State relay title bid for promising Tomaree High School quartet Port POPUP - DAupdate Port Stephens Sport Sport by News Of The Area - Modern Media - August 28, 2024 Tomaree High School’s outstanding 4 x 100m relay quartet – Anna Taylor-Anderson, Kylah Rankin, Mia McDonald and Maebel Colley – are gearing up for the NSW Combined High School Athletics Championships at Homebush from September 11-13. NELSON Bay’s Bob Walkley has identified an array of top line prospects in his 30 years as an athletics coach. It has been a satisfying journey for the experienced Port Stephens Athletics Club official, who helped develop his daughter Sarah Walkley into one of Australia’s finest race walkers. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for your business. Message us. Phone us – (02) 4981 8882. Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au A prominent endurance runner in his heyday, Bob shaped the futures of many promising athletes at Woy Woy Little Athletics before linking with the Port Stephens club based at Dick Burwell Oval at Tomaree Sports Complex. One of Walkley’s current pupils is gifted thirteen-year-old hurdler Anna Taylor-Anderson, the Port Stephens age champion who represented NSW at this year’s Australian Little Athletics Championships in Adelaide. The Salamander Bay sprint sensation finished an impressive fifth in the final of the Under 13yrs 80 metre hurdles with a time of 13.09 seconds behind Victoria’s national champion Layla Dela Crux-Smaldon (12.27 sec), Queenslander Abigail Steele (12.82), rising Winston Hills prospect Sanjana Iyer (13.01) and Victoria’s Felicity Buza (13.02). Master coach Walkley labelled Taylor-Anderson “an outstanding talent with a bright future”. “Anna shows a lot of potential as a hurdler and high jumper and continues to work hard at her craft,” the Port Stephens Head Coach told News Of The Area. “She is a natural with the dedication, raw speed and self-belief to go a long way,” he said. Taylor-Anderson will spearhead a strong Tomaree High School 4 x 100m Relay team at the upcoming NSW Combined High School Athletics Championships to be staged at Homebush from September 11-13. She will be joined by outstanding Port Stephens athletes Maebel Colley, Mia McDonald and Kylah Rankin. The promising quartet showed their class and blistering speed to clinch the Zone and Regional relay titles and enter the CHS Carnival in tremendous form. Anna also hopes to push her claims for NSW selection by qualifying for the 80m hurdles and high jump events for this year’s Australian All Schools Track and Field Championships in Brisbane during December. Walkley, a Level 4 coach, has accumulated a proud record over the years in sprints, hurdles, long jump, high jump and triple jump. His daughter Sarah is a former national 10,000m road and track race walking champion who represented Australia at the 2002 World Junior Athletics Championships in Jamaica. By Chris KARAS
