Alumni Athletes going strong

Three of Maribyrnong Sports Academy’s past students are firing on all Cylinders in the world of Senior Athletics here in Australia.

The 2023 Chemist Warehouse Sydney Track Classic (a World Athletics Continental Tour - Challenger meet) and Australian Open 3000m Championships were run over the weekend at Homebush featuring Celeste Mucci in the 100m Hurdles, Jessie Andrew in the 400m and Cameron Searle in the men’s 400m.

Celeste Mucci ran a personal best and the 4th fastest female Australian time ever over the 100m hurdles running second in the final to her main rival Michelle Jenneke.  Celeste’s time of 12.84 now puts her above former MSA coach Pam Ryan in the all-time list and just behind Jenneke in second place, with Sally Pearson the fastest. 

Jessie Andrew has put her hand up for a debut in a senior Australian team after blitzing the field in the Women’s 400m.  Jessie time of 53.50 continues her solid form, and is just 13 hundredths of a second off her personal best time of 53.37 set in Canberra 6 weeks ago. 

Meanwhile Cameron Searle in also showing great form on the track with a 400m time of 46.95 placing him 6th in the final.  Cameron’s time sees him closing in on a hopeful start in a 4 x 400m team.

The Australian Athletics community turns its attention next to Queensland for the Brisbane Track Classic which is held on the 25th March.

Badminton - Oceania Championships

MSA past and present students have performed well at the Oceania Junior and Open Badminton championships last week held in Auckland.

Current Year 10 student Shrey Dhand brings home 4 medals from the Junior Championships:

·      Gold Medal in the Teams Event

·      Bronze in the Boys Singles

·      Bronze in the Boys Doubles

·      Bronze in the Mixed Doubles

Past Students and Olympians Jacob Schueler and Gronya Somerville also leave the Open tournament with medals.

·      Jacob won a Bronze medal in the men’s Singles

·      Gronya won a Bronze in the Women’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles.

Congratulations to all our past and present students who competed in the event.

Simplot Games Results

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.