11 December 2021 saw the ACT put on the annual ACT Mick Morris Relay Carnival and Corroboree were keen to defend the title that we managed to win the previous season.

Last year we had 130 athletes and unbelievably we were able to easily surpass that with 170 registered athletes registered and more than 40 teams. Unfortunately, we lost around a dozen athletes to COVID lockdowns but we still had 160 kids compete on the day. The only age group we weren’t represented in was the U15-U17 girls and this turned out to be a bit scary at the end of the day as Woden piled on the points in this age group.

In some age groups we had up to three teams representing us and some kids agreed to race up a division to ensure we were able to field full teams in as many divisions as we could and maximise points towards the overall total. In particular, I would like to acknowledge the 2 x U13 boys who agreed to race up a division for the carnival with our 2 x U14’s to make a team. The U11 and U12 girls were also out in force in the U13 girls section, filling spots caused by the quarantine situation.

Woden and Corroboree both had seven wins in the first session for U6-U8 age groups. Tuggeranong picked up the other four. Due to the multiple teams in each age group we were able to pick up a lot of placings and this gave us a slight lead heading into Session 2.

Session 2 was great for us (U9-U12s) with 12 from 24 victories, Woden won seven with Belconnen and Weston Creek sharing the other five races. Special mention to the unbeaten U9s in both genders – they won six from six races. Our U10 girls were also unbeaten. Our multiple teams also took many minor placings adding to the point score and then we took a solid lead into the third session.

The U13-U17 session was going to be the tough one for us with the missing girls but our U13s in both genders started us off brilliantly with undefeated teams. The U14 girls also scored a massive amount of points along with the U14 boys and the U17 boys team made up of an U17 and 3 x U15s. Woden managed to put together separate U15, U16 and U17 Female teams and were almost unchallenged so they scored a lot of points in these age groups but not enough to overtake us. For every point their U17 Female Team won, our U17 male team won the same. For every point their U16 Female Team won, our U14 female team won the same. For every point their U15 Female Team won, our U14 Male team won similar.

In the end we won by over 60 points to take our second straight victory in the event and we could not have been prouder.

Final Results

• Corroboree 667.50
• Woden 603.25
• Tuggeranong 319.75
• Ginninderra 260.50
• Belconnen 245.00
• Gungahlin 233.00
• Calwell 103.50
• Weston Creek 95.50
• Bega 61.00
• Lanyon 20.50
• Murrumbateman 10.50
• Goulburn Mulwaree 10.00

It’s impossible to put all team results up here but our 30 teams that took wins in each event were as follows:

• U6 Girls 4×100
• U6 Girls Slalom
• U7 Boys 4×100
• U7 Boys Slalom
• U7 Girls Slalom
• U8 Boys Slalom
• U8 Girls 4×50
• U9 Boys 4×70
• U9 Boys 4×100
• U9 Boys 4×200
• U9 Girls 4×70
• U9 Girls 4×100
• U9 Girls 4×200
• U10 Boys 4×100
• U10 Girls 4×70
• U10 Girls 4×100
• U10 Girls 4×200
• U11 Girls 4×100
• U11 Girls Medley
• U13 Boys 4×100
• U13 Boys 4×400
• U13 Boys Medley
• U13 Girls 4×100
• U13 Girls 4×400
• U13 Girls Medley
• U14 Girls 4×100
• U14 Girls 4×400
• U17 Boys 4×100
• U17 Boys 4×400
• U17 Boys Medley