Australian University Games

The Melbourne University Athletics team travelled to Perth for the Australian University Games in the last week in September and delivered some great performances. With a small team of twelve athletes, it was a case of quality over quantity for this tight-knit group. We had many outstanding individual performances, winning a total of 9 medals. This included gold medal performances from Corinna Minko in the women’s long jump, David Kinnersley in the men’s high jump, James D’Alfonso in the men’s 400m, and the men’s 4x400m relay team. Although athletes from the University of Sydney dominated most events, especially the relays for both men and women, the Melbourne Uni men’s 4x400m relay team prevented a Sydney Uni sweep of the relays.

In the end Melbourne finished 5^th overall behind the winner’s the University of Sydney. This is a great result. Congratulations, Melbourne University Athletics!

The 2011 Australian University Games will be held in the Gold Coast and Melbourne University will be sending a full team, aiming to take the top spot from USyd and UQ.

James D’Alfonso, Melbourne University Athletics Team Manager

Medal performances:

• Corinna Minko: 1st long jump women’s in 5.68m and 2nd in triple jump women’s with 12.00m
• Dominic Sutton: 3rd in the 800m men’s in 1:52.81
• David Kinnersley: 1st in the men’s high jump with 1.90m and 3rd in the decathlon
• Sophie Barker: 3rd in the women’s 5km with 18:19.80
• James D’Alfonso: 1st 400m men’s in 48.84sec
• Men’s relay team medals 1st 4x400m and 2nd 1600m medley relays: James D’Alfonso, Darcy Sutton, Dominic Sutton and Yasuhito Nakajima.

MUAC medals

• Mitch Mackenzie (representing Swinburne): 1st high jump men’s in 1.90m