THREE of the best athletes from Flack Advisory Bendigo Region are bound for the Gold Coast to contest this week’s Athletics Australia track and field championships.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
South Bendigo’s Teleah Hayes and Bendigo University’s Andy Buchanan will contest the 1500m and 5000m respectively, and Bendigo Harriers’ Joseph Baldwin is one of the leading contenders for high jump at Carrara.
The four-day titles start on Thursday and will be a test event in the lead-up to the Commonwealth Games.
Baldwin achieved the Australian under-20 record when he cleared 2.22 metres at last year’s national championships in Sydney.
The Melbourne University student competed at the World University Games in Taipei and earned the H.H. Hunter award as Athletics Bendigo’s athlete of the year for 2016-17.
Residential records have been broken by Hayes and Buchanan on the track this season.
Hayes clocked 4:26.06 in a 1500m contest at Griffith University last July.
The Elmore star set a Bendigo residential record for the distance at open and under-20 level.
Superb runs at Lakeside this spring-summer include setting the Bendigo open record for 3000m of 9:28.04, and 10,000m of 34:55.35.
Buchanan’s time of 29:08.89 for the 10,000m at Lakeside in December broke the Bendigo record at open level.
The Strathdale-based athlete is the reigning Australian 10km cross-country champion.
Buchanan won the open division of the Bendigo Bank Dragon Mile run in the city’s centre on Easter Sunday in 2015 and ’16, and Hayes was the women’s open champion of the classic in 2016 and last year.
