Student & Staff Achievements  

Koonung does Run Melbourne (Tom Shelley reflects)

On Sunday the 29 July, teachers Jane Thornton (alongside her 10-year-old daughter), Sharyn Paspa, Luke Whitebrook and I set out for various events at Run Melbourne. The aim of this event was to raise awareness for indigenous reconciliation and support the Cathy Freeman Foundation. I ran the 21.1km half marathon and had a great experience. Training for the event while managing my school workload was an excellent challenge, and it was easy to stay motivated seeing the generous donations to Cathy Freeman foundation by members of Koonung and the wider community. Overall $820 was raised for this event and I would like to say a big thank you to all for that.

Mrs Faithfull:  So, Tom, tell us how did you actually perform on the day?

Tom: I ran a 1:36 half marathon which was much faster than my intended goal of running sub 5 min kilometres for the duration of the race. Overall, I felt my nutrition, sleep and hydration were all on point for the race and this lead to such a successful run. Overall, I finished 5th in my age group and in the top 10% out of the 4800.

Mrs Faithfull:  That’s a terrific run, Tom.  When I look at the graph of your run (distance against time; the slope of this graph is the speed), the second half of your race was significantly  faster than the first half.   How do you explain that?

Tom: I got to a point where mentally something changed. I decided I could go faster than the goal time I had set for myself. I also decided that I had done all this training for this event I might as well make the most of it and leave nothing in the tank at the end.

Mrs Faithfull:  When you reflect on your Run Melbourne experience, what do you take away from it?

Tom: First of all, I never really understood the significance of having people around you to help with events like these. In the lead up to the race my mother  helped make sure I was eating the right food and getting enough sleep. Also, during the event my parents, sister and grandma were there to help carry my warm clothes, water and nutrition.

Also, before taking on this event I had never really experienced a run to this scale. I did a lot of preparation yet the feeling on the day was something I had never experienced before. Initially I may have had doubts about the distance and the amount of time I was going to be spending running however, by believing in myself I was able to overcome this and finish strongly.

Mrs Faithfull:  Good on you Tom – we are all really proud of you! 

Tom with his mum, Linda and grandmother, Ilza 

Kane Collins competes at National Karate Championships 

Kane Collins (Year 9) is a black belt who has been doing karate for a number of years. He has just returned from the National Karate Championships in Queensland, which were conducted from the 2nd to the 6th of August. He performed admirably and gives a brief report about his efforts at this prestigious completion below:

“I was able to have 5 fights and I won one of them. I fought a national champion and the runner up. I drew to the runner up and lost by one to the national champion.  However, I wasn’t able to make the team event but I was still able to hold my own against a number of state and national champions”.