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THE sports of swimming, pistol shooting, athletics, martial arts and rowing were among the major winners at The Examiner-IGA Junior Sports Awards last night.
On a gala night at Launceston’s Country Club Tasmania, teenagers Ariarne Titmus, of Launceston Aquatic, and Bailey Groves, of the Van Diemen Pistol Club at Mowbray, were the major individual winners.
In just two years, Groves, a 17-year-old Australian Maritime College ocean engineering student, has competed in a host of major competitions including the Oceania Continental, youth nationals, junior world cup and open nationals.
Titmus, 14, is the first Tasmanian female swimmer of any age to win an Australian championship in two decades after claiming the girls’ 200-metre freestyle at the aged championships at Sydney Olympic Park in April.
Runner Montana McKenzie and Lachlan Stewart, of Hoju Martial Arts, were the rising star winners while all-rounders Amy Halaby and Courtney Webb also picked up awards.
The team award went to the Launceston Church Grammar School’s open girls eight rowing crew and the service to sport category acknowledged Rodney Lockett (badminton), Shannon Williams (football and cricket), Zac Partridge (gymnastics), Emma Whyte (rowing), Tenielle McDermott (soccer), Jock Glass (soccer) and Nathan Warren (football).
The function also heard from guest speaker Jake Birtwhistle on becoming an 11-time national champion and two-time world champion while still a teenager.
The former Riverside schoolboy has excelled in both athletics and triathlon and remains a solid chance to qualify for the upcoming Olympic Games.
Interviewed by The Examiner’s sports editor Rob Shaw, the 19-year-old Birtwhistle relived his impressive sporting career which included a world schools cross-country title in 2012 and Australian Youth Olympic Festival gold medal in 2013.
This year he added a world junior duathlon championship, four major international competitions and collected two silver medals at his second world junior triathlon championships.
Birtwhistle also reflected on starting out at Riverside Primary School, his 2013 move to New South Wales to join former New Zealand coach Jamie Turner’s Wollongong Wizards and his eye-catching home-town performances at last year’s Launceston Ten and Launceston Carnival.
