Big challenge for Little athletes
Above: Clockwise from top left - Kiara Waterman, Jessica Heap, Brock Miller, Tiarni Bitossi and Eliza Kelly.
Five teenagers will head south this weekend carrying Moreton Bay’s hopes into this year’s Coles Australian Little Athletics Championships (ALAC).
Deception Bay Little Athletics' Jessica Heap, Kiara Waterman, Eliza Kelly are in the Queensland team with Strathpine Little Athletics Tiarni Bitossi and Brock Miller.
They will be among 500 able-bodied and multi-class athletes chasing Under 13/14/15 gold at the SA Athletics Stadium on April 26-27.
Ned Amorsen, from Strathpine LA, was also selected but is unfortunately injured and will not travel for the two-day, team-based titles.
Jessica, who has been with Deception Bay LA for eight years, is in the Under 14 female shot putt and aiming to beat last year’s third place in the same event.
She was second in the 2023 Queensland LA Championships shot putt and competed in this year’s Australian Junior Athletics Championships
Eliza Kelly joined Deception Bay LA at Under 8 and found her passion for race walking five years later. She will be doing the Under 15 Girls 1500m walk in Adelaide.
Her first state medal was at Under 14 and in the recent AA titles took a minute off her 3km and 5km walking personal bests to move up the Australian rankings.
Joining them will be Kiara Waterman - a Deception Bay Little Athlete for seven years - in the Under 14 Girls 1500m walk. She was introduced to race walking during the under 9s and is making her second trip to the national titles.
Kiara enjoys doing different events, being able to represent her state and hopes to follow in the footsteps of Australian internationals and Olympic race walkers Dane Bird-Smith and Jemima Montag.
Strathpine’s Tiarni Bitossi - in her first season of Little Athletics - is in the Under 15 Girls’ 300m hurdles and 4x100m relay at Adelaide.
She has already broken her centre’s 300m hurdles record and placed (3 seconds and 2 firsts) in all five events at the 2025 Little As Regional Carnival.
Tiarni recently went to Perth for the junior age Australian Championships finishing fourth in the 200m hurdles, narrowly missing 3rd place by 0.02 seconds.
Strathpine’s Brock Miller, a Little Athlete for nine years, is in the Under 15 Combined Events heptathlon (100m hurdles, 100m, 800m, long jump, high Jump, discus, javelin).
He was second in last year’s ALAC pentathlon and this year’s shot putt, as well as third in the 2024 Combined Events pentathlon and 2025 heptathlon.
In last year’s nationals he was fifth over 800m and represented Queensland on this year’s New Zealand Development Tour, winning Age Champion at the Lovelock Classic and finishing third in the Colgate Games 400m.