LEETON High School student Josh Baulch returned home from Sydney last week with a little extra luggage in his bag.
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Josh was among a group of students from the school who participated in the Combined High School (CHS) state athletics carnival at Sydney Olympic Park.
The young track star managed to come away with a gold medal in the 800-metres event for his age group, as well as a silver in the 400-metres.
Another star for the school at the carnival was Ryan Butler, who managed to make the final of the 800-metres in his division.
Josh has become somewhat of a veteran at the state event, having qualified since he was in year 7 to attend.
Athletics is a passion of his and he said he enjoys being pushed to perform at his best at the state level.
“I was doing two days a week of training leading up to the event, as well as footy,” Josh said.
“A lot of running, but more shorter stuff.”
The year 11 student has picked up silver and bronze previously at the event.
The aim now is to attend the NSW All Schools carnival and achieve another first or second place, which will then allow him to qualify for the national championships.
Josh will still be eligible to attend next year’s NSW CHS event, provided he qualifies again, but he will be reaching the end of his year 12 classes.
“I’m not sure what will happen next year … it’s going to be pretty busy, so I’ll just wait and see,” he said.
“At this stage I’m looking at becoming a physio. But I might look at going to Sydney or Canberra for uni and maybe getting a coach, train and see what happens.”
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For Ryan, he has several years still ahead of him and hopes to take part at the state event again next year.
“It was really tough … I was happy to make the final in the 800-metres,” he said.
“I haven’t done Little Athletics or anything like that before, but I like the training that’s involved with it.
“I guess what I like is you get to try and out-do yourself every time.
“You can show what you’re worth to people all around the state.”
Athletics has always been something Josh has taken part in over the years.
“I like running fast … it’s actually pretty fun,” he said.
“You’re always trying to get faster and just improve every time.”
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