AVSL Round 1 - Glenhuntly 17 Oct
Our 2026/27 Shield Season kicked off on Saturday at Glenhuntly and Doncaster. Well done by the 30 Waverley-Malvern athletes who competed. It was a fantastic start to our season:
Welcome to our first time Waverley-Malvern athletes – Jack Beasley Wav MU16, Jay Wright Wav F60, Olivia Nicholson Wav FOP, Erin Leith Mal FU14, Oliver McMillan Wav MU16, Zane Byrne-Staunton Wav MU16, Aarav Kochhar Wav MU14, Marie Leger Mal FOP, Natalie Linsdell Mal FOP. That's 9 new athletes. No wonder we started so well. Welcome to Waverley-Malvern.
- Our best points were by Jack Beasley with 1,070 points in his sizzling debut. Jack did 100, 400, hurdles and pole vault, scoring his best points in the hurdles with 14.99 and 404 points.
- Christine Bridle 1,061 points was right behind, also competing in 4 events with an impressive 396 points in the long jump.
- Linda Buttigieg 1,017 also cracked the 1,000 mark doing 5 events, with 397 points in the pole vault
Our best event was the 1500m with an amazing 17 Waverley-Malvern runners. The start must have been awash with the Waverley-Malvern tops. Our fastest time was Ryan Bentley with 4:34. Four runners were under 5 minutes with Gerard Moore just cracking it with 4:59.5. 5 runners were within 10 seconds, so we look forward to seeing the 5 minute barrier go down a lot more soon. Amy was our fastest female in 5:18.
We also had 11 400m runners (see a lot of them in the pic - thanks Neil). Our fastest was again Ryan with 54.91 (a sizzling start to the season). Jack and Arun were also under 60 seconds. Niamh was our fastest female in 80.23.
Our fastest runners (in events with 2 or more) were:
Male: 100m Jack Beasley 13.10, 400m Ryan Bentley 54.91, 1500m Ryan Bentleigh 4:34
Female: 100m Christine Bridle 17.06, 400m Niamh O'Reilly 80.23, 1500m Amy Hessell 5:18
Our best field events:
Male: Discus Greg Carstairs 31.41, Hammer Clyde Riddoch 24.02, Javelin Greg Carstairs 36.81, Long Jump Neill Leith 4.50, Shot Put Clyde Riddoch 7.18
Female: Discus: Linda Buttigieg 18.73, Hammer Jay Wright 21.07, Javelin Christine Bridle 16.73, Long Jump Christine Bridle 3.28, Shot Put Simone Albiston 6.95
It's the first time we've had multiple pole vaulters in the same round for a long time. Well done Jack and Linda.
Overall we scored 18,161 points to place 3rd. That's much more than our best last season of 16,186 for 4th place. So we're off to a flyer. We were only 1500 points off 1st place, and were missing Shane, Martin, Jack A, Ernie, myself and many others. So we should be very competitive this season.
A special thanks to our Club Helpers from Malvern: Amy Hessell, Gerald Moore (Ged) - also our joint team manager from Malvern this season and Tilly Wolton.
Our next duty is Round 3 at Casey Fields where we need 2 helpers at the javelin. Hoping we can share the duty over a few of us. I can help for some of this one. Hoping everyone can help in at least 1 duty over the season.
