Armidale Athletics continued their dominance on the track with a massive 94-medal haul at last weekends Country Championships.
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Fifty-three athletes, the biggest group in the club’s history, made the trek to Dubbo to compete in the track and field events and came away with 37 gold, 29 silver and 28 bronze medals.
This year’s medal count smashed the club’s previous record of 63 set back in 2007.
Their tally also placed them fourth on the teams’ leaderboard, beating groups from bigger centres including Tamworth, Orange and Dubbo.
Masters athlete Nathan Smith finished with a whopping 10 medals from 11 events, including six gold.
Another eight club members won triple gold at the event including Natashia Barton, Stuart Geddes, George Schmude, Arthur Schmude, William Blackwell, Kelsie Youman, Natasha Favotto and club president Jay Stone.
Along with his gold medals, Stone broke the 35-39 years NSW and Australian Masters record over 200 metres.
"I actually didn't even know until somebody commented on my post that I put up,” he said of his record breaking run.
"I didn't even find that out until I was home in Armidale so it was a nice surprise.”
With 10 athletes already through to the national titles in March, the Country Championships provided the perfect opportunity for others vying to achieve a qualifying time for the meet.
Three made the grade with Glen Innes’ Mikielee Snow speeding over the line in the 200 metres, Isabella Watts in the 400 metres and the 200 metres and Youman smashing the qualifying time with 15 seconds to spare in the 2000 metre steeplechase.
Stone said Snow and Watts both shook off any doubts they had going into their events and blew away the competition.
"They definitely stepped up and got those nationals qualifiers,” he said.
"We had a few other athletes definitely had great performances, Trent Low was one.
"He was very unlucky, he just narrowly missed out on a nationals qualifier i the 200 metres.”
While plenty of individuals stood out in the carnival, Stone said the whole team put in strong performances.
"I am very happy with everyone's results,” he said.
"Very proud of all the athletes and all their efforts.
"It was great some athletes get the times they were chasing and the relays, we won two gold and three bronze in the five relays. We were undefeated in the steeplechase.
"We had four athletes go in the steeplechase and they all won the gold medal.
"Stuart Geddes and Henry Sindel, they were pretty much expected to win the gold medal and they did the business and Declan Mitchell is the other new guy, he has never run it before and he was only five seconds off the national qualifier himself.