Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the great highlights of being a representative in this place is celebrating the great sporting achievements of my electorate of Shortland, and I was pleased to host a presentation for Shortland's most recent Local Sporting Champions. Congratulations go to Megan Nay, Cameron Howard, Kaitlyn Klein, Abbey Taylor, Kurt Donoghoe, Bronson Romani, Colby Robins, Rosanna Jennings, Jonah Anderson, Joshua Redd, Zoe Peden, Jorgie Hills, Tahlie Park, Fergus Tayler, Michael Walker, Jude Jennings, Sienna Eve, Edan Shorten, Jessica Pickering, Remy Lovett, Jonah Pezet, Benjamin Harding, Chloe Smith, Leia Puxty, Ella Spicer, Cooper Severino, Annalee Grove, Callum Sharman, Lailah Clarke, Koby Hall, Josie Allan and Madison Mueller.

It was a pleasure meeting these fantastic young ambassadors for their various sports. While there are a variety of champions participating in sports such as basketball, athletics and netball, I was also pleased to recognise excellence in the less common disciplines, such as petanque, fencing and trampolining. Bronson Romani recently returned from New Zealand where he represented Australia in the men's open petanque team. He will be travelling to Canada this week to compete in the Petanque World Championships, and has already represented Australia on three separate occasions, the last as team captain and flag-bearer. Colby Robins is another great example of the calibre of sportspeople we have in Shortland. Colby is a member of the Newcastle Fencing Club, where this year he finished as the No. 1 under-13 epee fencer in New South Wales. Considering Colby has only been fencing for three years, that's quite an achievement.

Jessica Pickering is a member of the Eastlake Trampoline Sports team. Not only did Jessica compete in Melbourne in the national Australian Gymnastics Championships in June, where she won a silver medal in synchronised trampoline and came fourth in individual trampoline, but she also competed in New Zealand at the Trampoline Championships and Trans-Tasman Challenge in Auckland, where she won the gold medal in individual trampoline, and silver medals in both synchronised trampoline and their team event. She is also the New South Wales state CHS springboard diving champion. She recently placed third in the New South Wales all-schools championships, gaining her selection to represent New South Wales at the national school diving championships in Perth.

The youth of Shortland certainly excel in many different areas. I congratulate the champions and their families and supporters on their well-deserved achievements. I also want to thank all the parents, guardians, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandads who spend their weekends and their early mornings driving the kids to training. All these champions are fine athletes and they're great young people. They know how to set goals and work towards their goals. They excel not only in sport but also in their schoolwork and within their community. I congratulate all of them.