A Fathers Day breakfast to remember was the perfect tonic for the final Athletics Carnival in the calendar for the Lindfield faithful (apart from the CIS boys!!). Cloudy skies loomed as the 49 athletes descended upon the hallowed Narrabeen track for what was to be 3 hours of pulsating, exhilarating athletic competition!

It started with the field events and was led by our very own super athlete Aiden Mostofi. Made speechless by his selection in the IPSHA team to compete at CIS, Mostofi was brilliant in the long jump, leaping 4.30m, and setting a Lindfield record for his age group in the process … and also winning the event. Not satisfied there, he then took out the high jump with a spectacular leap of 1.30m setting a PB and winning the event.

In the other events James Whiteing had a second placed double in the junior turbo javelin and the junior discus, with Soma Suzuki and Hamish Danks 3rd in their shot put and discus events respectively. Will Flannigan then finished 2nd and 3rd in the senior turbo javelin and the senior high jump, before Harry Bell rounded out the field events with a 4th placed finish in the long jump.

The first of the track events saw the youngest athletes on campus strutting their stuff for the first time for the black and whites. Ethan Lim, Baxter Plank, Aaron Blayney, Maks Saravanja, Koda Leong and Jack Chambers walked nervously out to the 50m mark in readiness for their first of two races. But nerves soon turned to all out speed, power and precision as the young Lindfieldians did us all proud with some great performances. They then backed this up in the 100m events, with Maks Saravanja even managing a 3rd placing in his event.

The 7 years was dominated by young Morgan Land who managed a 3rd placing in both his 50 and 100m events. Land even set the fastest time for all the Lindfield 7’s in the 100m with 18.00 seconds. Lachlan Tai, Sam Stewart, Chris Munckton, Aidan Chandler and Diesel James also competed with great distinction, running strongly in their respective events.

As we moved into the 8 years it was time to stretch the distances to 100 and 200m, with some great results. The team of Stylianos Vasili, Toby Ashworth, Gabe Gordon, Harry Forsyth, William Fisher and Cameron Davey-Webb found the going very tough against some high quality athletes, particularly from Mosman. Fisher managed a 3rd in the 100m before backing it up with a 2nd in the 200m event. The 9 years found it equally tough, with CIS representative Harry Stuart brushing off illness to compete strongly, finishing 2nd in his 100m event. William Lane, Owen Ng, James Blakeman and Ewen MacCulloch also ran strongly. Ryoma Suzuki managed a 3rd placing in his 100m event, clocking an excellent time of 15.65 seconds in the process.

The 10 years saw the return of Mostofi, who continued his brilliant field event form as he won the sprint double with times of 14.23 and 29.76 seconds respectively. also running strongly in this age group was Eddie Timpson, Nathan Ma, James Francis, Tom Kennedy, Lukas Tahmindjis, Oliver Short and Charlie Carr. James Whiteing then combined with Eddie Timpson in the 800m event, and despite getting themselves into 2nd and 3rd position for most of the race, they were run down by some fast finishing Pittwater House athletes to finish 4th and 5th respectively.

The senior boys were also met by some stiff resistance from Mosman and Coogee, settling for the minor placings in many of their events. Soma Suzuki and Oscar Moody broke from this mould, with Suzuki taking out his 100m event, and Moody his 200m event. Suzuki was on hand to finish 3rd in the same 200m event. Oliver Thompson and Nilanka Abbey managed a 3rd placing in both their 100m and 200m events with Matthew Gamble also finishing 2nd in his 200m event. Along with these fine athletes was the classy mob of Oscar Bradley, Jonty Carr, Reuben Chippeck, Hamish Danks, Marcus Renshaw, Harry Bell and Alex Short.

Moody then combined with Bell to compete in the grueling 1500m event, and produced his finest effort of the day. After charging out to the lead, Oscar managed to hold this lead for all but the last bend before he was eventually claimed by a very tactically sound Pittwater House boy to claim victory. A visibly upset Moody was valiant in defeat, with an impressive Bell close behind in 3rd.

The relays were next and went by with a blink of an eye. And in that blink, we had some success. The 6 years finished 4th, as did the 7 years, before a quadruple run of 3rd placings from the 8 years to the 11 years. The 12 years broke from the mould as they finished 2nd in their relay. The canon relay was next with the fastest in each age group battling it out, and again the Lindfield boys were 3rd behind the very impressive Mosman and Coogee crowd.

That left just one event, and for two boys, their first and only event of the day….the tug-o-war. The team of Tane Blessington, Finn Rose, James Davison, Hamish Danks, Alex Short, Oliver Thompson, Soma Suzuki and Will Flannigan dragged Coogee and Mosman close to Manly with two of their events, before eventually succumbing to Pittwater House to take 2nd place and end a great day of competition.

Mark Caulfield – Sports Master

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