Six Jimboomba athletes have won medals at the Queensland state championships for combined events held at the University of Queensland over the weekend.
The combined events, which include decathlons and heptathlons, are among the most gruelling tests in athletics as they include sprint events, middle distance running events and hurdle track races as well as jumps and throws events over a two day period.
Ashley Moloney won a gold medal in the under 18 men's heptathlon after achieving nine personal best performances out of his ten events in a weekend to remember for the young athlete.
One of the highlights on the day for Ashley was clearing four metres in the pole vault.
Camryn Newton-Smith won gold in the under 18 women's heptathlon, throwing over 11 metres in shot put in an impressive display and running a blistering 26.4 seconds in the 200 metres.
Mathew Stockham was the club’s third gold medallist, winning the under 16 men's heptathlon.
Mathew achieved personal bests in both his hurdles and throws events, which included a throw of over 40 metres in javelin, which helped him bring home the gold.
Kendal Newton-Smith and Zac King won silver and bronze medals respectively in the under 20 men's decathlon after good all round performances.
Lilly Pearce won a bronze medal in the under 15 women’s heptathlon in her first attempt at the event.
Jimboomba Athletics centre manager, Peta Smith, said it was an outstanding effort from all of the athletes.
“To be a good heptathlete or decathlete you can’t just be a good all rounder, you have to be an exceptional all rounder and put in a lot of time and effort practicing each discipline,” she said.
All six local athletes are now eligible to compete at the Australian Combined Events Championships which will be held in Sydney in April at the same time as the Olympic trials. Jimboomba athletes also met former Olympic gold medallist Glynis Nunn at the meet, which is named the Glynis Nunn Shield in her honour.
