The First 25 Years of Hamersley – 1971 to 1995
Our Claim to Sporting Fame …. Success!!
Hamersley has been fortunate over the years to have a number of athletes who started with Little Athletics to move onto other sporting achievements. Some of these are:
- Renee Poetschka – represented Australia at Olympic & World Championships in the 400m.
- Lauren Poetschka – represented Australia at two Commonwealth games and she was selected for the Sydney Olympic team in the 400m hurdles. Lauren also represented WA in netball.
- Kimberley Mickle – Currently ranked number one in Australia for womens javelin. She has represented Australia in the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and World Championships in javelin.
- Paul Mardle – represented Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Discus and represented Great Britain in 1984 Seoul Olympics in Discus.
- Adam Cockie – AFL footballer with West Coast Eagles.
- Des Headland – AFL footballer with Fremantle Dockers.
- David Gourdis – AFL footballer with Richmond .
- Michael Pettigrew – AFL footballer with Port Adelaide.
- Hayley Miller – AFL Women’s League for the Dockers.
“Dreams can come true” – former Hamersley athletes, Grant and Sean Szalek enjoyed success representing Australia in the Melanesian games in Fiji in 2016. Grant competed in the “open” category and won the silver medal with a jump of 2.09m and Sean competed in the U18’s and won the gold medal with a height of 2.03m. Grant’s PB in high jump is currently 2.21m – see video of this jump in the 2019 Victorian Championships in March 2019.
Annie Stapleton, also a Hamersley athlete, represented Australia in the high jump at the Oceania Championships in 2019 and won the bronze medal with a jump of 1.68m. Annie’s PB in high jump is currently 1.79m which she set in Perth in February 2020.
Melany Smart spent many years at Hamersley with a specialty in middle and long distance events. Melanie represented Australia at the Commonwealth Youth Games (Bahamas) in 2017 placing 5th in the 3000m and 6th in the 5000m. At the 2018 Australian Championships, Melanie went on to take gold in the U18 3000m with a time of 9:20.07 and the silver medal in the 1500m with a time of 4:22.18. In 2019, Melanie won the gold medal at the Oceania Championships in the U20 3000m and 5000m and in the same year won the U20 Australian 3000m title by more than 30 seconds. Melanie now runs for the University of Washington Athletics and has an impressive resume of cross country results.
