These five of our top athletes qualified to represent the Sunshine Coast at the State Athletics Championships in October. Cassidy Ferris and Laura Vobr will compete at the Primary competition and Ella Mickelson, Andrea Little and Jaqueline Roach will compete a week later at the Secondary Championships.

The girls were part of a team of 25 students who competed at the Sunshine Coast Athletics Championships last week. There were some great performances from our students but the competition for State qualification was fierce. Primary and Secondary students competed at the same carnival over two days in a new format this year. It was inspiring for the primary students to watch senior students jumping over two metres in high jump and sprinting really fast!!

Laura was our first to qualify with a fantastic set of throws in the 11 year discus competition. She threw a personal best distance of 27.37m to win the event and was excited about her 2 metre improvement. She also placed second in the shot put with a 10.15m put which was equalled by another competitor and Laura was relegated to second by two centimetres after a count back.

Cassidy Ferris sliced over three seconds off her school times in the 200m race to qualify third in the 10 year girls 200m. She was thrilled with this run especially as she had to run an 800m race just one hour before her 200m final. As Cassidy also competed in the multi-event she competed in 4 events during day two with heats and finals of the 200m race. Her strength and determination shone through as she raced into third in the 200m to gain selection. Her smile showed her excitement at the end of the race! She also placed third overall in the multi-event which included the 100m, 800m, long jump and shot put.

Ella Mickelson and Andrea Little are both 16 years old so one or the other represented GCCC in almost every event over the two days of competition. Andrea’s highlight was winning the discus competition with a great throw of 29.81m . She also placed 2^nd in the javelin event but failed to reach the qualifying mark, however did qualify in the 100m hurdles after finishing 4^th in the final.

Ella jumped really well and qualified for State Champs in both the long jump, where she placed 2^nd, and triple jump. She was aiming to break the 63 second qualifying mark in the 400m race and she ran a well-judged race to finish in third place and also better the qualifying mark by 1sec.

Jaqueline Roach was our fifth qualifier with a determined run in the 15 yr girls 1500m race. She had been training hard for this event including running the Mooloolaba 10km race two weeks ago. She finished strongly in second place with a time of 5.16 which qualified her to compete at the State Championships for a third time this year having already competed at Triathlon and Cross Country State Champs.

We wish these students all the best as they prepare and compete in the Queensland State Championships in October.

Wendy Stott