Denmark High School athlete Ginger Gleeson wins 800m gold at Australian Athletics All Schools Championships

Ginger Gleeson won 800m gold at the Australian Athletics All Schools Championship in Melbourne at the weekend, adding the national title to the State crown she claimed last month. The Denmark High School student took the under-16 title at the championships in a time of 2min. 12.04sec., edging out Aliyah Bennett’s 2.12:19. Her event was run with a timed final where the best athletes were split into two races with Gleeson clocking the fastest run overall. As well as her 800m gold, the Great Southern Academy of Sport athlete earned silver in the under-17 400m hurdles and the under-16 400m mixed relay. In the hurdles, she ran 1.01:40 behind New Southern Wales athlete Maiya Hewitt whose 59.18 run was both a personal best and a meeting record. She was also a member of the WA 4x400m mixed relay quartet who were runners-up to NSW, clocking a team best of 3.39:08. Triple jumper Mason Watkins leapt a personal best of 14.46m to clinch a silver medal in the under-17 competition. Jumping into a slight wind, he was 11cm behind eventual winner Brandon Cvetanoski, of Victoria, with both athletes well ahead of bronze medallist Mitchell Carney’s 14.10m. He doubled up with a long jump campaign, finishing fourth with a leap of 6.57m. Charlotte Mitrovski took part in three under-15 events, the 90m hurdles, 200m hurdles and the triple jump. She recorded personal bests in the two hurdles events where she was ninth and 10th overall, while her triple jump of 10.31m earned her another 10th spot. Like Mitrovski, Lucy Newton was competing in her first national event. She recorded a personal best of 27.04sec. in the under-17 200m to finish 11th. The five-day event, which attracted several hundred athletes to the Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park, ran from December 4-7.