Podium finish for Downer

Up-and-coming athlete Riley Downer captured Horsham Little Athletics Centre’s first medal at a state championship for several years at the weekend.

Downer, who shone with four gold medals at last month’s Little Athletics Victoria Western Country Region championships in Ballarat, finished second in the under-10 boys 800-metre final at the State Track and Field Championships in Melbourne.

Downer finished with a time of 2.30.20, less than two seconds behind gold medalist Oscar Wright of Nunawading.

Horsham Little Athletics Centre secretary Erica Blake described the result as ‘huge’ for the centre.

“I can’t even recall the last time we had an athlete place,” she said.

“Perhaps Anna Bush. You would need to go back into the history books.”

Bush was one of Horsham’s most decorated junior athletes, winning multiple medals at state and national level in the mid-2010s.

Downer’s silver medal was the only podium finish by a Wimmera athlete at the championships, although others achieved top-10 finishes. Downer also finished eighth in the under-10 boys 200-metre final. Fellow Horsham little athletes Thomas Naylor, sixth in under-14 boys 90-metre hurdles, Ada Binney, sixth in under-12 girls high jump, and Shannon Taylor, ninth in under-12 boys high jump, also performed well.

Stawell little athletes Austin Tyers, eighth in under-11 boys shot put, and Darcy Venn, eighth in under-nine girls shot put, were top-10 finishers for their club. Other Wimmera athletes competing at the state finals were Ararat’s Addison Lardner and Aaron Chaplin, Horsham’s Tamika Johns, Campbell Stasinowsky and Kynan Stasinowsky, and Stawell’s Austin Giusa, Bradley Carter and Tommy Williams.