Adelaide University achieves success at UniSport Athletics Nationals

The first Intervarsity contingent from Adelaide University to compete at UniSport Athletics Nationals has achieved great success, with the women's team placing 3rd out of 33 universities, and the men's team placing 8th out of 36. Adelaide University competed valiantly against sporting heavyweights such as defending champions the University of Sydney, as well as UTS, the University of Queensland, UNSW and the University of Melbourne, achieving an outstanding overall 6th place.

The event, which ran from 22-24 April at the Gold Coast Performance Centre in Gold Coast, Queensland, was highlighted with a tally of 11 medals including three Gold, five Silver and three Bronze. The 19-member team realised a range of goals throughout the competition, with even those who didn't make the podium making finals, setting personal and season's bests, and narrowly missing out on medals.

Jess McManus achieved Gold first on Day 1 in the Women's 1500m, coming home with a time of 4:32.14 just two-tenths of a second ahead of her closest rival. Australian representative Tryphena Hewett topped the list on Day 2 in the Women's High Jump, being the only athlete to clear the bar at 1.76 metres on her third and final attempt. Thrower Taylor Larsson pulled out a last-attempt length of 13.94 metres in the Women's Shot Put to catapult herself to the top of the podium on Day 3, taking home the third Gold for AU.

Larsson and McManus also won Silver medals for Women's Discus and Women's 800m, respectively, while Nellie Langford won Silver in the Women's 5000m Walk and para-athlete Lillee Wakefield achieved Bronze medals in both Women's Discus and Women's Shot Put. These results propelled Adelaide University to 3rd place among women's teams with 94 points, behind only the University of Sydney and UTS.

The men's campaign similarly got off to a great start with both Sandro Purugganan (Silver) and Jack Grosser (Bronze) making the podium early on Day 1 in the Men's Triple Jump, and Grosser backing this up on Day 2 with Silver in the Men's Long Jump. Their strong showing, combined with other results, gave the men's team 38 points and an 8th-place finish, and assisted AU into overall 6th place.

"Coming out of the event with such a strong finish really shows that Adelaide University will be tough competition for other top universities," said Jason Slater, University Team Manager and Head of Sport Development at Adelaide University Sport and Fitness. "We have some really great athletes here, and they did themselves and Adelaide University proud. It was a great debut on the Nationals stage - and this is just the start."

ATHLETICS Nationals Medal Tally

Photographs courtesy UniSport Australia, Evelina Cardone, Jutta Clough, Brian Eastaughffe, Bill Prendergast, Danielle Sibenaler, Andrew Swinfield and Andre Turner.