Two Trundle para-athletics champs shone at the School Sport Australia Track and Field Championship in Brisbane last weekend coming home with a haul of three medals.

Toby Morgan is the national champion winning a gold medal in the 800m for 10-year-old multiclass event for boys, whileIsabella Skipworth won a silver in discusand bronze in shot put.

It was an amazing experience for the two students where they made lots of new friends and incredible memories. The opening ceremony was last Thursday and ended with a closing ceremony on Monday. The participants also had an opportunity to access equipment and technology utilised for talent identification for the 2023 Olympics. A fun part of the event was swapping pins with competitors from other states, which they then wore on their hats.

Toby is a student at Parkes East Public School, and Isabella attends St Patrick’s Primary School in Trundle.

Parkes hosted the two-day Zone Little Athletics Carnival last weekend with up to 370 participants from all over the region. The athletes came from Ballimore, Cobar, Condobolin, Coonabarabran, Coonamble, Cumnock, Dubbo, Forbes, Gilgandra, Gulgong, Gwebegar, Mudgee, Narromine, Orange, Three Rivers, Walgett, Warren and Wellington. The event was officially opened by Member for Orange Phil Donato MP. He said Little Athletics played an important role in developing not only physical skills but also life skills. 

Two Trundle para-athletes have qualified for nationals after competing at PSSA State Athletics Carnival at Olympic Park in Sydney recently.

Toby Morgan and Isabella Skipworth both qualified for NSW Athletics team to compete at the School Sport Australia Track & Field Championship in Brisbane later this month.

Toby, who is a Year 4 student at Parkes East Public School, not only came first in the junior boys multi class 800m event, but also broke the record in the T34 200m event. The NSW record was 1:28 and he ran it in 47 seconds!

Isabella is a student at St Patrick’s Primary School in Trundle and she became the champion in multi-class discuss with a distance of 12.80m.

Toby has spina bifida, a condition that affects the spine, and his parents were told he would be in a wheelchair all his life.

Toby’s mum Kelly said they were extremely proud of Toby’s achievement. “When Toby was born, he had surgery on day one to close the lesion on his back and have a shunt inserted in his brain for his hydrocephalus,” she said. “Following the surgery, the neurosurgeon advised us that Toby would be in a wheelchair, however he has proven him wrong.”

She said Toby started walking a bit before he was two with the aid of a walking frame. “At that time his feet were almost turned backwards. His walking improved and the physio told us he would likely use the walker until he started school.”

He only used it for about six months and started walking on his own.

Toby wears splints on his legs as he has absolutely no muscle in his legs below the knees and partial paralysis in his feet. This however doesn’t stop him from playing soccer, tennis, touch football and now athletics. He went to State earlier this year for Cross Country.

It was a beautiful day on Saturday for Karen McGaw to reach her 300th parkrun milestone at the Northparkes Oval parkrun. Her first parkrun was in 2013 and she completed 140 runs at her home parkrun in Newcastle. She also ran her personal best time of 26:43 in Newcastle. Karen has participated in 38 different parkruns in NSW, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, as well as international runs in England and New Zealand. She has also given back to parkrun by volunteering 45 times in 10 different roles. Karen moved to Forbes in May and now regularly attends the Northparkes Oval run at 8am every Saturday. Congratulations Karen!