Three Tamworth students came home with gold medals in tow on the weekend and one of the students even broke a state record.
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Emma Klasen, Liam Gordon and Adam Williams all claimed wins at the NSW All Schools Championships at Homebush.
Williams won gold in the 15 years 3000 metres, Klasen competed in the 19 years events and won the 100 metre final and claimed silver in the 200 metre event while 14-year-old Gordon won the 200 metre and 400 metre double.
To top off his brace of gold medals, Gordon also broke the record in the 14 years 400 metre event.
The record came as a shock to Gordon. When asked if he thought he'd run a fast time he said: "Honestly, no."
"I'd run three races before that so my legs were super tired."
That fatigue was still at the forefront of his mind after the race but he was thrilled to hear the announcer call out his record-breaking time.
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Just as big a shock to Gordon was his win in the 200 metre race - the 400 metres is his main event.
"I was pretty excited to be able to achieve [what I did]," he said.
"I wasn't expecting to get anywhere near gold in the 200."
The championships doubled as a swan song for Klasen.
The 18-year-old completed her Higher School Certificate at Calrossy a month ago but turned out for one last run in school colours.
"It was really exciting. I was very very happy to go out with that sort of result," Klasen said.
"My principal wanted me to represent Calrossy one last time and it was the icing on the cake."
Klasen will now take the step up from the school arena to the Australian juniors.
"My times weren't exactly what I was wanting from the competition but it's still early days," she said.
"It's my second comp back and it's hopefully a slow start to the process and I'll get quicker for the Nationals."
"That's a big one - that'll be a selection process for the 2021 World Juniors."
Williams went into the championships with a stack of confidence.
In October he took out the under-16s boys division at the cross country long course championships.
And then just two weeks ago his confidence was given another boost.
"I ran a three kilometre race two weeks before [the championships] and ran a very fast time of 8:38 which is the fastest in my age in Australia by nine seconds," Williams said.
"It was very hot on the day of the championship in Sydney which was going to make it hard to run a fast time.
"I was pretty happy with how I went, I won in a time of 9:06. It was an awesome feeling to get the gold medal after a great cross country season."
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
