Casey kids shine in state success

By Marc McGowan
CASEY little athletes Sam Prime and Matt DeBruin returned from Adelaide this week with a swag of medals from Sunday’s Australian Little Athletics Championships.
Prime romped home in the under-13 girls’ 1500m by almost 10 seconds from second-placed Queenslander Honey Boardman to record her third national championship.
She also came sixth in the 1500m racewalk in the same age group.
DeBruin, who was Victoria’s vice-captain, won a silver medal in the under-13 boys’ 80m hurdles before repeating the feat with the state’s 4 x 100m relay team.
Their performances helped Victoria topple New South Wales for overall honours.
Casey president Shane Triffitt was delighted with the teenagers’ achievements.
“We are stoked … it does wonders for the families and kids and committee – it just brings spirits up,” he said.
“The fact kids see other kids they know and see week in, week out can go to that level (is an inspiration for them).”
The results come on the back of Casey’s track-and-field presentation night that saw Triffitt recognise the club’s 67 state championships representatives and 21 record breakers from the recently completed season.
Alyssa Prosser and Cameron DeBruin – Matt’s younger brother – were the female and male club champions respectively.
Athletes accumulated points throughout the season from their performances in each event.
Triffitt, whose wife, Liz, is the new Dandenong and District Junior Football League project manager, said it awarded the most consistent performers over the season.
“The winners don’t necessarily have to star in a particular event – sometimes it’s just the general all-rounders,” Triffitt said.
“They get rewarded for consistent effort and that way you can have a bad day in your pet event every now and again and it doesn’t have a major impact,” he said.
Triffitt also presented athlete Nicole Hallett with her 10-year service award.
“Nicole is the only one we had this year, but we’ve had a few in the past,” he said.
“It’s always nice to see those sort of kids. She’s going on and is doing walks and other things in seniors now.
“But it’s always nice to see a kid who is only 16 have 10 years in any particular sport – it is fantastic.”
Triffitt is in his second term as president and has spent 11 years at the club as his children, Candice, 16, Scott, 10, and Dylan, 13, have all competed.
He said he is still ‘getting a kick out of it’ and has grand plans for the club’s Edwin Flack Reserve base before he stands down from the role.
“My plan is hopefully to see before my presidency runs out, if we haven’t already got it, that we are 99 per cent of the way to getting a synthetic track at Edwin Flack,” Triffitt said.
“It’s a little bit more professional and would give us the ability to host external events.
“The synthetic surface is a bit harder on their feet, but those kids who do want to go further will be competing on synthetic surfaces and they really should be learning how to use it.”