A large crew of the MattyB DEPT. traveled down to Wangaratta and Albury over the Australia Day weekend and raced at 2 fantastic carnivals.
The star at Wangaratta was Alex Carew who finished a close second in the 120m Gift Final. Running of a very tight handicap of 3m Carew got within 0.03 of a second from winner Rhys Parkinson (John Henry trained). Other athletes to make the final included Jesse Matthews in the 400m and Nathan McNab 70m and Novice Finals.
A total 14 athletes from the Beckenham and Breen squads supported former squad member Tom Burbidge’s Albury Wodonga Gift (AWG) and congratulations goes to him for running such a wonderful event.
Olympians Melissa Breen and Lauren Boden had strong hit outs with both making the Women’s Gift final finishing 3rd and 6th respectively. Lauren also made the final of the Women/Vets 300m and Melissa made it to the semi finals of the Open 120m Gift taking the prized scalp of Josh Ross in the semi.
Alex Carew ran strongly to make the final of the 400m and Brendan Matthews, Ollie Wurm and Grant Billingham ran in the Backmarkers Final.
Melissa Breen trained athlete Nathan McNab again ran well to make it into the 70m Frontmarkers Final.
On a hot and fast day at Queanbeyan Park the MBD crew had a successful day at the Queanbeyan Gift.
The most exciting part of the day was the emergence of the talent coming through the junior squads and into the Breen senior squad.
15 year old Nathan McNab, coached by Melissa Breen, and a product of the FIt4FUN program claimed his first sash in the Open 70m event. He also finished a close second in the Novice 120m race.
In other events Jesse Matthews ran extremely well to make it through to the final just knocking out Jaryd Cowley in the semi final. Brendan Matthews also ran well in the semi final to just miss a final spot.
Melissa Breen ran well all day to finish a close 5th in the final of the Women’s Gift and 3rd in the Women’s Back markers both of scratch.
Olympians Lauren Boden and Melissa Breen have been actively out and about the Canberra community promoting athletics since returning from the London Olympic Games.
Both Lauren and Melissa are proud products of ACT Little Athletics and Athletics ACT and take great pleasure in encouraging the next generation of athletes.
Today Lauren was at the ACT Little Athletics multi-event carnival where hundreds of kids lined up for their minute with her. She signed everything from shirts to shoes to hats and cards and many photos were taken by parents.
“Your my idol” was heard from one very excited kid.
Many of the athletes are already luck enough to have regular contact with Lauren and Melissa as part of FIT4FUN. Both girls are level 3 qualified coaches and run regular sessions during the week.
There are still spots available in the squads so be sure to sign up today.
MattyB DEPT. (MBD) 