Cobden Technical School student Ashley Ovens has returned from the national athletics championships in Perth.
Ashley Ovens agrees his schoolmates will be looking forward to him finishing school at the end of the year.
That way someone else might be in with a chance to win an athletics event.
The 17-year-old Cobden Technical School student one day dreams of standing on the dais at the Olympic Games and his record over the past three months indicates that his dream isn’t far from reach.
At the school athletics carnival, he broke records in the 100 metres, 200m, 400m, javelin, long jump and triple jump, winning 10 events in total and taking out the age group champion title.
In January, the year 12 student put on a dominant display at the Victorian Country Athletics Championships, claiming gold medals in the triple jump, long jump and the 4x100m relay and a silver in javelin.
“From there I qualified for the Victorian Championships in Melbourne in February,” Ashley said.
“I won the triple jump with a jump of 12.96m and finished fourth in the long jump and seventh in the javelin.”
“That meant I qualified for the national championships for triple jump and long jump.”
At last week’s national championships in Perth, he placed sixth in the triple jump final, leaping to a personal best of 13.37m. He finished the long jump in 10th position.
Ashley said because he was a bottom-age competitor this year, he hoped to return to the nationals again next year.
“I’ll have a full off-season of training and then hopefully I can go back and pick up a medal,” he said.
The achievements don’t stop when Ashley leaves the track.
He was named the Camperdown Sportsman’s Club junior sportsperson of the month and last night he travelled to Geelong to collect an award for horizontal jumps in the open age group at the Geelong Athletics presentations.
A spokeswoman for Geelong Athletics said the award was only presented if the judging panel deemed there was an athlete who had performed well enough across the season.
“It’s not just about being the best we have. If the judges don’t think there is anyone who has performed well enough, the award isn’t handed out that year,” she said.
“Ashley has done some amazing things. His jump in Perth was only a few centremetres from beating the Geelong domestic record across all age groups.
“The way he is going, he won’t be far of breaking it.”
As for the future, Ashley is hoping to study an exercise and sports science degree at Deakin University in Melbourne next year.
He hopes being in Melbourne with daily access to high performance coaches will help him archieve his ultimate goal.
“I would love to compete at the Commonwealth or Olympic Games,” he said.
“That would be pretty awesome.”
jwoolley@fairfaxmedia.com.au
That way someone else might be in with a chance to win an athletics event.
The 17-year-old Cobden Technical School student one day dreams of standing on the dais at the Olympic Games and his record over the past three months indicates that his dream isn’t far from reach.
At the school athletics carnival, he broke records in the 100 metres, 200m, 400m, javelin, long jump and triple jump, winning 10 events in total and taking out the age group champion title.
In January, the year 12 student put on a dominant display at the Victorian Country Athletics Championships, claiming gold medals in the triple jump, long jump and the 4x100m relay and a silver in javelin.
“From there I qualified for the Victorian Championships in Melbourne in February,” Ashley said.
“I won the triple jump with a jump of 12.96m and finished fourth in the long jump and seventh in the javelin.”
“That meant I qualified for the national championships for triple jump and long jump.”
At last week’s national championships in Perth, he placed sixth in the triple jump final, leaping to a personal best of 13.37m. He finished the long jump in 10th position.
Ashley said because he was a bottom-age competitor this year, he hoped to return to the nationals again next year.
“I’ll have a full off-season of training and then hopefully I can go back and pick up a medal,” he said.
The achievements don’t stop when Ashley leaves the track.
He was named the Camperdown Sportsman’s Club junior sportsperson of the month and last night he travelled to Geelong to collect an award for horizontal jumps in the open age group at the Geelong Athletics presentations.
A spokeswoman for Geelong Athletics said the award was only presented if the judging panel deemed there was an athlete who had performed well enough across the season.
“It’s not just about being the best we have. If the judges don’t think there is anyone who has performed well enough, the award isn’t handed out that year,” she said.
“Ashley has done some amazing things. His jump in Perth was only a few centremetres from beating the Geelong domestic record across all age groups.
“The way he is going, he won’t be far of breaking it.”
As for the future, Ashley is hoping to study an exercise and sports science degree at Deakin University in Melbourne next year.
He hopes being in Melbourne with daily access to high performance coaches will help him archieve his ultimate goal.
“I would love to compete at the Commonwealth or Olympic Games,” he said.
“That would be pretty awesome.”
jwoolley@fairfaxmedia.com.au