Peart strides ahead at sport awards

EIGHTEEN-year-old racewalker Alanna Peart has received two School Sport Victoria Sporting Blue Awards.

At Olympic Park recently, the Ballarat High School graduate was named the top female athlete across Victorian State schools for 2021 when she was presented with the Sporting Blue Award for Athletics.

Peart then took home the ultimate honour of the night when she was announced most outstanding sportsperson, having been ranked Australia’s number one female road walker under 20 years old, and the country’s second-best track racewalker for the same age group.

“Last year was a pretty big year full of pretty big goals, so it was great to show what I had been able to achieve to my family and my school,” she said.

“It’s great to be recognised, to get recognition for racewalking, to show everyone how great it is as a sport, and the level you can get to in Australia.”

Ballarat High School principal Gary Palmer said Peart is a “wonderful” and deserving recipient.

“I was so pleased for Alanna. She is a very dedicated and passionate athlete… respectful and kind, and a high achiever in her studies, now studying at Deakin University,” he said.

“Alanna was a strong performer in our specialist sports program and I wish her all the best in her future endeavours.”

Peart was a winner at recent State and National championships and won a silver medal at the World Under 20 Racewalking Championships in Oman at the start of 2022.

She was selected to represent Australia in Kenya at the U20s last year, but the event was postponed, and will be held in South America in July.

“It’s very exciting. We will have a week-and-a-half pre-camp in Miami for heat acclimatisation, and then we’ll have a week-and-a-half competing in Colombia,” Peart said.

Eighteen BHS students have received Sporting Blue awards historically, including water skier Peter O’Neill who was also named most outstanding sportsperson in 1999.