinds were very welcomed by the 200m athletes, while in the distance events, we treated to some thrilling tactical half mile races. There was also an unusual situation with 12 athletes clearing the same equal winning height in the 14-years girls high jump.

We can’t help but sit in amazement and marvel at the performances across the four days of Eastern Suburbs Little Athletics club team mates Marnie Laurence and Lachlan Chappell. They were both undefeated winning six and seven titles respectively. They also broke records galore. In the 14-years, Laurence won the sprint double, horizontal jumps double, the 90m hurdles and ran on the relay. In the 13-years Chappell won the sprint treble, shot, discus, long jump and relay, competing on 10 occasions including heats. Trying to determine Laurence’s best performance, it was probably the 90m hurdles time of 13.05 run into a strong head wind, however winning the 200m (time 24.46) by a whole second was amazing. For Chappell winning the 400m by five seconds was likely his best performance.

We saw an extraordinary result in the 14s girls high jump with the top-12 athletes all clearing 1.50m. The 12 athletes took 36 attempts at 1.55m but not one was able to clear the height, as the entire top-12 paces were determined on countback. Camden’s Anastazia Kos was the only athlete to clear 1.50m on the first attempt, clearly taking the title. The silver medal was shared between Cherrybrook’s Madison Tabrett and Mosman’s Nina Parkinson.

One athlete who has made terrific progression since last years championship is Ryde’s Sienna Wade. At the 2025 NSW Junior Championships, in the 14-years she won a silver and bronze medal and also placed 4th and 9th. But one year on, this year in the 15-years she won two gold and two silver medals. What is also very unique is she claimed medals in four different disciplines: sprints (400m, silver), middle-distance running (800m, gold), the long-distance (2000m steeplechase, gold) and race walking (1500m walk, silver).

In an interview with Polytan, makes of the track, the well-spoken 14-year-old was very pleased with her results and improvement.

“It felt really special as I have always been second or third and now at these championships, I have won two gold and two silver; it has been such a good experience.”

In other middle-distance action, Westfields star Phillip Botonis, won a rare distance treble, 800m, 1500m and 3000m. On Sunday he claimed the 800m in 2:00.22 in a commanding tactical effort, but he followed a different plan in his outstanding five seconds win in the 1500m. Under astute endurance coach Brett Mathison, Botonis explained his strategy.

“I’ve been running different styles because I've been more of a sit and kick athlete. In the 1500m I tried front running and that went well so it's a matter of just practicing tactics and getting them down pat.”

The U20 men’s 800m was a quick race with 16-year-old Evan Rowbotham stepping up to the older event in pursuit of a World U20 Championships qualifier. He clocked a 1.25 second PB time of 1:50.59 to place second to Run Crew’s Harry Halleen with a 1:50.14 winning time. Unfortunately, they both just missed the standard of 1:50.00.

Izzy Louison-Roe added a second title at the championships taking the U20 triple jump with a last round leap of 12.97m.

In the 17-years javelin throw, Tallara Joseph-Riogi nailed he second longest throw of her career – reaching 51.09m on her first attempt. In the 16-years boys long jump, it took just one first round leap of 6.61m by Zach Gillett to take the title. He won comfortably from Jake Sefton with 6.32m. The 17-year boys long jump was a thriller with 5cm separating the medallists. After the first round Ryde’s Ratu Vilime Lewananau (6.85m) led from Ballina’s Connor Legzdins (6.83m) and Port Macquarie’s James Constable (6.81m). After no movement in the places, on the second last jump of the competition Legzdins leapt 6.86m to take the title by 1cm from Lewananau and Constable.

In the women’s U20 800m, Bankstown’s Pippa Schwarz, had no trouble clocking a World U20 standard, with a winning time of 2:08.65. It was her second qualifier, and she is amongst a group of 12 with the standard. On Saturday she also ran a qualifier in the 1500m, 4:26.02. After her 800m, she noted that the 1500m is clearly her better event and recognised how many qualifiers we now have in the 800m and 1500m events.

NSW’s leading junior sprinter, Zavier Peacock, dipped under his 200m PB to clock a winning time of 20.80. But unfortunately, an over the limit wind of 2.7m/s voids his PB, but it still indicated he is in top form with the World U20 trials four weeks away.

Dual Australian/Canadian citizen, Tatiana Reyes won the U20 sprint double. After just missing her 100m when clocking 11.91 into a headwind, she smashed her 200m lifetime best with a run of 23.63 in the final. In a high quality 17-years girls 200m, Maya Taber clocked the fastest 200m of the day with 23.17, ahead of 400m champion Alice Hill (PB 23.95), Matilda Harrison (24.12) and Maddie Gifford (24.48).

The rise of outstanding Bathurst sprinter Dylan Ruming was confirmed with another brilliant performance in the 17-years 200m. Adding to his 100m medal and 400m win, Ruming won the 200m in a wind assisted time of 21.27 (2.7m/s).

Balmain’s Avia Luketic claimed her second title at the championships, winning the 13s 1500m walk in a brilliant time of 6:35.28, the fastest time by a girl at the meet. She had earlier won the 3000m walk and also competed in the 1500m and 3000m runs. Adamstown’s outstanding young race walker Callum Martin also won his second title of the championships following his record-breaking effort in the 3000m metres walk. In the 15-years 1500m Walk he clocked 5:33.56 to win by 52 seconds. In the 13-years boys 1500m walk Nate Appleyard (Winston Hills) was the benchmark in his age clocking 6:28.49, adding to his earlier 3000m walk title.

We love to see our hurdlers with outstanding sprint speed, but these days this can be rare, but one who posses this is Eastern Suburbs athlete Rory Muldowney. He won the 16-years 100m, was second in the 200m and won the 76cm 110m hurdles. Vying for this 100m title were an incredible 60 athletes, while in the 200m there were 63 athletes. The 200m race was a classic between Muldowney and the winner Jayden Todoroski as they clocked wind legal times of 21.58 to 21.63.

There was an outstanding campaign by Manly sprinter/hurdler, James Atkins with three wins from three starts. He won the 15-years 100m hurdles, 100m and 200m. His 100m PB winning time of 11.22, was clocked into a headwind. With favourable 200m conditions (0.7m/s tail wind), he destroyed his old best of 22.87 to clock 22.15 in the 200m final.

Sienna Vassella closed the championships with a strong 200m win, to cap off her program of three golds and a bronze. Competing in the 15-years she won the 100m (12.00), 200m (24.29), long jump (5.51m) and took bronze in the 90m hurdles (13.35). The State heptathlon champion also competed in the discus and shot put.

Isaac Zreika was outstanding in his pet event, the 800m, winning the 14-years race by three seconds, over a quality field. Coached at Bankstown by Victor Matar, in his third year of athletics and having given away football, Zreika also won the 1500m in 4:13.54 in his first outing over the distance for a year.

Another athlete on the improve in 2026 has been Elijah Duckworth. Over the weekend he won five gold medals in the 13-14 years T38 100m, 200m, 400m, long jump and shot. His coach Steve Sorojevic outlined how proud he was of his commitment to training. 
“What has been particularly impressive about Elijah is the way he approaches training/” Steve said. “He never uses his circumstances as a limitation. In fact, when he first joined the squad, nobody in the group knew about his classification — he simply turned up, committed to the sessions, and got on with the work like everyone else.
His mindset is one of his greatest strengths. Elijah demonstrates remarkable resilience and determination and is extremely coachable. He takes technical feedback on board and consistently works on improving the finer details of his running — posture, rhythm, stride efficiency, and overall form.”

He has become a model member of the squad.
“His quiet determination, humility, and strong work ethic sets a great example for those around him.”

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image Tallara Joseph-Riogi (courtesy of David Tarbotton)