By David Nagel
Two rising stars from Pakenham Little Athletics have created history by being part of the first Region team to win a gold medal at the Little Athletics Victoria State Relay Championships on Saturday.
Lily Wouters and Shae Langley from Pakenham joined forces with Aleasha Read and Maddy Boyd from Traralgon to form the Gippsland Country Region Team, after both Little Athletics centres only had two girls each in the Under-16 age group.
It was the first time the event had been held for three years, with 3000 athletes converging on Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park for one the highlight meets on the calendar.
Little Athletics Victoria is made of approximately 100 centres, divided into seven regions – four metro and three country – and the competition was hot with many teams putting in hours and weeks of training in preparation.
Relay teams must qualify through their Region Event to make it to State finals so only the best teams are at the championships.
Gippsland Country President Steve Woolf said the girls were up against it just to qualify for the finals.
“These girls first met on the day of Region (event) in December with no training and won the 4 x 100, 4 x 200 and Swedish Medley Events qualifying them for state,” Woolf said.
“On Saturday the girls turned up to Lakeside Stadium to take on the State Championships, again with no training due to locations and holidays, but with smiles and a positive attitude.”
Lilly, Shae, Maddy and Aleasha first tackled the 4 x 200 event and powered home to claim a silver medal, the first region team to achieve such a feat.
But the girls weren’t done with yet.
They finished fifth in the 4 x 100, before all eyes turned to their pet event, the Swedish Medley, where they were confident of being on the podium.
Woolf takes up the story.
“Shae led the team off with a strong 100 metres, passing the baton to Aleasha for the 300-metre leg, and she sat on the shoulder of the leader before powering away over the last 80 metres.
“Aleasha handed the baton to Lily for the 200-metre leg with the lead.
“Lily ran the best 200 metres of her life and passed the baton to Maddison for the 400-metre leg.
“Maddison just powered away from the field and the girls won the race by nearly 10 seconds, which equates to about 80 metres.”
Woolf said the girls had achieved something special.
“To put this into perspective, no Region Team has ever won silver at State Relays, let alone gold, so the girls have created history.”
Pakenham Little Athletics had many more participants on the day, with everyone doing their centre proud.
For more photos, turn to page 27 of this week’s Berwick-Pakenham Gazette.
