Casey little athletes, back from left, Lucy Topham, Evander D’Silva, Matthew Debruin, and front, Christian Daly, Sam Prime, Rachael Guy, Monique Cootes, Taylor Vasiljevic, Alyssa Prossa and Chelsea Tonna won medals at the State Track and Field By Marc McGowan
CASEY little athletes enjoyed a club-best return at the State Track and Field Championships at Olympic Park on the weekend.
The club won an unprecedented 15 medals, with four athletes – Samantha Prime (gold and bronze), Matthew Debruin (two gold), Evander D’Silva (silver and bronze) and Christian Daly (silver and bronze) – winning multiple medals.
Prime, who also won the 1500m event at last year’s championships, also found out this week that she is in the initial Victorian under-13 squad for next month’s Australian Little Athletics Championships.
Other medallists were Danielle Cameron (silver), Alyssa Prossa (silver), Chelsea Tonna (bronze), Lucy Topham (bronze), Taylor Vasiljevic (silver), Rachael Guy (bronze) and Monique Cootes (bronze).
The state competition also marked the end of the little athletics careers of Jess Prime, Nicole Hallett, Emily McLean, Brady Waterworth and Anthony Vella.
Casey distance coach Rod Prime was ecstatic at the club’s impressive medal haul.
“They’ve got some pretty good talent there,” he said.
“Most of them have been taught by their fathers who’ve become coaches here and some of them are just first-timers this year and have surprised themselves – I’m in the top three for the state.
“It probably lifts up the centre as well. A few years ago we won hardly any medals and now we’re in double figures.
“We’re starting to be recognised around the state that ‘Oh, Casey is a pretty good centre’.”
Prime attributed the success to the increased number of parents becoming coaches at the centre.
“We’ve extended our coaching by getting the parents to do some coaching courses,” he said.
“Parents have come along and asked to help us and have shadowed us and then we’ve encouraged them to do a course and then they’ve helped us in those specific events.”
Prime was particularly enthused about the improvement in athletes since the season kicked off.
“It’s phenomenal. I’m pretty proud being a father and a coach here,” he said.
“I’ve got my own distance group and all those kids, even though they didn’t all medal, they all produced a personal-best time on the day so they were really happy.
“It’s great to see a kid at the start of season not be able to run well and all of a sudden because you teach them a skill their running ability or jumps or throws have improved tenfold and they start getting to the heights they are now.”
Many of the Casey athletes are now turning their attention to the cross-country season that begins on 18 April.
Prime expects there to be an increase in numbers in cross-country as well after an incredible 590 athletes competed in the track-and-field season.
“Last year we had an average of around 80 people turn up, compared to 40 the year before,” he said.
“This year we’ve promoted it a bit more, so I think we can definitely get around the 100 mark.
“Last year was the best cross-country success we had and we won quite a few medals in that last year as well.”
Meanwhile, ex-Casey athletes Jordan Nelson and Lauren Grant won medals at the Australian Interstate Youth Match at under-18 level in Brisbane last week.
Nelson won silver in the 2km steeplechase, while Grant snared bronze in the 800m and fourth in the 2km steeplechase.
