In a stunning result for the school both the junior (under 10s) and senior (11 to 13s) girls 4x100 metre relay teams finished champions at the recent Western School Sports Association Athletics Trials.

The victories take them onward to the State Championships to be held at Olympic Park on October 19 and 20.

“We’re very proud. We’re very lucky that we’ve got a great bunch of young, talented athletes at the moment,” Raglan Public School teacher Kelsey Willott said.

“They really enjoy it as well, which is the main thing.”

Each of the Raglan relay squads made it through the preliminary stages of the Dubbo event in second place but stepped up for the finals determined to go one spot better.

The senior race was nothing short of a thriller.

Raglan (one minute and 2.20 seconds) beat Dubbo South home by just five one-hundrdths of a second. Less than eight tenths separated first through to sixth.

In juniors Raglan had a great battle to the line with the Orange Small Schools team and came home winners in 1:07.27.

Willott said she’s very thankful for the great support that’s been shown towards the talented team.

“Our parents are fantastic. We’ve got one mother who comes and trains the girls, and that’s Hollie and Thalia Ruming’s mum Sharon. She’s been coming here three times a week, if not more, to help with training,” she said.

“We’ve been very lucky to have her and now the girls are able to see how much all that training has paid off.

“They’ll train in the holidays with their parents … then when we come back to school I’ll be training them here a couple of times a week before they go.”

The ninth and final Raglan competitor who took part at the Western carnival was Lily Cutler.

In the girls 11 years 800m, Cutler finished just outside the vital top four qualifying spots in a strong seventh place run. 

Pictured in the back row is the Raglan senior relay team of Candida Lewis, Charlie-Mai Fox, Emily Browne and Thalia Ruming. Front row is the junior squad of Bronte Cullen-Ward, Maddy Cutler, Nikki Browne and Hollie Ruming.

As a bonus, three of the relay members will also compete in individual events at Sydney – Emily Browne (100m), Nikki Browne (100m) and Thalia Ruming (discus).

Emily Browne qualified comfortably for the 11 years 100m thanks to the third-best time of 14.62, just .22 away from being the fastest qualifier.

Nikki Browne made it through the same event in the 10 years race. Her time of 15.63 was enough for seventh, winning out in a close battle for the last few qualifying spots.  

Ruming’s 17.7m throw gave her an impressive third place result at Western.