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Cross Country

Chelsea Little Athletes (and some not so little) produced some outstanding performances during the 2011 SMR Cross Country Season.

Chelsea athletes won the U/6-U15 age category and combined to win the Overall Inter-Club competition. Kaih Mitchell was presented with the Fred Roffey Achievement Award for the most enthusiastic athlete. A terrific effort following up on younger sister Esperence achieving the award in the previous year.

Individual award winners were as follows: U/15 Boys Best Performer - Kaih Mitchell, U/12 Girls Most Improved -  Esperence Mitchell, U/11 Girls Best Performer - Molly Butler, U/10 Boys Best Performer - Zekiel Mitchell, U/8 Girls Best Performer - Llelarni Mitchell,  U/11 Girls Achievement Award - Grace Harrington, U/25 Girls Best Performer (Short Course) - Kellie Ferguson, U/25 Girls Most Consistent (Short Course) - Jodie Ferguson, U/25 Girls Best Performer (Long Course) - Laura York. Jodie Ferguson also set a new course record for the U/25 Girls (1000m) in a time of 3 min 49.15 sec, beating the old record by over 3 seconds.

Congratulations to all the above named athletes.

View Award Winners Photos: Photo 1      Photo 2       Photo 3      Photo 4

Life Members

At the Annual General Meeting of Chelsea Little Athletics held on the 27th March 2010, two members were awarded Life Membership of the Centre. The Centre is proud to announce that Andrew Holten & Peter Crawford were accepted as new Life Members. Both have provided a significant and sustained contribution to the Centre, and the Centre thanks and congratulates them.
A list of all Centre Life Members can be viewed here.


VLAA State T & F Championships

Chelsea Little Athletes once again produced some outstanding performances at the VLAA State Track & Field Championships held over the weekend of the 20 & 21 March 2010.

In the U/9 age group, Jack Congues finished in 10th place overall in the 200m, in 9th place in the 400m and 13th in the Long Jump. Bridie Kelly ran into 17th place in the 60m Hurdle event, 9th in the High Jump, and a fantastic 5th place in the Long Jump with a leap of 3.61m.

U/10 Boy Tristan Scheirs shone at the championships, winning gold in the Long Jump and Triple Jump, and a silver in the 60m Hurdles finishing behind the winner by a mere 0.06 seconds. Taylah Nelson competing in the Discus and Shot Put, finished in 8th and 15th place respectively.

Jackson Connor competing in the U/11 age group, finished in 20th place in the Discus.

Harvey Connor also showcased his varied talents finishing in 15th in the Triple Jump, 11th in the Long Jump, and 6th in the Javelin. Whilst Trent Scheirs placed 7th in the 60m Hurdles and 14th in the Javelin.

Tamara Ballerini again showed her ability by earning a bronze medal in the U/14 Shot Put. Lachlan Stock produced a 14th place in the Javelin, 8th in the Discus, and 16th in the 200m. Jake MacDonald achieved an 11th place in the Javelin.

Angus Scott competing as an U/15 athlete at his final VLAA T&F championships finished in 10th place in the 800m and gained 6th place in the 400m.

Congratulations to all the above named athletes and also to Suzie Castle, Darren Connor, Sandra Scheirs and Peter Nelson for the wonderful assistance and organisation over the season as Team Managers.

State Multi Event Championships 2010

The VLAA State Multi Championships were held in Bendigo over the weekend of the 30^th & 31 ^st January 2010. Tristan Scheirs triumphed again to win the Multi-Event title for the U/10 boys age group, making it two years in succession. Tristan won by a margin of 86 points to his nearest rival, setting four personal bests along the way. Congratulations Tristan on your back-to-back victories.

Also competing at the Championships was Chloe Ludwig in the U/9 girls age group finishing in 32^nd place, whilst Bridie Kelly was only able to complete two of the five events, and Elyse Congues completing four of the five events in the U/10 girls group. Jack Congues placed very well in 10th place in the U/10 boys age group. Jackson Connor placed 39^th in the U/11 boys. In the U/12 boys age group Trent Scheirs finished in a respectable 15^th place, with Harvey Connor not far behind in 25^th place.

Well done to everyone involved, you've made Chelsea proud.

Chelsea Gift 2009

The 2nd Annual running of the Chelsea Gift was held on the 19th December 2009. Under an overcast sky and unusually cold conditions runners faced a moderate southerly head wind at the start of the day. Back markers this year were Tiana Scheirs in the Junior category (U/6 - U/8) and Angus Scott in the Senior group (U/9 - U/16). Unfortunately neither could overcome their handicap and both narrowly missed advancing to the semi-finals, and were eliminated in the heats. Despite the conditions, several athletes effectively recorded Personal Bests by virtue of running under the benchmark times, these were 17.56s (Tiana) and 13.09s (Angus) in the Junior and Senior events respectively.

In the Senior category Kaih Mitchell raced home to win in 12.46s, in front of a closely bunched field separated by just 0.42s down to 7th place. Lachlan Stock the fancied runner recording the fastest Semi-final time was unable to sustain the effort and finished a close 2nd. Sarah Jones made it a Panthers trifecta finishing in 3rd place. In fact the Final was a Panthers led charge with just one representative outside the Club, James Cochrane of Redbacks.

Juliette Benton might be one of the smallest in stature at the centre, but surely has a big heart, and won quite a few on her way to winning the Junior category of the Ray White Chelsea Gift. The diminutive U/6 athlete powered home to a great victory finishing in an even faster time, after the handicappers placed an additional 1.0m penalty after her semi-final win. Running into 2nd place was William Mortensen just ahead of Laura Melatua in 3rd place.

Chelsea Little Athletics Centre would like to thank John Shore and Ray White Chelsea for their generous support and sponsorship of this event. Ray White Chelsea have also announced their continued support for the Ray White Chelsea Gift next year, ensuring the continuation of this now annual event.

Chelsea Athletes Blitz VLAA State T&F Championships

Some admirable performances were achieved by CLAC athletes at the recent VLAA State Championships held at Olympic Park in Melbourne on the 21 & 22 March 2009. Perhaps the most remarkable efforts though were by Sean Hendricks. Competing in the U/15 Boys category, Sean blitzed his opposition to come home with the incredible haul of three Gold and one Silver medal. To add even more to this terrific achievement and story, every one of these performances were under the previous best State Record mark. On the first day of the meet Sean ran 2nd in the 200m event in a time of 22.32 sec., under the old record time of 22.57 sec. The winner of the event, Mathew Haynes of the Diamond Valley LAC, won in a time of 22.06 sec. Following up in the 100m Hurdles, Sean ran a time of 12.97 sec. setting a new State record beating the old mark of 13.15 sec. The amazing part of this feat is that due to the wind being so strong on the day that the hurdles would not remain in place and fall over, officials made the decision to run the event in the opposite direction into the wind.

On the second day of the meet Sean competed in possibly his two favourite events. Sean’s time of 38.31 sec. in the 300m Hurdles saw him eclipse the previous record of 38.71 sec., resulting in his second gold medal. In the 400m event the class time of 49.91 sec. saw him showing his opponents a clean set of heels by taking his third gold and fourth medal of the meet, going under the old mark of 50.10 sec. It is a delight to see Sean get just rewards for his hard work and his success is a perfect example of perseverance. Everyone at CLAC wishes him well for the future as he embarks on his senior career in the sport.

CLAC had other notable performances by athletes at the Championships making the finals of events, these included Tristan Scheirs competing in the U/9 Boys Long Jump winning a silver medal with a jump of 3.99m just edged out by the winner with a jump of 4.01m. Tristan backed this up with a bronze medal in the 70m in a time of 10.66 sec., a 4th place in the 200m in the time of 31.64 sec. and another 4th place in the Discus with a throw of 24.34m. Tamara Ballerini competing in the U/13 girls won a silver medal in the Discus with a throw of 32.13m, and gained 4th place in the Shot Put with a distance of 9.11m and also achieved 5th place in the Javelin with a throw of 29.76m. Harvey Connor competing in the U/11 Boys category came away with a well earned bronze medal in the Long Jump with a leap of 4.55m, 4th place in the Triple Jump with a jump of 9.45m, and 5th place in the Javelin with a throw of 25.95m.

Trent Scheirs, older brother to Tristan, placed 4th in the U/11 Boys 80m Hurdles with a time of 14.12 sec., and also achieved 6th place in the 60m Hurdles in a time of 10.62 sec.

Angus Scott in the U/14 Boys 800m ran into 5th place with a time of 2 min. 15.05 sec., followed by a 6th place in the 1500m in a time of 4 min. 38.97 sec.

Jake Townley competing in the U/15 Boys 800m finished in 11th place with a time of 2 min. 16.85 sec., and 9th place in the 1500m in a time of 4 min. 35.63 sec.

U/9 Girl Mia McCulloch competing in her first State Championships finished in the admirable position of 5th place in the 70m in the excellent time of 10.90 sec., and then ran another superb race gaining 7th place in a time of 32.64 sec. for the 200m.

Veteran Aaron McDonald competing in the U/15 Boys Shot Put finished 7th with a distance of 12.23m, and also placed 7th in the Discus with a throw of 40.75m.

Jordan Fleming finished in 8th place in the U/15 Boys 400m in a time of 54.90 sec.

Alicia Menhennitt cleared 1.15m in the U/11 Girls High Jump finishing in 17th place.

Other CLAC athletes to compete at the State Championships were U/15 Girl Monique Meade, and U/11 Boy Jerome Mokaraka.

Congratulations to all the above athletes on their fantastic achievements.

New Life Members

At the recent Annual General meeting of the Chelsea LAC, three long serving members were presented with Life Membership. They were Michael Stock, Anne Mellett, and Carlo Ballerini. All three have been long standing members of both Club & Centre Committees, and have worked tirelessly at both the Centre and Region/State level for the Chelsea LAC.

We congratulate them on their well earned and deserved achievement.

State Multi Event Championships 2009

The VLAA State Multi Championships were held in Warrnambool over the weekend of the 31^st January and 1^st February 2009. Tristan Scheirs won our first Multi-Event gold medal in four years competing in the U/9 boys age group. Tristan won by the narrow margin of just two points after a nail-biting wait for the 800m event times times to be posted. After holding a 60 point lead going into the last event, Lachlan Viney of Knox gained 58 points to close the margin with Tristan running a P.B. in the event to only just hold him out. Congratulations Tristan on a well deserved win.

Sean Hendricks achieved a bronze medal performance in the U/15 boys category, narrowly missing out on automatic selection in the Victorian team for the Australian Championships, however Sean has made selection in the Squad.

Taylah Nelson competing in the U/9 girls age group finished in a very credible 12^th place. In the U/11 boys age group Harvey Connor ran into 22^nd place, while Trent Scheirs who also competed in the U/11 boys was well placed before being inexplicably disqualified after stepping to the inside of the track in the 800m event to avoid collision with another athlete.

Inaugural Chelsea Gift

Under clear skies, the inaugural running of the Chelsea Travel Chelsea Gift was held on the 20th of December 2008. As part of the carnival atmosphere in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Chelsea Little Athletics Centre, the handicap race was created to encourage athletes at all levels to compete and have an equal chance of winning the event.  The Centre extends it's thanks to Chelsea Travel for their wonderful sponsorship of this event.

The Senior category winner Luke Gilfedder, won in a field which had just 0.59s between 1st and 8th place, with less than 0.2s separating the top 5 finishers. Luke triumphed over back-marker Sean Hendricks running from the scratch-mark. Sean out of picture for virtually the whole race flashed home to take 2nd place from Tristan Scheirs in 3rd place.

The Junior category winner Darcy Tucker blazed home to finish a clear winner ahead of the field. There was a blanket finish for 2nd to 7th place with just 0.64s between the minor placings.

Victorian State Relay Championships

The VLAA State Relay Championships were held in Melbourne at Olympic Park on the 14^th December 2008. The U/15 boys group, consisting of Jordan Fleming, Radel Fleming, Sean Hendricks, and Jake Townley, competing in their last relay Championships came away with two bronze medals to add to their previous years' success. Third place in the 4 x 100m and Medley event (1 x 400, 1 x 200, 2 x 100) the latter decided by only 0.2 sec. from first to third place, was just rewards for their hard work. Also qualifying for the final of the 4 x 200m, and finishing in 2nd place, they were unfortunately disqualified for an apparent illegal batten changeover although the official at the change-box had waved the white flag indicating all was well. An appeal was unsuccessful and dismissed.

Also qualifying for the Championships but falling short of making the finals were the U/9 Girls 4 x 100m team (finishing 16th overall), the U/11 Boys 4 x 100m (18th overall), U/9 Mixed 4 x 100m (10th overall), and the U/9 Boys 4 x100m team tragically disqualified in the heats.

Southern Metropolitan Region (SMR) Relay Championships

The Southern Metro Relay Championships were held at Caulfield on the 15^th November 2008. For the first time in the history of the Centre, Chelsea came away with the Fred Roffey Trophy, which is awarded to the best performing Centre on the day. The award is determined by allocating points across all races, adjusting for the number of teams entered by each Centre, giving all Centres large and small an even chance of winning. Congratulations to all concerned breaking the almost monopoly that Caulfield LAC has had in recent times.

We have five teams that have automatically qualified for seven events for the State Championships to be held next month.  Also a big thank-you to all parents for assisting in the allocated duties on the day.