A big first day of the Australian Junior Championships today at QE2 with visitors from all round Australia and one of them was former Ashgrove Rangers coach Robbie Bolton who moved to the AIS as a scholarship coach under Dick Telford in the late 1990s.

After a stint in Wollongong Robbie now resides back in Canberra with his family and is coaching some ACT competitors here in 800m and Race Walks events.

It was a very strong first day for Ashgrove Rangers competitors with plenty of gutsy efforts.

Connor Campbell returning from a calf niggle was 4th in the U15 200m Hurdles Final in 27.74 and produced a strong sub-54 second effort in his U15 400m heat to just miss the Final.

Seb Croke did very well for 7th in 9:38.93 in the U15 Boys 3k in blustery conditions while in the U15 Girls 3k Zel Van Loggerenberg was 9th in a big 13 second PB of 10.31.52 (3rd fastest of those 13 years and under) and Laura Bray was 26th in 11.03.19 after recovering from a mid-race tumble.

In the U14 800m heats Tate Van Camp won his heat in 2:10.95 and Zel Van Loggerenberg was 8th in her heat in 2:23.02.

Isaac Ting was in 6th in 28.96 in his U16 200m Hurdles heat while a good first day for Cristian Kuenzel including a 1.81m High Jump sees him solidly placed in the U18 Decathlon.

Ashgrove Rangers would like to congratulate all of our very promising crop of youngsters on their efforts so far and wish them all the best for the rest of the meet.