The fist pumps were flying thick and fast for a pair of Wagga athletes this week as Kippy Langat and Godfrey Okerenyang celebrated gold medal victories at the 2019 Australian Athletics Championships in Sydney.
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Langat got the party started when he leapt a massive 13.37m in the men's under 16 triple jump on Wednesday. With his last jump in the event, Langat launched himself to a national junior title by just one centimetre.
His celebrations were well deserved, having finished fourth at state juniors in February with a 12.34m. And only a year ago, Langat was rapt to set a personal best of 11.49m at state juniors, meaning he's found almost two metres in 12 months.
Okerenyang, who has coached Langat in the triple jump, made sure he got a national gold of his own on the track on Thursday with a blistering sprint in the men's under 18 100m.
Still only 16, Okerenyang flew the start and didn't look back, clocking a personal best of 10.78 seconds.
"I felt like my start was good and then I just had to run. I don't really know what was going through my mind but everyone said it was probably my best race ever," Okerenyang said.
"I felt good (leading up to the race). Me and my coach Mick Dare thought I might go faster but still very happy with that because it's still fast and it's my first legal run under 11 seconds."
Okerenyang's previous best was 10.80s last year, wind-assisted. Again with a tailwind, he went under 11 seconds at state juniors earlier this year.
This time it was into a slight head-wind but the Riverina Anglican College student was never headed, winning by 0.15 of a second.
He wasn't as happy with his long jump (6.46m). That was later the same day, having run the 100m heat and final, and coming off an injury-affected preparation. Okerenyang has the 200m and relay on Saturday.
Younger brother Gerard was a creditable 6th in the under 16s hammer throw (46.27m), 8th in the shot put (15.47m) and 11th in the discus (42.00m).
"Yeah, it was fun," Gerard said. "The hammer was a personal best and the shot put was just a bit short of a personal best."
Fellow Kooringal-Wagga club athletes Mark Walker (7th in U14 boys 3000m walk) and Hannah Mison (6th in U20 womens 10km walk) also represented NSW at the national championships.
