Dubbo Athletics Club juniors star at Little Athletics NSW Championships

A strong contingent of athletes made the trip to Homebush for the Little Athletics NSW Championships and a number of outstanding performances were produced.

Seven medals were won at the state titles, with one of them gold.

Ella Penman collected the gold in the under 17 girls 800m while she also won a silver in the 400m.

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Grace Peters continued her fine form by winning a silver in the under 14 girls discus and bronze in the shotput while there were silvers for Nash Wynne (under 12 boys high jump) and Max McAneney (under 15 boys 400m) and a bronze for Emily Lousick (under 11 girls high jump).

"I can't remember seeing that many medals at state Little As before," Dubbo track coach Mark Penman said.

"It just keeps growing. My daughter, Ella, is in the under 17s and she's done Little As right from under 6s and in the time we've been going to state the results have continued to improve.

"Getting a medal at that level is a huge achievement.

"There's some athletes who do well locally and then are really surprised by how much it lifts at that next level so to have guys consistently medalling at that level is great."

Ella Penman and Grace Peters have been two of the brightest young stars at the Dubbo club for a number of years.

Regular winners of medals at the state level, the pair continue to take their performances to new levels.

On top of that, the teenage talents are also proving to the younger athletes at Dubbo just what is possible with plenty of hard work.

"It's so, so important," Penman said.

"Both those athletes have had role models when they were younger that they looked up to and they've shown there's a real pathway for kids in locations like Dubbo.

"It doesn't have to be a negative or restriction to stop you achieving you goals and you can do it anywhere. It's huge and they're paving the way and hopefully the younger guys can see and learn from that."

While the five medalists were the stars, there were 21 Dubbo athletes in total who competed at the championships.

As well as winning medals, Ella Penman and Peters also scored top 10 finishes in the under 17 girls 200m and under 14 girls javelin respectively while Maddison Leigh-Wardman, Lucy Turner, Marli Pay, Riley Edwards and Ben Batten also recorded top 10 finishes in events of their own.

Next up for a number of Dubbo athletes is the Australian Track and Field Championships from March 26-April 3.

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