COP THAT: PO Leah Stacey takes a swing during the ADF softball game against Singapore at the Arafura Games in Darwin.

Photo: LAC Allan Cooper

By LCDR Antony Underwood

Australia took the lion’s share of the medals overall in the recently completed Arafura Games, held in the Top End between May 14 and 21.

But the performance of the Australian Defence Force ranked in the middle of the pack with the Services carrying off a total of 54 medals compared to 343 for the NT, 88 for WA, 78 for NSW and 57 for Qld. Malaysia topped the medal tally of 120 for visiting countries.

The position possibly reflected the level of operational commitments of the ADF in deployments and other work which prevented release of some whose participation would have improved our Services score.

Navy made a solid contribution with two gold medals in the cycling. AB Dion Blair took out the elite men’s road race from a field of 23, finishing with a time of 2hr 57min 50sec, seven seconds ahead of his nearest rival. And SMN Katherine Baker won gold in the junior women’s criterium.

Navy contributed in a variety of sports, notably softball where the ADF team was a touch unlucky in all matches.

POPT Leah Stacey, who has played in the ADF side since 1994 said the players gave it their best shot through some six games, a sentiment shared by the four other Navy members in the ADF side, AB Lauren Clarke, SMN Faye Billinghurst, CPOPT Donna Edge and AB Cassie Burnett.

“Everyone appreciated being out there,” PO Stacey said, “and we tried as hard as we could with what we had.”

 

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