Bundaberg’s Jonty Murdoch cleaned up at the Queensland All Schools State Championships in Brisbane over the weekend, winning three gold medals in discus, shotput and javelin.
The St Luke’s student is now ranked number one in Australia in the under 14 discus, shotput and javelin.
And Jonty has only just started competing in javelin events.
“I’ve been to that level in the past three years of school with the shotput and discus, but this is the first year throwing the javelin competitively at schools,” he said.
That that didn’t stop him from breaking the All Schools Championship record by 3.7 metres.
“The competition was good. I had some state and national level throwers up against me, it was a good competition and I had to throw really well to get a medal,” he said.
“For the javelin it was a really good PB and it was a Queensland All Schools state record so I’m really happy about that one.
“I really enjoy the javelin; it’s probably the one I’m really more suited too and I really enjoy throwing it.”
Jonty has been ranked number one in Australia in U14 shot put and javelin since February and has been ranked top in discus since the beginning of October.
Speaking about his performance at the All Schools State Championships in Brisbane, Jonty said COVID helped him prepare for the return to competition.
“For the last six months all competition has been shut down, so this was the first real state-wide competition I’ve done,” he said.
“I put down this performance to that COVID time, where I knuckled down and trained a lot.
“Even with the home schooling, after finishing at home and when dad would get home, we went out training.
“It was a bit of a blessing, but we did miss a few competitions at the start of the year because of COVID shutting down.”
Jonty attributed the win to his dad who helps him train.
“I really do owe it to my dad who coaches me and also my physio Kay and I really wouldn’t be able to do it without them,” he said.
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