General News
2 February, 2022
Success for Morden family
THE Morden family had a bumper weekend at the 77th Victorian Country Track and Field Championships, with mother Joy and children Emily and Robert all being crowned Country Champions in their respective events.
THE Morden family had a bumper weekend at the 77th Victorian Country Track and Field Championships, with mother Joy and children Emily and Robert all being crowned Country Champions in their respective events.
Joy Morden paved the way for her children on Saturday morning, winning the women’s 2000 metre steeplechase (40+), followed by Robert in the men’s under 16 2000 metre race, and Emily in the women’s under 20 3000 metres.
Robert followed that victory with a bronze and personal best in the men’s under 16 400 metre, while Emily took out the women’s 1500m.
While some athletes from Melbourne are also invited to the event, they do not count for official placings, and while Emily won gold in her steeplechase she also ran second to Melbourne competitor Abigail Thomas.
But Morden said she looks forward to an ongoing rivalry with Thomas.
“I was simultaneously disappointed that I didn’t beat her, but really excited that we’ve got this fierce competition happening,” she said.
“We were only seven seconds off the World junior qualifying time.”
Morden is looking forward to competing against Thomas at the state championships in three weeks’ time and hopes they can spur each other on to even better times.
“With how close the steeplechase was, I’m very excited to race Abigail again and see if we can get under that World Junior qualifying time,” she said.