Christi Bestry, Nevaeh Hill, Ella Batten & Nicole Chamberlain represent Mid West at WA athletics carnival

Four junior athletes represented the Mid West at the WA All Schools Track and Field Championships in November at the WA Athletics Stadium.

There were golds in steeplechase and hurdles, along with other medals and competitive times as Mid West Academy of Sport athletes Christi Bestry, Nevaeh Hill, Ella Batten and Nicole Chamberlain took to the track.

Coach Gary Clark, a former State marathon and steeplechase champion, said the results were “outstanding”.

“This program is one of the biggest events on the State calendar with all schools in the State able to compete,” Clark said.

“This was an outstanding result for Geraldton and has come about through some tough sessions on the track and the MWAS’ strengthening and conditioning program.”

The girls almost collected all the medals in the under-16 girls’ 2000m steeplechase, one of the final events of the competition.

Christi won gold with a time of 7min. 44sec., Ella was third with a time of 8min., and Nicole came fourth with a time of 8:1.

In the under-16 girls 200m hurdles, Nevaeh won comfortably in a personal best time of 30.35sec.

Ella ran 33.86sec. in the same event, finishing sixth, just two seconds behind the second placegetter.

It was not Ella’s preferred event, as she had travelled down to compete in the 2000m steeplechase.

Nevaeh took third in the under-16 girls 90m hurdles with 13.63sec, another personal best.

Christi came third in the 3000m and fourth in the 1500m. Her bronze medal time in the 3km event was 10:43, three seconds off second place.

She has recently won a 5km State cross-country event and her 4:55 1500m time beat her personal best by more than eight seconds and took her through the five-minute barrier for the first time.

In the same 3km race, 14-year-old Nicole finished sixth in 11:13, and is still eligible to compete in the division next year.

This is a commendable effort by Nicole who is also one of the State’s leading cross country athletes.

All of the girls have qualified for the National Championships in Brisbane next year.