BALLARAT athletes represented their region over the past two weekends with competitors from across the state taking part in the Victorian Track and Field Championships held at Melbourne\u2019s Lakeside Stadium. <\/p>\n
Local competitors collectively took home more than 50 medals and Ballarat Regional Athletic Centre manager Ashley Anderson said their participation was a great indicator of how Ballarat\u2019s athletes can perform at state level.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey fared extremely well both from a medal perspective and from a number of participants across both weekends,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of athletes, when they compete here, are competing against each other so it\u2019s often hard to indicate how well they go against athletes from other regions. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo, when it comes to state, it can be surprising to see some of the results. The fact they\u2019re winning medals at state level really shows the level of talent in Ballarat at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first weekend saw local athletes take home 12 golds out of 29 medals. <\/p>\n
The second series of events saw 22 medals won, six of which were gold.<\/p>\n
Ballarat YCW\u2019s Scott Peart was one of the top athletes for the second weekend, taking first place in the 5000-metre under 20 men\u2019s walk on Sunday. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty exciting getting first,\u201d Peart said. \u201cThe last couple years I\u2019ve been coming second in the state events. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first gold medal so I can see that I\u2019m progressing and all my hours of training, it\u2019s showing in the results.<\/p>\n
\u201cI train about six days a week usually at Lake Wendouree and slowly increase my distance and speed as I built towards the race.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BALLARAT athletes represented their region over the past two weekends with competitors from across the state taking part in the Victorian Track and Field Championships held at Melbourne\u2019s Lakeside Stadium. Local competitors collectively took home more than 50 medals and Ballarat Regional Athletic Centre manager Ashley Anderson said their participation was a great indicator of […]<\/p>\n