News
April 2022 Newsletter
Published Wed 13 Apr 2022
Athletics Wollongong Presentation - RSVP now!
Preparations are well underway for Athletics Wollongong's Season 2021/22 Presentation. It will commence at 6pm on Saturday, April 30th in the Courtview Function Room of the Tennis Club, our neighbours in the Beaton Park sporting precinct. We are asking people to RSVP by April 24th for catering purposes; a snack will be provided midway through to keep the hunger pangs away and the energy levels high. Anyone looking for something more substantial are encouraged to dine at the on-site restaurant, Bistro 37. Drinks will also be available from the bar downstairs. To further entice people to stick around after Presentation is over - at approx. 7:30pm - the Tennis Club have been kind enough to give us two $25 vouchers for lucky door prizes.
To RSVP: follow THIS LINK, click the RSVP button, and enter your family's details (no need to log in; that will just pre-fill the fields).
Award Eligibility and Nominee Announcements
To see the awards you're up for, you can check this list. Note that there are a few that will remain a surprise: Best Performances on a Wednesday Night, The President's Award, The Ron Bragg Club Spirit Awards and Clubperson of The Year.
We've also begun announcing the nominees for some of the major categories online. Aside from building hype for Presentation, this practice gives us a chance to praise multiple, worthy candidates - even though there's only the one winner. You can see the nominee announcements in the AW Facebook Group, AW instagram or in the Event listing on the club website. The next drop is this Saturday, marking two weeks until our Presentation Night.
So far we have announced the nominees for:
- Male Encouragement Award - Carlo Tallarida, Scott Bazley, Tom Schambron
- Female Encouragement Award - Amelia Bongiorno, Chelsea Nicol, Imogene Anderson, Ivy Foster
- Most Improved Female - Mary-Ann McPherson, Rebekah Power, Tayla Wiki
Will you be next?!
We're finalising a few more prizes for the club raffle; thanks to those who have already bought tickets. If you're coming along to Presentation, you can purchase them on the night via cash or EFTPOS. If you're unable to make it, but would like to support the club with the room hire and catering costs, you can purchase tickets online now from our shop.
Tuesday, April 19th is the day we're anticipating Athletics Wollongong's Delta Amidzovski to be officially named as a member of the Australian team to the U20 World Championships. While surpassing the required performance standard in the 100m Hurdles and winning the associated Australian U20 title would ordinarily guarantee automatic selection, Delta's young age adds an extra wrinkle. Per the criteria, she can only be considered for selection with the approval of Athletics Australia's Director of Performance Sustainability. While there's no indication that that approval will be withheld, it will still be a relief to see her name in print. Team selection meetings were set to be held this past week and - come Tuesday - the results of those deliberations will be made public.
You can see which AW members have been selected for this event in the past on the club website, under the Honour Roll link.
Members born in 2007 or 2008 have an opportunity to be part of a joint Athletics Wollongong-Kembla Joggers team in an upcoming U16 event at the Oceania Championships. This will be held in Mackay, Queensland on June 10th and 11th. It's a mixed gender event with team members contesting nearly all of the athletic disciplines. There are some limitations on how many - and what type - of events each team member can acquire points in, but few limits on participation: only one team per relay, and only two participants of each gender in the Steeplechase (for safety) and High Jump (for time purposes).
We've been tasked with filling the sprint and field slots - which means a minimum of 3 guys and 3 girls to acquire points in each event - and we're well on the way! If you want to be a part of the fun, we need to hear from you ASAP. We'd like to confirm the team as soon as we can so that participants can get to work on booking travel and accommodation.
You can find more information regarding the event HERE. Note that the club submits the team entry and that AW will be paying our members' portion of the $300 registration fee. Hop to it! Declare your interest in an email to athleticswollongong@gmail.com.
Winter Distance Pointscore Competition
May 1st marks the opening of the competition window in Athletics Wollongong's Winter Distance Pointscore Competition. To participate, members can contest any parkrun event, held at various locations from 8am on Saturday mornings. There are local editions at Sandon Point, North Wollongong and Killalea but, if you're traveling or on holiday, you can find plenty more listed at https://www.parkrun.com.au. You'll also need to create a free profile on that site and associate yourself with Athletics Wollongong (else alert our Winter Season Co-ordinator Ron Perry to your performances).
The competition window is open for four months. Participants' top six age-graded performance percentages will be averaged to determine overall winners (and Most Improved if you also participated last year). You can find more info regarding it all HERE.
That's not the only action over Winter, with Athletics NSW having recently released their event calendar for the next few months. AW members with Dual, Concession or Open registrations are eligible to enter all the events, with club memberships lasting until the conclusion of this season on September 30th. The first ANSW Cross Country event is the St George Classic on 21st May. Many venues are still TBA, but the popular course at Nowra/Tapitallee has already been announced as the site for the NSW Cross Country Championships.
You can keep abreast of all the events, dates and locations HERE.
A small contingent of AW's sprinters will be endeavouring to win themselves a portion of the $150k of prizemoney on offer at this Easter long weekend's Stawell Gift Carnival. Mitch O'Neill, James Mcpaul and Michael Doodson will be contesting events from 70m to 550m, with the Open Men throwing their hat into the ring for the big event: Australia's richest footrace, the Stawell Gift.
All events are handicapped and run on grass. Have they escaped the handicapper's watchful eye? The big finals will be on Easter Monday and shown on Channel 7 from 11:30am to 2:30pm. For all the other events, which start on Saturday, results will be available HERE.
Regional Victoria was announced as the host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games this past week. Event venues will be spread throughout the state with the athletics being held in Ballarat. This, of course, follows the announcement of Brisbane being the 2032 Olympics host. What a time to be an Australian sportsperson! Athletics Wollongong hopes to see some of our members competing at these events and are very excited about what they'll do for sports participation levels.
Australian Championships Re-cap
A remarkable 32 Athletics Wollongong members participated in the 2022 Australian Athletics Championships. A further two (Thomas Noakes and Keegan Whitten) had to unfortunately drop out after their selection - and add to that number all those whose qualification was disrupted by a challenging season, long-term injury, etc. It's a true, golden age for our club.
No-one better exemplifies this than Delta Amidzovski, who collected four gold medals across the Championships: two in the U20s (100m Hurdles and 4x100m) and a further two in her "correct" U17 age group (100m Hurdles and Long Jump).
Holly Rea equalled that total with two relay gold (U16 4x100m and 4x200m) and two individual bronze (100m and 200m).
The club's other gold medallist was Chelsy Wayne, who defended her National title in the U16 Discus.
Also in the field and bringing medals home were Maiya Hewitt (silver in the U14 Triple Jump) and Zoe Daniels (bronze in the U18 Discus).
The relay events proved a rich source of success with Callum Rann (U18) and Tierney Dunne (Opens) both collecting silvers in their respective 4x400m races. James Mcpaul was another selected for a berth in a NSW 4x400m team, collecting a bronze in the Open Men's.
Individual bronze medals also went to Charlize Colwell in the U17 Para Ambulant 400m, and Harry Keats in the U14 800m.
It was a great performance all round - and you can see the full results from our clubmates HERE.
The only real, sad note was regarding Lara Check, who unfortunately had to withdraw from competition after a nasty fall in the first event of her heptathlon. Making it doubly disappointing was that this is likely her last Australian Championships for a while; she's off to an American college for the next few years. Bon voyage, Lara!
Athletes at the Australian Championships who assisted at a club fundraising event this season (i.e. the Bunnings BBQ, Australia Day Aquathon or Splash Wollongong) are able to claim financial assistance. The money remaining in the kitty and the number of those eligible means we were able to afford $150 per applicant this season. While it won't entirely cover the associated costs, we hope it makes it a little easier for our members to take up these kind of competitive opportunities. If you're eligible for assistance, submit this form within a month of your event to athleticswollongong@gmail.com.
To further reward and retain our high-achieving clubmates, those medal winners noted above are also eligible for a 'membership scholarship'. Upon registering next season, send us notice that you'd like to claim via a form, and we'll reimburse your rego: 100% for Open-age; 50% for Juniors. More details will be given to those eligible at the Presentation Night (if present), along with the coveted "National Champs Attendee" badge. Hope to see you there!
The Track Classics are the premier showcases of athletics in the country. With the razzamatazz to appeal to the general sporting public, along with valuable ranking points on offer as part of the World Athletics Continental Tour, you're doing pretty alright to swing an invite!
Susie Seitaridis and Delta Amidzovski did just that for the Sydney leg of the events, as did Tierney Dunne and Mitchell O'Neill for the Brisbane version. Well done - and we hope to see many more AW athletes there in the future!
Belated 60m State Championships
The 60m State Championships were originally scheduled for January's Illawarra Track Challenge and it will be hard to forget the ferocity of the storm that caused that event's abandonment. The Champs were eventually added to the pre-program of the Sydney Track Classic, with several AW members featuring and finally able to toe the line.
Holly Rea was the most successful of these, foreshadowing her success at Nationals with the State title in the U16 Women's. Sam Zustovich marked his return from a serious hamstring injury with a bronze in the tough Open Men's division. Also collecting bronze medals were Calem Brown in the U18s and Charlize Colwell in the Para race.
Both the State and Australian Masters Championships were held between the March and April newsletters.
The story of the State Champs was the tremendous AW representation: 19 of our members contested the event, behind only NSW Masters themselves and the massive UTS Norths club. There were an incredible 27 State titles won by Athletics Wollongong reps! Along with 20 silver and 10 bronze, that's a scale of achievement that can only be fully conveyed by checking our our full results HERE.
With the National Champs being held in Brisbane, the attendance was a little thinner but no less remarkable: 11 AW members made the trek; just over half of those finished up as a National Champion. Congratulations must go to our champs:
- Adriana Van Bockel (W70 – Hammer, Weight Throw, Throws Pentathlon)
- Caroline Ellis (W45 – Pole Vault)
- Christine Shaw (W60 - LJ, TJ, Throws Pentathlon)
- Montse Ros (W40 – Pole Vault)
- Rebekah Power (W40 – 100m, 200m, 400m), and
- Rodney Tebbutt (M50 – Javelin)
It should be no surprise that the team cleaned up with silver and bronze also, let along SBs and PBs, so check out the full results HERE.
An incredible 42 of our Dual members progressed through Zone and Region Championships to make it through to the State finals. Unfortunately, several competitors were unable to participate due to injury or COVID isolation, but there were still some tremendous results.
There was great success from our throwers, with wins to Savannah Wiki in the U11 Shot Put and Javelin. Chelsy Wayne and William Willis matched that golden effort in their respective U15 Discus events. And it was the fondest of farewells to Little A's from Zoe Daniels, taking out the U17 Discus.
The high jump was another rich vein of precious metals, with silver going to Denbigh Lewis in the U12s and a bronze to Emily Benefiel in the U13s.
Harry Keats was a dominant multiple gold-medallist on the track, taking out the U12 400m, 800m and 1500m titles.
Also grabbing medals on the tartan were Grace Costabile with bronze in the U14 200m and 400m events, and Ruby Kerr with another bronze in the U12 200m.
Maiya Hewitt impressively won the U13 Long Jump, Triple Jump and 200m Hurdles events. As a result of these performances, she was selected in the NSW team to contest the upcoming Australian Little Athletics Championships. For Little A's, this event takes the form of an U13 team pointscore competition, along with combined events for U15s. Best of luck in Melbourne on April 23rd and 24th, Maiya!
Keeping with Little Athletics, former member James Turner was one of this year's inductees to the Little Athletics Hall of Fame. Starting with Forster-Tuncurry Little A's, his athletic journey has subsequently reached the highest of highs, with World Records, World Championship wins, Paralympic glory, and hopefully more honours yet to come. Athletics Wollongong was very proud to help him along part of the way. Congratulations, James!
AW's weekly Wednesday Meets have, of course, finished for the season, but they certainly went out with a bang last month. Unfortunately, the infield continued to be off-limits, having turned into a marsh after weeks of poor weather. That has made it very difficult for athletes to prepare for major events locally - and it restricted the fun on our final night largely to the track.
Naomi Robinson continued her winning streak in the One-vs-Many relay, surely one of the longest series of victories in world sports.
Kaitlyn Williams took out the 60m Skins Champion of Champions, with Rachel Shaw and Rodney Tebbutt completing the podium. Thanks must go to Anthony Howlett for putting up the prize pool for this event out of his own pocket.
Finally, Beau Wester's dreams came true, taking out the 800m Easter Bunny Chocolate Run from a fast-finishing Andy McHenry; in turn just ahead of the closing peleton.
Our meets will be back in late September-early October; to be determined by the incoming AW Committee. We are honestly blessed to have such a fun and welcoming platform to introduce people to our sport, provide an outlet for social fitness, and inspire participants to even greater athletic achievements. We hope you continue to support our meets and spread the word to anyone who might be interested in joining us next year.
Annual General Meeting Heads-up
As an incorporated association, Athletics Wollongong must hold an annual general meeting where the club's financials are presented to members and officebearers elected for the following year. Athletics Wollongong's AGM will be held on June 14th.
You'll hear more about it as the time approaches (there are all sorts of legal requirements we must follow regarding announcing it) but at this stage we encourage everyone to give some serious thought regarding how they might participate on the club committee. Many of the current members are pulling double duty (or more!) to fill vacancies, as well as having been around for 15+ years. It's unfair to lump all the work on such a small number, as well as unhealthy for an organisation not to have new blood in decision-making roles. Growth comes from new ideas or from challenging the status quo - without growth, the club can stagnate.
Here are the position descriptions for the roles that will be up for election at the AGM:
We are very interested in speaking with anyone who has even an inkling of interest. Please contact athleticswollongong@gmail.com, or speak with a current committee member, for an obligation-free chat.
2022 UCI Road Cycling World Championships
Club reps were invited to a video conference regarding the Road Cycling World Championships, which Wollongong will host 17th - 25th September. This is the biggest sporting event to ever be held in our city! Over 300,000 visitors are anticipated to descend upon the region for a road cycling extravanganza. While there will be no direct impacts on club operations, with our 2022/23 Season likely to commence a week or two afterward, organisers hope for us to get the word out so that people aren't surprised by event impacts. There will obviously be road closures during races and - as Beaton Park Leisure Centre lies on the City Circuit - access to the facility will be effected.
The Gipps Road entrance (beside the Army Reserve Depot) will become the main entryway, with drivers coming from outside of the CBD needing to access it via Memorial Drive. Those living within the circuit will likely only be able to get to the track during race times by walking. It's a minor inconvenience for what should be a great sporting event and a real economic boon to the area.
2022 Surf Lifesaving Championships Recap
In other non-athletics news, seven AW members participated in the 2022 Surf Lifesaving Championships. Obviously there's quite a bit of crossover between the track events in athletics and the beach events in surf lifesaving. Sam Zustovich won the Open Men's Beach Flags, with Kaitlyn Williams matching that feat in the U13 division. Miller Siasat also saw success in that age group, taking out the beach sprint.
Athletics Wollongong have a number of coaches listed on our website and links with many more. These next few months could be the perfect time to put the plans in motion for you to attain next season's goals. You can contact the coaches direct, else email athleticswollongong@gmail.com and we'll do our best to make a perfect match; given location, availability, squad make-up, etc.
One of our number is putting a call out for some help with training and we hope that you can assist. We didn't have much luck finding visually-impaired athlete Karlee Symonds a tethered guide runner, so now we're trying to find her someone with a loud voice! Karlee needs someone to yell out so that she can hear which direction "straight" is. The task is to simply stand 20m away for her and be audible. The furthest she's intending to run at this stage is 60m, so some small ability in backwards running will also be looked upon positively. Karlee's hoping to be at the track around her uni commitments. So if you have a loud voice and are available Tuesday morning/afternoons, Wednesday afternoon, Friday mornings, or on Sundays; we'll put you in contact!
Coming Dates
- 19th - 21st April - University Athletics Championships, Gold Coast
- 23rd - 30th April - Australian Masters Games, Perth
- 24th April - ANSW TTP Nominations close, online
- 29th - 30th April - Australian Masters Multi Event Championships, Townsville
- 30th April - Athletics Wollongong Presentation Night, Wollongong Tennis Club
- 1st May - Run Shellharbour
- 1st May - Sydney 10, Sydney Olympic Park
- 21st May - St George Classic, Ramsgate
- 22nd May - NSW Short Walks Championships, Chipping Norton
- 7th - 11th June, Oceania Athletics Championships, Mackay
Contact Details
Email davidrosswollongong@hotmail.com with athletics news to include in our regular Illawarra Mercury column. Send other enquiries to athleticswollongong@gmail.com.
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