Tara Murray
Athletes hit the track in the opening round of the Athletics Victoria Shield League on Saturday.
The start of the new season saw a return to the premier division for Western Athletics, which claimed the division 1 shield last season.
Western Athletics sit fourth after the first round on 3237 points, with Essendon, Diamond Valley and Eaglehawk ahead of them.
Western Athletics president Peter Cashin said it was pretty exciting to get back out there, with many athletes making their debut.
He said they were originally not sure what was going to happen with the weather, but it turned out to be a nice day.
“We had some personal bests, some national qualifiers first up,” he said.
“There were also some club records which we were happy about as it’s a new season. It bodes well for the rest of the season.”
Cashin said their focus this season was on making sure they got the best out of their athletes. He said if they could make the finals play off, which is for the top five clubs, it would be amazing.
Cheryl Beveridge, Erica Charleston, Charlotte Drake, Holly Gardiner, Tahnee Hutchison, Helen Pelns, Kate Siviour, Nelson Banigo, Armeet Dhaliual, Allan Fernandes, Kyle Lobo, Steven Morgan and Ethan Sneyders all made their AVSL debuts.
The under-16 men came second overall in their age group.
A number of athletes achieved top five results.
Kate Siviour finished first in the open women’s three kilometre walk, while in the same age group Rebekah Sutton was first in the shot and third in the hammer throw.
In the female under-20 age group, Jade Chitty finished second in the three kilometre walk, while Charlotte Drake finished third in the 1500 metres. Emily Morgan finished first in the under-18 female javelin, while Lucy Cleveland finished fourth in the under-16 400 metres and Liz Hall was fourth in the 1500 metres, while Tahnee Hutchison finished fifth in the under-14 100 metres.
On the male side of things, Brayden Portelli finished first in the open 100 metres and Brandon Muscat finished first in the 1500 metres. In the over-40s, Stan Peska finished first in the discus and third in the javelin.
In the men’s under-20, Bol Mathieu finished first in the javelin and third in the high jump, while in the under-18s Jaydon Nti finished first in the 100 metres and Jeremy Nti finished third in the same event.. Xander Byrne finished first in the 110 metre hurdles.
In other results, Jeeva Vijayagopal finished first in the 400 metres, third in the 100 metres and fourth in the long jump in the under-16s, while Matthew Musarra finished third in the 1500 metres, Ethan Sneyders finished fourth in the 400 metres and the javelin and Armeet Dhaliwal finished fifth in the 1500 metres in the same age group.
Nelson Banigo finished second in the 100 metres in the under-14s.
