TALENTED teen Celeste Mucci has impressed with her tremendous versatility at the Australian junior athletics championships in Perth.
Mucci, 13, a member of the Williamstown Athletic Club, returned with an incredible haul of four gold medals and a silver in the track and field.
“She had four wins, three individuals and a relay, and then she was second in the 100m,” WAC coach David Jamieson said.
“She just couldn’t quite get the clean sweep.”
Mucci had a hectic schedule with some of her events even slightly overlapping.
The youngster remained calm and collected to win gold in the long jump (1.64m), high jump (5.33m), 90-metre hurdles (13.15sec) and a relay event.
She just missed out on a clean sweep, being pipped on the line by a fellow Victorian in the 100m but still ran a personal best time.
Jamieson lauded the mental toughness of the young athlete.
“There’s lots of people with talent and they just can’t produce it on the day,” he said.
“She is one who’s quite relaxed in between competitions and can get herself focused when competitions are on. She turns it on when it counts.”
Mucci has shown in her young career that she doesn’t favour one event over the other.
She’s adept in both the track and field situations.
Rising star of the track Daniela Roman had a competition to remember at the nationals, taking out gold in the U20 100m and U18 100m hurdles.
Roman ran the hurdles event in a time of 13.67sec that has qualified her for July’s IAAF world youth championships in Donetsk, Ukraine.
“I knew from the start of the season that there were qualifiers out there to chase,” she said, “and that’s been an extra motivation to push myself.
“It’s been so much fun here. I’ve been really lucky to perform well in the 100m and the 100m hurdles.
“I don’t know what I am capable of in Donetsk. I’ll do lots of training and then we’ll see.”
Relative newcomer Sweeney Preston performed exceptionally to bring home bronze in the U16 400m, running a PB time of 51.81sec.
Western Athletics long jumper Paul Parker claimed bronze in the men’s U20 with a jump of 6.90m.
