Sponsors
Vote Vote Vote
Help Athletics Wollongong win the lion's share of Greater Bank's Community Funding Program giveaway this month. Cast your vote for us (every 24 hours) here: https://www.greater.com.au/greaterillawarra. Voting closes 5pm, February 26th. If we finish on top, the club will win $2000!
Junior State Champs
Qualifier lists are now available for the NSW Championships in age groups 9's through 15's.
Note that if you intend to compete, you will need to confirm (and pay for) your entry. You do this via a link that was sent to the email address that you registered with this season. You have until February 26th to complete that process. After this date any vacant spots will be offered to athletes with the next best performances on record (made at Country, Treloar meets, Zone or Region).
Open & Masters State Champs
No confusion for our older members, with the entry process for their respective State Championships remaining unchanged this season.
Masters will do battle this coming weekend, while Opens are on in a months' time (entry closing time of March 7th).
World Athletics Continental Tour
The first of this season's 'glamour' meets has been contested with Athletics Wollongong supplying two representatives to the World Athletics Continental Tour meet in Adelaide: Chelsy Wayne and Delta Amidzovski.
Chelsy took on the discus, throwing 50.82m in her season-opener and finishing in 4th position. Delta took out the long jump with a windy 6.26m, but had to retire in order to make her 100m Hurdles race. She was the 2nd Aussie to finish there (4th overall) in a time of 13.40s
From Adelaide, the Tour moves to Perth on March 1st, then to Sydney on March 15th (tickets available), before culminating in Melbourne on March 29th.
Wednesday Meets
There are only 4 nights left in our Summer Series of Weekly Wednesday Meets!
These final weeks will be your last chance to post an effort that will appear on your season best certificate. It's also the last opportunity to acquire some vital points: 6 of our age groups are in tight contests, with first and second within a dozen points of each other (up to 20 are on offer each week!)
We'll see our local competitive season off with a bang on March 12th, featuring an 800m Chocolate Run, the Many-Vs-One Relay, some fun events and a free BBQ for our members and their supporters. The big event though will be the 60m Skins Champion of Champions, with a prizepool donated by our own Anthony Howlett. Don't miss it!
Important Club dates
March 12th may be our final competition night, but there are a couple of other important dates to add to your calendar:
Our annual Presentation Night will again be held at Wollongong Tennis Club, Saturday May 3rd from 6pm. It's a fun and light-hearted evening that gives you the opportunity to congratulate your clubmates on their achievements this season. While the focus of our members may vary from our social Wednesday meets to Championship events, this is the one occasion we can all come together, show our appreciation and win some prizes! We'll be asking for RSVPs closer to the date. We hope to see you there!
The club's officebearers and support position holders will be elected at AW's AGM on June 10th. We encourage all members to give some thought on how they might be able assist the club and its members next season. Have an obligation-free chat with any current Committee member for more info.
Wollongong Aquathon
Thank you to our volunteers who assisted at the Aquathon on Australia Day. It's an event that the club has been involved with for some time, where we provide athlete check-in services. As a thank you, the organisers make a donation to the club - which we in turn offer to our membership as athlete support.
Those families which helped out will now be eligible to apply for financial assistance to participate at the Junior and Open National Championships. While $250 won't cover the costs, hopefully it'll help a little bit. Not bad for a couple of hours' of fun work!
Australian Short Track Championships
The inaugural Short Track Champs were held in Sydney earlier this month. Though Australia isn't lucky enough to host a banked indoor track, the 'straight' events can be held outdoors and still count for World Indoors qualifying. Consquently, national titles were handed out to victors in the 60m sprint and 60m hurdle events.
Athletics Wollongong's own Delta Amidzovski returned to the track after her World Juniors triumph of last year, taking out her first Open-age Australian Championship in the 60m Hurdles with a time of 8.12s.
This performance was an Australian U20 record, put her at #5 on the Australian All-Time list, and has her in the running for a berth at the World Indoor Championships. Unfortunately, the northern hemisphere indoor season is in full-swing, whereas there are no further opportunities for Delta to improve upon her season-opening performance within Australia. The qualification period ends in 3 weeks; fingers crossed!
NSW Country Championships Results
46 athletes represented Athletics Wollongong at the NSW Country Championships in Maitland last month. The club went into the event as reigning pointscore champions but we would unfortunately just fall short of defending our title. While disappointing, if the achievement wasn't a challenge then it wouldn't be as worthwhile winning: we'll get 'em next time!
Congrats to all those participated; conditions were challenging, to say the least. You can see the results of our representatives HERE.
NSW Combined Event Championships Results
'Championship Season' is well and truly underway, with titles for multi-events - decathlon, heptathlon and pentathlon - having been run and won. Congraulations to our marvellous masters Anthony Howlett and Christine Shaw who took out their respective divisions. They were joined by Bella Cooney, who took out silver in the 13's pentathlon.
Full results from our competitors are available HERE. We encourage our members to participate in all disciplines on a Wednesday, so we are always pleased to have representatives contesting this event. Give it a go next season!
Illawarra Track Challenge Results
There were a huge number of participants at this event held at our home track last month. There were State Championships up for grabs in the 60m and Mile events with several AW athletes coming away with some bling:
You can see the results of all our members across the full program of events HERE.
Coming Dates