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Maurie Plant Meet: NSWIS stats ‘n facts

The Melbourne weather may have at times been blustery, but it didn’t blow out the enthusiasm of the 10,000-strong crowd that attended last Saturday night’s Maurie Plant Meet/Melbourne Invitational at Lakeside Stadium. In a night which showcased the best of Australian athletics, a host of New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holders made a mighty impression, posting superb performances which ensured they took centre stage on the podium and added to the momentum which is driving what many are describing as a ‘golden age’ of Australian athletics.

WOMEN’S HIGH JUMP

Eleanor Patterson: Gold (1.94m)

Erin Shaw: Bronze (1.82m)

Eleanor Patterson, who competed in her home state for the first time in seven long years, was roared on by the crowd after backing up her silver medal performance at the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Nanjing, China with a Maurie Plant gold medal for her 1.94m effort. Adding to NSWIS’s celebrations was the sight of 20-year-old Erin Shaw, who represented Australia at last year’s world championships, joining Patterson on the podium after securing the bronze medal with a 1.82m effort.

WOMEN’S 200m

Kristie Edwards: Gold (23.18 + 0.7)

Kristie Edwards stunned the sellout crowd when she overcame the tough conditions to defeat Australia’s fastest woman, Torrie Lewis, in a time that was just 100th of a second off Edwards’s PB. Edwards, who was a state netballer before focusing her energies on athletics, reveled in the atmosphere. The race also proved to be a tremendous forerunner to the men’s event in which Queensland’s Lachlan Kennedy defeated 17-year-old speed sensation, Gout Gout.

WOMEN’S JAVELIN

Lianna Davidson: Gold (61.06m)

Mackenzie Little: Silver (59.66m)

Lianna Davidson flew into Melbourne from the East Coast of America just days after beating her previous PB by three metres when she hurled the javelin 63.79, for the University of Georgia. By the time Davidson buckled up for her flight back to Atlanta she’d struck Maurie Plant gold with an impressive throw of 61.06m. In winning the event Davidson defeated the athlete who she has described as an inspiration – fellow NSWIS athlete Mackenzie Little, an Olympian and world championships bronze medallist.

MEN’S HIGH JUMP

Brandon Starc: Bronze (2.20m)

Triple Olympian Brandan Starc’s third place in Melbourne marks his steady return to competition. In a sport where every centimetre tells a story, Starc’s effort to win the bronze medal on countback with a jump of 2.20m was, significantly, a two centimetre improvement on his last competition, the Perth Classic.

TRIPLE JUMP

Connor Murphy: Gold (16.23 -1.3)

Paris Olympic Games finalist Connor Murphy, who revealed his smile is his secret weapon because it helps him to focus during a competition, had plenty to smile about when his leap of 16.23m (-1.03) secured him the victory. Murphy is still becoming familiar with some changes he has made to his action, and his next opportunity to showcase it is the National Championships in Perth.

A host of NSWIS athletes also competed in the Melbourne Invitational which was run in conjunction with the Maurie Plant meet, resulting in:

Sebastian Sultana finishing second to Lachlan Kennedy in the men’s 100m in a time of10.29. Olympian Rohan Browning finished third in 10.30.
Paris Paralympian Mali Lovell returning home with silver for the women’s 100m T36 (14.38).
Sarah Carli finishing third in the women’s 400m event after running 53.21.
Luke Boyes seizing the 800m silver in a time of1:46.73.
Mitchell Lightfoot winning silver in the 110m hurdles in 13.84, and Jacob McCorry taking the bronze in 13.87.