Border and North East athletes capture gold at Australian Athletics Championships

The Scots School Albury student Xy Beale won national gold in the under-16 shot put with an effort of 14.25m.

Beale nabbed five medals overall with silver in the under-16s and under-18s discus and bronze in under-16 hammer and under-18 shot put, where she threw a personal best of 14.78m.

She also finished 12^th in the open discus against Olympic and Commonwealth athletes.

"It's been a long time since I've done nationals because of Covid," Beale said.

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"It was a great experience to compete against Australian gold medallist Dani Stevens and there was girls from Great Britain and New Zealand (in the open)."

Beale plays rugby for the Albury-Wodonga Steamers in the winter and is set for a return to the field later in the year after surgery on her hip.

"I started rugby when living in Sydney seven years ago and I picked up shot put and discus at school," she said.

"I started little athletics to keep my fitness up and got into throwing a bit more.

"Rugby has always been number one for me and my goal since I was young was to represent Australia."

Fellow Albury athlete Kijana McCowan earned gold in the under-14 high jump with a 1.62m and silver in the triple jump with a 10.89m.

Logan Sandland won the under-16 hammer with a meet record of 65.20m to go with his bronze in the discus with a throw of 55.60m.

Mikayla Talbot claimed the under-15 long jump with a 5.53m and bronze in the triple jump with a 11.15m.

Wangaratta's Jack Boulton took out the under-18s 400m with a 47.51 and ran a world junior qualifying time in the under-20 event with a 47.18 to win bronze.

Fellow Wangaratta young guns Callum Bott (bronze under-14 400m), Bella Pasquali (silver under-20 4x400m relay and bronze under-16 400m) and Xavier Pitt (bronze under-16 javelin) also had podium finishes.

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