2008 Victorian Youth Track & Field Champs
Olympic Park - 23/02/2008 to 24/02/2008

The Coburg Harriers at two representatives at this year's Victorian Youth Track & Field Championships

In the first event of the Championships was Filip Cosic in the U18 section of the 5,000 metre Race Walk. In cool and sometimes blustery conditions, the eventual winner went out to a very early lead. However the battle for the minor placings had Cosic well in the running

Despite a late charge, Cosic finished ten seconds behind the runner up to record 26:34.83 and secure the bronze medal, a fantasic performance. It was Cosic's first attempt at this distance this Summer and he now holds the club's U16 agr group record for this event, with Cosic not due to turn 17 until April

Also representing the Coburg Harriers was Celeste White, also of the Benny Tancredi stable of runners. Competing in the U18 section, White's first event was in Heat 1 of the 100 metres with the fiastest eight runners in the three heats to go through to the final. Into a howling three metre headwind White recorded 14.25 seconds to just miss out on the finals. The winner of her heat would eventually go on to win the final

White's next event was the 400 metres. Like the earlier sprint event, the fastest eight runners would go through to the final, only this time there were only two heats to be run in the longer event

In a very fast heat, White was neck and neck with the second placed runner and was just beaten into third place by 0.12 of a second. Neverthless White's time of 61.67 seconds was sixth fastest of the two heats and gained her automatic qualificiation into the final. In an amazing display of sprint running, it also took well over two seconds off her own club age group record, which she set three weeks ago in the Athletics Victoria North West Region Final

Prior to the final of the 400 metres, White ran in heat 2 of the 200 metres. Another strong headwind of -2.4 made conditions difficult for competitors. Despite running her fastest 200 metre of the season in 28.30 seconds, it wasn't enough to progress to the next round

In a relatively short turnaround to the 400 metres Final and White performed creditably to finish in seventh place with 62.58 seconds on the clock. In a very strong field the three placegetters each broke the 60 second barrier. White can take a lot of heart from the fact that she would have been one of the youngest runners in the U18 field, as White does not turn sixteen until October.

Well done to Filip Cosic and Celeste White for performing so briilliantly for the club and representing the Coburg Harriers with pride. For Cosic this may well see the end of his Athletics Victoria summer season, however White moves onto the Victorian Athletic League's professional running circuit now as part of the aforementioned Tancredi stable. Stawell is now only four weeks ago for this young runner in her first year of "senior" athletics