NSW’s final day gold rush may not have eventuated but it has not prevented the Blues from clean sweeping the major accolades at the Australian Junior Championships at Halekulani today (1/10).
During a stunning campaign, NSW finished with two gold, four silver and a bronze medal from just eight disciplines, as well as the boys, girls and overall trophies.
This morning’s final matches, however, did not finish as they would have envisioned, with the Blues failing to register a win across all disciplines.
In the blue-ribbon singles, Queensland’s Carly Griffiths claimed back-to-back titles as she came back from the dead for the second time this week to etch her name into Australian Junior Championships folklore.
Emulating the feat of world number three Kelsey Cottrell, Griffiths became just the second female to successfully defend her singles title, with the Caloundra RSL ace producing a stunning comeback.
Trailing 6-18 against Goulburn Railway’s Megan Walsh, Griffiths, 16, peeled off the final 15 shots of the match to pull off the most unlikely of victories.
With Walsh conspiring to defeat her sister, Shahn, during yesterday’s triples final, the victory was extra sweet for Griffiths, who also tasted defeat at the hands of NSW in the pairs’ final.
“It’s awesome,” a relieved Griffiths said following her inspiring victory.
“This year’s win is definitely better than last year’s win because I had to come from so far back.
“I hadn’t give up, but I knew I had to do something soon because she only needed three shots to win.”
On the adjacent rink, Victoria’s Lisa Phillips defeated South Australia’s Breeanna Dickson, last year’s runner-up, 21-14 to claim bronze.
Meanwhile in the fours final, Queensland claimed the spoils, with Bribie Island’s Zoe Jones skipping Kirsty deWaard, Lauren Ingham and Shahn Griffiths to a 15-12 win over Sarah Boddington, Rebekah Ramsay, Kenita Monks and Sarah Vesenjak.
While the narrow loss stung, Boddington and Vesenjak teamed to win the pairs’ final yesterday, while Ramsay and Monks joined Walsh to claim the triples’ crown to round out a glittering campaign.
Click here for full results from the Australian Junior Championships.
