Corio Little Athletics Centre was excited to have two young athletes break long-standing Centre records over the summer season, as well as achieving great results at higher levels of competition.
Spencer McKenna broke the Corio Centre U10 1100m race walk record of 41years, then broke his own record, taking a total of 23.36 seconds off the original record. He then capped off the season winning gold at the Little Athletics State Championships
Over the season, Spencer walked under the original record time five times; four times at Corio, and at the State Championships.
It took some considerable effort, but the original record holder Matt Bottrell was tracked down and was excited to attend presentation day as a surprise guest, to meet Spencer. Matt also wrote Spencer a letter of congratulations.
Spencer has been competing in Little Athletics for five seasons and said he loves athletics because “I get to hang out with my mates and do different events”. The Corio Centre is looking forward to seeing where Spencer’s athletics career leads him.
Sienna Bilinski broke the Corio Centre U15 triple jump record of 30 years, by 16cms. The original record holder, Alison Sezonov, was also located and congratulated Sienna in a phone chat.
Alison was excited to talk to Sienna, saying “I congratulate her on breaking my record. It is great to see talented juniors are still up and coming. I was very encouraged by her maturity and am confident Sienna will excel in any sport or career she chooses.”
Sienna said she enjoyed hearing about Little Athletics from Alison’s perspective.
The Corio Centre U15 300m hurdle record was also broken by Sienna not once, but three times over summer. Sienna also went on to compete in the Little Athletics State Championships winning gold in long jump and 400m, and silver in triple jump.
Sienna also competes with the Corio Athletic Club (seniors) with Athletics Victoria and competed in their State Championships winning gold in long jump and 400m, as well as travelling to Perth in April to compete in the Australian Athletics Championships placing fourth in 400m (PB), sixth in long jump (PB) and seventh in triple jump.
Sienna has been competing in athletics for 10 seasons and enjoys it “because of the variety of people and how supportive everyone is and I love the new experiences I get”.
The Corio Centre has been proudly watching these two athletes achieve. President Marty Sanders said: “Little Athletics is all about having fun and athletes achieving their personal best, but it certainly is exciting when we have athletes breaking records and doing so well at higher levels of competition.” For information about joining little athletics, email [email protected]