A group of young runners from Glen Innes have pulled off some impressive results at the Polding Primary Schools' Athletics carnival in Sydney last Friday.
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Seven students from St Joseph's qualified for the event and one landed a place on the podium.
Mary Arandale won silver in the 1500 metre race after pulling off fifth in the 800m.
The medal earned Mary a spot on the Polding team for the NSW PSSA championships next month.
Mary is part of a group of runners who train under the guidance of one of Glen Innes' best on the athletics track and on the cross country course in recent years in Matt Campion.
Five runners who train with Campion ran at the Polding carnival with varied results outside of a podium finish but Mary's dad, Troy, said the team effort helped her get the result.
"It has been a really good team atmosphere the whole way through," Troy said.
"Mary wouldn't have got to where she has if it wasn't for the team training with her.
"It is hard to train by yourself and keep motivated.
"They have all helped with her success and have all had their own successes along the way too.
"They all finished top of the pack. They did themselves proud."
After preparing them in the lead up, Campion travelled to the event to give guidance along the way.
Arandale said it was "lucky he was there" with synthetic surface of the track at Olympic Park proving a challenge.
"All of them, bar one, the first time they ran on a synthetic track was five minutes before the race," he said.
"Matt really drilled into them all throughout the on the day a bit of a race plan and they all stuck to it."
Campion is relatively new to coaching the sport he loves but Arandale said they have thrived and enjoyed learning from the 20-year-old.
"The kids adore him and if it wasn't for him, I don't think half the kids would be there," he said.
"This is his passion and you can tell.
"He has travelled to every Sydney competition.
"I really have to thank him for his dedication because he has come to Polding Cross Country, PSSA Cross Country, Polding Athletics and he is coming to PSSA Athletics.
"He is just that dedicated, he loves the kids and just wants to see them do well and just does it for nothing.
"Does it out of the goodness of his heart, wants to give back to the kids."