Student Achievement : Archie Noakes

World U20 Athletics Championships

Year 12 student Archie Noakes has come a long way since he won the triple jump at his primary school’s athletics carnival in grade four. Shortly after this, at age nine, Archie joined Coburg Little Athletics Club, where he showed  natural talent in a number of events. By age 13 Archie started to establish himself as a middle distance runner and began competing at Regional and then State Championships, and at age 15 he started to really excel, achieving qualifying times for the National Athletics Championships. 

In 2021, Archie won the National title for both the U18 Steeplechase and the 3000m. This year he did it again, winning Gold in the U20 Steeplechase and the 5000m at the National Athletics Championships in Sydney. He also achieved U20 World qualifying times in both events, which meant that he was automatically selected for the Australian U20 team. This was the culmination of years of hard work and training.

On July 22nd Archie embarked on an experience of a lifetime, travelling to Cali in Colombia, with a week's stop over in Miami for a training camp, to represent Australia at the World U20 Athletics Championships. Archie set out with the aim of finishing in the top 10 in his two events and although he wasn’t able to achieve this - due to some tough conditions and an extremely high level of competition - wearing the Green and Gold and running for his country alongside the best U20 runners in the world was an absolute honour and Archie enjoyed every minute of his international debut. 

Next up, Archie is hoping to qualify for the World Cross Country Championships, which will be held a little closer to home in Bathurst in February. He is also very much hoping to secure an athletics scholarship at a university in the US next year.