Athletics Australia All Schools Championships; SA Athletics Stadium – Adelaide; 9-11 December, 2022
Andres represented NSW in the U15 100m hurdles; U15 200m hurdles and U16 4x100m relay team.
Results: 4th in 100m hurdles; 5th in 200m hurdles; 5th in 4x100m relay
This was Andres’s first time competing at national All Schools – he qualified in 2021, but the event was cancelled due to COVID. It is widely regarded as the most difficult junior event in Australia to qualify for because only the top 2 athletes from each state at their respective All Schools championships get to compete. It doesn’t matter if your 3rd place performance was the 3rd best in the country – you don’t get to go!
The NSW athletes travelled and stayed as a team – so it was a great opportunity for Andres to take responsibility for his own preparation, valuable experience for the future when he hopefully gets to compete internationally.
Results: 2022 Australian All Schools Championships Results
Live streams:
U15 Men 200m hurdles 76cm
Andres was placed in the 2nd of the two timed finals, which is not ideal – he would possibly have run better if he had someone to chase or someone who was pushing him more. He won his heat and was only 0.06 seconds off 4th place from the first heat. Even so – he did manage to take more than half a second off his PB, which was a really good result.
| Timed final #2 | 27.33 (+1.7); PB | 5th place |
U16 Boys 4x100m relay
Andres was selected in the 6 person relay squad made up of three U16 and three U15 athletes. He didn’t expect to get an opportunity to run in Adelaide, but one of the U16 athletes injured themselves in a race and another wasn’t feeling well on the day – so Andres was pulled into the final team at the last minute.
Andres ran the second leg and both his changes were excellent – but a messy 3rd change saw our team slip back from medal contention and came 5th overall. Still, an excellent result for an U16 team with three U15 athletes.
| Straight final | 44.13 | 5th place |
U15 Boys 100m hurdles 84cm
Andres ran a slight (wind legal) PB in the heat to qualify 6th fastest for the final. After a lengthy chat with his coach between races, he ran a hugely improved final to finish a very close 4th place – only 0.01 seconds off a bronze medal and a full half a second faster than his previous PB. Despite missing out on a medal, he was really happy with his race and the outcome.
| Heat 2 | 13.86 (+0.9); PB | 6th fastest qualifier |
| Final | 13.37 (+1.2); PB | 4th place |
