JAY Stone was surprised and delighted to be crowned the 2AD Armidale Bowling Club Senior Sports Star of the Year at last week’s annual Armidale Sports Awards.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was a big night for Stone, with the Armidale Athletics squad – of which he is the head coach – winning the Armidale Sportspower senior state team of the year, and squad member Stuart Geddes named the FM 100.3 KG Motors Junior Sports Star of the Year.
The Sports Star of the Year award has been a long time coming for Stone.
“I’ve been a finalist pretty much the last 15 years,” Stone said.
The past year saw him win gold in the 200m and 400m at the NSW Country, NSW and Australian Masters Championships, and at one stage hold the number one world ranking in both, but he was still very surprised to hear his name announced.
He’s had a lot of injury problems, which contributed to that.
“I only really ran five or six times the whole season,” he said.
The main thing plaguing him is a chronic achilles injury and he’s basically taken the last six months off running to try to get his injuries right.
“I’m really targeting the World Masters Championships, which are in Perth next year,” he said.
“If I get over there and am in shape, potentially I could win a world title.”
He beat a quality field of finalists that included Paul Slade (motorsports), Johan Boshoff (bowmen archery), Bronson Macklinsaw (horse sports), John Harrison (shooting), Brian Lockyer (lawn bowls), Colin Maciver (cycling), Holly Harris (mountain biking), Mandy Hagstrom (power lifting), Roberta Thompson (athletics), Mitchell Tallar (shooting) and Stuart Houghton (bowmen archery).
Geddes was adjudged the junior sports star ahead of the likes of Katherine Hoskings (mountain biking), Sophia Carlon (horse sports), Keiran Weston (swimming), Brennan Czinner (gymnastics), Lindsey Doolan (polocrosse), Jesse Streeting (swimming), Sam Munday (cycling), Justin Bullen (lawn bowls), Melanie Frost (shooting) and Jorja Power (horse sports and others).
“He’s had a phenomenal year,” Stone said.
There is no other way to describe it.
“This time last year he’d never done a steeplechase,” Stone said.
The seed was actually sown by Olympic and Commonwealth Games steeplechaser Youcef Abdi, who was the special guest at last year’s awards.
“What lit the fire in Stuart was Youcef,” Stone said.
“One year on he’s the state champion four times (in the 2000m) over.”
He currently holds the NSW Country, NSW, NSW CHS and NSW All Schools titles.
And all despite not having the facilities to train for the event.
The only time Geddes actually gets to do a steeplechase is when he races.
They did get some advice from Abdi.
“Youcef said to us it’s a nine minute race – eight minutes 55 is running and five seconds is in the air, and to focus on running,” Stone said.
Geddes is a strong runner and medalled in both the 1500m and 3000m at the NSW CHS Championships before going on to win bronze in the 3000m at the All Schools.
“That’s what we were focusing on before the steeplechase,” Stone said.
“He’s still improved out of sight in both.”
Next up is the National All Schools next month.
“He’s in great shape,” Stone said.
“He’s definitely a medal chance down there, which would be fantastic to see.”
The teams win was also very satisfying.
“Track and field is looked at as a solitary sport,” Stone said.
“We’ve tried very hard to change that perception.”
Earlier this month they went down to Blacktown to compete in the NSW Relay Championships.
“We had a team of 10 and ran 14 relays between us,” Stone said.
They included track and field events.