Wimmera athletes Charlie Inkster and Asha Meek showed they have bright futures in track and field with strong performances on the national stage last month.

Inkster competed in the under-20 women’s heptathlon at the Australian Athletics Championships and Meek took part in the 100-metre sprint and 200-metre hurdles at the Australian Little Athletics Championships, both in Adelaide.

Inkster impressed Wimmera athletics coach Ricky Price with her results, recording personal best results in three of the heptathlon’s seven events.

“Charlie finished 12th out of 15 competitors, but she’s got another year in that age group,” he said.

“She got three personal bests out of the seven events, and the other performances were close to PBs.

“She also got an overall points PB, which is the main thing she was after. She got 3609 points overall, and she was after 3600, which is a national qualifying performance for that age group.”

Inkster’s best performance came in the 800-metre final, where she beat her previous best time by more than three seconds to finish third in 2:29.24. She also set personal bests of 16.43 seconds in the 100-metre hurdles and 8.94 metres in shot put.

Price said Inkster’s result should automatically qualify her for next year’s Australian Athletics Championships.

“For her first time at nationals, it’s a great experience,” he said.

“She’s slowly making improvements, and hopefully she’ll go again next year.

“She felt good about the whole thing, especially the 800 metres. She won her heat very easily – by 50 metres or more.”

Nhill’s Caleb Zanker also competed at the under-20 championships, finishing 17th in a field of 20 competitors in the shot put final with a personal best of 13.03 metres, and 17th of 17 finalists in javelin with another personal best of 39.16 metres.

Price said Meek had also impressed onlookers at the Little Athletics championships at the weekend.

“Asha finished third in her heat of the 200-metre hurdles and came third, which put her into the finals,” he said.

“She hit one hurdle in the final and still got a quicker time, but didn’t quite get a PB.

“She just needs a little bit more experience with the hurdles. She hasn’t run them very often, so she did well to be in the final for that one.

“On Sunday she ran in the 100-metre final. She came eighth, but she equalled her PB that she ran in Melbourne of 12.89 seconds. It’s her second time under 13 seconds, so it’s great she was able to do that in a final.”

Price said both Inkster and Meek had ‘bright futures going forward’.

“It’s a good experience and I hope it inspires them to go further, give it another crack and try to get there again,” he said.

“They both train really well and are fairly committed to it. They enjoy their athletics, which is the main thing. They’ve also got the support of their parents, which is huge.

“They’ve both got a good work ethic and they’re willing to have a go at whatever event.”

Former Horsham Little Athletics member Isla Hiscock, who now competes for Queensland, finished fifth in the final of the 300-metre hurdles.

Other district athletes to notch strong results in recent weeks include Horsham Little Athletics’ Jett Hill winning the final of the Little Athletics Victoria Handicap 800m final at the Stawell Gift in a time of 2:04.83, while Kynan Stasinowsky and Jack Sawyer both made the final of the Little Athletics Victoria Handicap 400m final, finishing seventh and ninth respectively.

– Colin MacGillivray

The entire May 1, 2024 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!