- See how the rest of the unfolded – here.
EDENHOPE athlete Jesse Iese took out the 2016 Horsham Sports and Community Club Sports Star of the Years Award on Friday night.
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The win came as a surprise to Jesse.
“There is some great athletes in there so just to get nominated was an honour,” he said.
“I’d like to congratulate everyone else who was nominated and everyone else who received an award.”
At last year’s Australian Junior Athletic Championships in Perth Jesse won gold in the shot put and discus competitions.
He had earlier qualified for the national championships by wining the Victorian championships.
Jesse start his athletics career at school when he was asked if he wanted to go to a competition at Nhill.
“I said ‘yeah why not, I’ll give it a go’,” he said
“I won in Nhill then I went to Ballarat and I won in Ballarat.
“I came home told mum and dad and they were a bit surprised.”
He then travelled to Melbourne to compete in the state championships where at first he was a little overawed.
“It was a bit daunting seeing everyone warm up with their coaches and kits on,” he said.
“At that point my confidence went down but during the actual event I did pretty well.”
Back before Jesse competed in Ballarat he and his dad Keneti watched shot putters on YouTube.
“Dad said you can’t just rock up and do a standing throw,” Jesse said.
“We searched it up on YouTube and that’s how I learned to do the spin.”
Keneti was quick to down play his role in Jesse’s development.
“I’m no coach I don’t know anything about throwing,” he said.
“I’ve played rugby, a bit of aussie rules and a bit of kick-boxing.
“All that hard work Jesse has done by himself.”
He said that just like any parent he was proud of his son’s achievements.
“My wife’s proud of him, I’m proud of him and so is the whole town of Edenhope,” he said.
“It’s only a small place out in the west but they all get behind him and support him when they can.”
During his acceptance speech Jesse was quick to thank everyone who had helped him along the way.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has been there from day one,” he said.
“My parents, my family and the school’s got behind me a fair bit.
“But most important I would like to thank my dad.
“Since the start me and him had the same knowledge of throwing which was basically none.
“Now dad reckons he knows everything about it.”
Jesse has received scholarship offers that could see him move to South Australia but as yet has not accepted any of them.
“I might just want to stay in Edenhope,” he said in his acceptence speech.