A new generation of athletes have finished the year on a high with a series of record-breaking track and field performances in Ballarat.
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The new marks eclipsed some of the Ballarat Regional Athletic Centre's longest-standing records - being produced in Athletics Victoria Shield competition at Llanberris.
Sprinter Cooper Sherman, 16, wore Ballarat Harriers colours in bettering times set more than 40 and 30 years ago - two held by former Australian 100m record holder Gerrard Keating.
Sherman broke the under-18 200m record of 22.2 seconds jointly held by Robert Ellery (YCW) from 1992 and Simon Hilderbrand (Ballarat Harriers) in 1987.
He clocked 21.93 seconds to better 22 seconds for the first time.
This time also eclipsed the Ballarat under 17 record held by Keating.
Sherman also put himself in the record books in the 100m.
He beat the Ballarat under-17 100m record of 11 seconds held jointly by Keating, who competed for Wendouree before embarking on an international career in the 1990s, and Robert Lehmann, also of Wendouree Athletic Club.
He broke the 41-year-old and 33-year-old record by running 10.98 seconds.
Keating set his time in 1979 and had it matched by Lehmann in 1987
Sherman had previously run 10.82 seconds this season, but the wind was over the legal limit.
Warnambool-based Ballarat Harriers sprinter Grace Kelly put herself in the record books in the under-15 and under-16 age category
She ran 12.06 to better Jane Burrell's 100m time of 12.30 set in 1985.
Wendouree 14-year-old Madison Wright set a Ballarat record in 24.83 seconds in the 200m to better marks run by Julie Bridges and Donna Adamson (Eureka) in 1984 and 1990 in the under-15/16 and under-18 200m.
Archie Caldow, of Wendouree, finally took some focus away from the sprinters by striking for the middle distance runners.
He ran eight minutes 57 seconds to beat a much news BRAC record in the under-15 3000m,
Caldow eclipsed Harry Sharp's 9.02.03 set in 2017.
After being a dominant force in athletics in his age group nationally, Sharp has turned his focus to Australian rules after being drafted by the Brisbane Lions in the AFL earlier this month.
The BRAC records have fallen as athletes prepare for the Victorian Country Track and Field Championships, which are returning to Ballarat for three days from Friday, January 22, to Sunday, January 24.
