TALENTED Raymond Terrace Athletic Centre athlete, Morgan Clifford has had what he calls “an awesome year” and his best ever, successfully competing in numerous Throws Championships around the country.

Despite the appalling conditions for most of the year so far, Morgan has been able to amass a total of 30 medals this year and still has two Championships to go.

Morgan started off the year well with a total of 13 medals from the Country, State and National Championships.

In April he travelled to Canberra for the ACT Masters Heavy Weight Pentathlon Championships.

This unique competition has 5 different weights 20, 25, 35, 44 and 56 pounds.

They are thrown three times each, like a hammer throw, to get an overall point score.

His 56 pound (just over 25kg) throw of 6.7m was just 2cm outside his personal best.

Morgan won his age group.

Later that month he was at Penrith for the NSW Masters Heavyweight Throws Pentathlon. Conditions were less than ideal with competitors dealing with rain and mud. Morgan again came away with a win.

A couple of weeks later he was in Barden Ridge in Sydney for the NSW Masters Throws Pentathlon Championships.

Despite his throws being down on their usual distance due to the cold, windy conditions, his win was his 2nd best Throws Pentathlon score.

His 6-medal haul there, finally in great weather, at the Masters Events at the Oceania Championships in Mackay in early June was one of his most enjoyable.

He won Gold in the Weight Throw and Discus (with a personal best), Silver in the Javelin, High Jump and Shot Put which was a Season Best in the final throw to snatch Silver, and a Bronze in the Hammer.

Just last weekend Morgan was at the Combined NSW Masters and Australian Masters Indoors Throws Championships at Somersby where he won four Silver medals at the NSW Championships on Saturday and 4 more Silver on the Sunday at the Australian Championships.

His final two Championships for the year will be in Brisbane during the October long weekend for the three-day Australian Masters Winter Throws Championships and the Pan Pacific Masters Games on the Gold Coast in November.

Surprisingly, Morgan is expecting an even more hectic 2023 with competitions such as the Australian Masters Games in Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef Games in Cairns and the Alice Springs Masters Games.

Between his travels to Championships, Morgan enjoys competing at Raymond Terrace Athletics Centre which will start their season on September 10 at Maitland Regional Athletics Centre.

This will enable their track additional time to dry.

Registrations are being taken online at https://lansw.com.au/raymond-terrace/ and will continue into the season.

By Deidre HALL