FORMER Raceview State School and Ipswich Grammar athlete Joseph Deng has just become the first Australian to run the 800m in under 1:44.
He broke the Oceania record, and now has his eyes firmly set on next year’s Olympics.
Joseph is one of a long list of Australian athletics champions that hail from Ipswich.
Jude Thomas from Karalee is the current Australian 3000m champion, while IGS student Gout Gout at just 15 is the record holder for the 100m and 200m National U18s.
Ipswich junior athletes Charlize Goody, Toby Stolberg and Zara Hagan will be representing Australia at the Youth Commonwealth Games later in the year.
Despite these outstanding achievements our athletes have no tartan track available to train on in Ipswich.
They must travel to Brisbane to find the nearest suitable track.
The Limestone Park track is certainly not up to a standard that is worthy of our athletes. I recently did a road trip through several NSW towns and was amazed at the infrastructure and facilities that they boasted.
Tamworth is a quarter the size of Ipswich and yet they have a tartan track, our athletes deserve better.
Farewell Doc
Dr Roy Saunders has gracefully walked off to retirement after a long and distinguished career.
He was the Queensland State of Origin physician for 23 straight years, overseeing 69 games.
He was also the Ipswich Jets’ doctor for even longer and was recently made a Life Member.
He was a pioneer in Sports Science and was a great mentor to many professionals. He had a practice at Grange Road and a Gray Street, and he leaves big shoes to fill.
All the best Roy to you and Lindy in your retirement.
Spark lights up
This year’s SPARK festival offers a host of activities and one of the big attractions is the artwork projected onto St Paul’s Anglican Church in town and the ICC building at 143 Brisbane Street.
Our city boasts a broad genre of amazing and talented artists and some of our best have their work featured. Local artist Jacob Sarra has his colourful work adorning St Paul’s, with 10 other artists work on the ICC building.
The images are projected from 6pm-9pm each night until Sunday. I’ve been along each night to see the display.
