Nicole Williamson kicked off her bid to claim her first Queen of Sport crown since 2014 in excellent fashion on the weekend, rocketing to the top of the Orange Eight Day Games standings heading into Monday’s third day of events.
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The five-time champion racked up 159 points across Saturday and Sunday’s opening events, winning the athletics and picking up podium finishes in the swimming, mountain bikes and commando course, to hold a narrow, five-point lead from Sarah Trimbell.
Although being crowned champion remains a long way off for Williamson there’s a number of events still to come where she’s expected to excel, particularly Tuesday’s golf at Wentworth.
If Williamson, or anyone else, is to win it would end 10-time champion Cathy Johnson’s three-year reign, although she was still firmly in the hunt sitting equal fourth with predicted contender Bec Ford on 149. They trailed third-placed Amanda Livingstone by one point after the first two days.
Of the Kings, Anthony Wharton led through Saturday’s opening day and was still at the top of the leaderboard after day two as well.
With wins in the athletics, mountain bikes, canoeing and mystery boules event, Wharton tallied 199 points over the opening two days to lead by 13 from Andrew Marsh, with 2016 champion Jackson Leckie another three points behind in third.
Marsh didn’t top any events but came second on the commando course and third in canoeing and finished high enough in the other events to stay in touch with Wharton.
Monday’s third day of events are an individual mystery event at Clifton Grove’s Mud Hut and the 3.5km cross country run.
Tuesday fourth day of events kicks off with golf from 12pm before an individual mystery event and a teams mystery event too, at 6.30pm and 7.45pm respectively, all at Wentworth.
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Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
