Once again, our Maribyrnong Sports Academy students have done us proud, competing at the 43rd Simplot Games in Pocatello, Idaho, USA.

With a delayed start to the trip due to a plane cancellation, our team travelled 30 hours straight via San Francisco and Salt Lake City to get to Idaho. Once there the team settled down for a nice long sleep in sub zero temperatures to prepare for 3 days of Indoor competition at the Idaho State Universities, Holt Arena.

First day qualifiers went well, with Emily Mifsud qualifying for the 3200 final finishing 3rd in her heat with the 6th fastest overall time in the qualifiers.  Mackenzie Leith finished 2nd in his heat of the 60-meter dash and posted the 18th fastest time of the qualifiers to take the last spot into the finals.  Unfortunately, Max Busuttil and Arden Steven missed out on finals qualification.

Day 2 started with qualification for the boys 4 x 200m relay.  Our MSA team finished second in their heat but missed out on making the final by just 0.69 of a second.  Sukhnoor Rangi then qualified for the Girls Pole Vault Final while Khushnoor Rungi was also qualifying for the final of the girls Triple Jump.  Lily-Bella Hilli won her qualifying heat of the girls 400m dash and posted the 10th fastest time. To round off the day Devesh Sri Deenathayalan and Arden Stevens also qualified for final day action in the boys Triple Jump.

Day 3 is finals day at the Simplot Games and what an effort by our Maribyrnong Sports Academy team.  Lily-Bella Hilli won her final of the 400m dash and finished 4th fastest time overall with a 59.11.  Emily Mifsud finished 4th in the 3200m Girl’s final with a time 11.21.02 which was 0.6 of a second from finishing in the top 3.  Sukhnoor Rangi finished 6th in the Girls Pole Vault with a jump of 3.58m while twin sister Khushnoor Rangi finished 5th in the Triple Jump with a jump of 10.99m.

Arden Steven finished 7th and Devesh Sri Deenathayalan finished 9th in the Boys Triple Jump and Mackenzie Leith finished 5th in his final with a time of 7.17 second only 14 hundredths of a sec off the winner.

While congratulating our athletes on their performances, Maribyrnong Sport Academy would like to also thank the effort of our staff and the amazing support of Simplot Australia in ensuring our students have the experience of a lifetime.