Join us!

It's Season 2024/25 - and we want YOU to be a part of it!

• Registrations are now open via the club's registration portal.  There are different membership options based upon your age, whether you hold a Government concession card, and which competitions you wish to be eligible for.
• If you're just interested in participating in Athletics Wollongong's own meets, a Community-level membership will suffice.  Note that you can alway take up this 'base level' membership and upgrade to a higher level at a later date.
• Discounts are available (further info is available on each type, via the Registration page on the club website):
  • Family Discount - 3 or more registrations in the same transaction will see you save $10 on each.
  • Uni Student Discount - new to the area and Athletics Wollongong?  Contact us for a discount code that can take $40 off your registration cost.
  • Active and Creative Kids voucher - those of an eligible age and attending school can apply a $50 voucher from the NSW Government during their registration.
• Note that last season's membership will last 365 days.  For most people, their 2023/24 registration will be expiring in the next few weeks; but there are some who won't need to re-register until the New Year.  If you're unsure when your membership ends, search your inbox for last year's welcome message; else send your query to us.
• Finally: a new system is in place for athletes who wish to join multiple clubs (e.g. Athletics Wollongong and a Little A's Centre).  There's quite a bit of detail regarding this, so please read this past news article if you wish to take advantage of this scheme.

Age groups

The partnership between Athletics NSW and Little Athletics NSW has seen some changes to how ages are determined.  New for our junior participants: athletes will remain the same competition age for the duration of the season.  This is great news as none of these competitors will have to change implement weight or hurdle height in the New Year.  It also makes AW's pointscore competition fairer, with points earned from among the same cohort of athletes for the entire season.

Our Masters athletes (i.e. those of 30 years of age or older) will continue to have their age determined via their birthdate - or their age on the first day of a multi-day competition.  Everyone else will have their age determined as that on December 31st, 2025.  That is, the age they turn in the year that's the latter half of a season, when the Championship events are held. 

The naming convention has changed slightly also, with most of the groups now referred to by age.  That is, someone who turns 13 in 2025, will be in the 13's.  This goes all the way up to 17's, then it's Under 20, Open and into the Masters age divisions (5-year or 10-year, depending on the competition).

At Athletics Wollongong's pointscore competition, we have decided to maintain the junior-age two-year divisions that we have long held.  Instead of U10s, U12s, U14s, etc. we'll have 9's & under, 10's & 11's, 12's & 13's, etc.  These are the same groups, only named slightly differently.  We may revise this for next season, once we see how other competitions are run.

Specifications

Another change on account of the Partnership are changes to some event specifications for juniors.  This is to bring the "big" athletics and Little Athletics organisations into alignment (with a view to bringing school athletics on-board in the future).  Broadly speaking, 12's and under will follow the previous Little A's specifications, 13's and up will follow the previous ANSW/AA specifications.  There is some fudging at the 'margins' though, so that there aren't significant jumps that could potentially impact an athlete's development or enjoyment of the sport.

The 'fudging' decided upon means that the NSW specifications differ from the National ones in some events for 13's-17's (mostly walks and hurdles).  The workaround for this, is that there will be a 'Participation Pathway' and a 'Competition Pathway'.  The former is only held up to State-level, while the latter is for those who hope to go on to contest the Australian Championships - and are equivalent to the National standards.  There will be a State Champion for each specification.  At Athletics Wollongong, full points and records will be on offer for events using the 'Competition Pathway' specifications, though athletes are also welcome to contest the event using the Participations specs, if they prefer.

At AW's pointscore, some of our groupings have differing specifications for each of the ages.  For example, in the 12's & 13's group, the 12's Shot Put is 2kg, while the 13's Shot Put is 3kg.  In cases like these, there will be first places (and so on) awarded in both categories.  So points will be slightly easier to come by in a handful of the events contested: hopefully it further encourages everyone to give them all a go!

A great source to learn the specifications for junior ages is on the NSW Athletics website.  Otherwise, the info for everyone can be found in The Red Book - our 2024/25 Season Membership Guide.  You'll also find them in the front of the recording folders, which will be at each throwing event.

The Red Book

Our 2024/25 Season Membership Guide, aka The Red Book, is now available!  Click the link to read it; otherwise, it's always available via both the Competition page and Registration page on the club website.

Members who subsequently join up will have a link to it included in their Welcome email.

We would have liked to have had this Guide available earlier, but there have been significant changes made to our operations on account of the Partnership.  Quite a lot of negotiation - and tweaking - has been a part of the process, which has meant that the information has been both drip-fed and belated, at times.

Records

One of the most time-consuming tasks was a result of changes to age determination: many of our club records were by athletes who would no longer have been eligible for the age group in which they held it!

The current club records, using the new age conventions, are as accurate as we could make them. 

While our club's history extends back to 1958, we elected to re-start the record book upon the introduction of Beaton Park's synthetic track in 1993.  Results were recorded manually up until 2001, before moving to digital.  While we can look at every result from 2001/02 onwards, we can only see the records as at 2001.  There were likely a few performances before then that were 'blocked' from being a record, by someone who wouldn't have been eligible under the current rules.  Over 90% of the club's records are from the digital era though, so hopefully not too many historical performances have missed their deserved recognition.

On the positive side: with the changes to specifications there are some brand new records to set.  Have at it!

Season kick-off

Athletics Wollongong meets are held at Beaton Park on Wednesdays from 5:30pm.  Entry to the track is paid at the Leisure Centre front counter.  Multi-visit passes, or Centre memberships can be used to save costs.  Note that 'spectators' are charged $1: this includes those who are helping at events.  Pay-as-you-go track entry helps keep our club fees down.

Season 2024/25 will commence with a Meet 'N' Greet and Intro to Events on September 25th.  New to the club or sport?  Come along for a rundown on how to conduct/participate safely in each discipline, learn how our club meets are run, and how to get the most out of your membership.  You'll also be able to purchase a club uniform (if you need one) and say g'day to your committee and some of your clubmates.

Come & Try #1 and #2

Progressing from our intro of the previous week, the following two Wednesdays will give participants a red-hot go at a subset of events.  Come & Try #1 on October 2nd will focus on Sprints and Throws, while Come & Try #2 on October 9th will focus on Jumps and Distance runs.  At the conclusion of these 'school holiday specials', new members will feel like experienced pros.  Returning members are welcome also, of course!

Unsure if it's for you?  You can always join as a Trialing member for just $15.  This gives you eligibility to participate for one week.  If you decide to stick around, you can then upgrade your membership to (at least) Community - the $15 you already paid is knocked off the price.

Pointscore

With our newfound knowledge, the season then begins in earnest, with our Pointscore competition commencing on October 16th.  There are 20 rounds of pointscore, with these repeating so that you can track your improvement, while also featuring some special events to keep things fresh. You can see the Season Calendar and the events scheduled for each round on the Competition page of the club website.

There may have to be some adjustments made throughout the season (due to ground closures/maintenance, weather, attendance levels, etc.), so to ensure we have the best chance of a fun and smooth-running meet, we post the order of events and age group splits to our Facebook group on the preceding Sunday.  Not on Facebook or not that fussed?  The same info will be on a noticeboard on the night, outside the track office at the tennis court-end of the grandstand.  Give it a glance as you arrive at the track!

To encourage frequent weekly attendance - and participation in the whole range of track and field disciplines - athletes attain points in each event: 4 points for coming first in their age division, 3 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd and 1 for all those who give it a go (even if it's a foul/DNF).  Points are accumulated throughout the season, with our Age Pointscore Champions crowned at our 2024/25 Season Presentation Night.  See last year's winners - and what other kinds of awards we present HERE.

Note that the point of our pointscore isn't to determine the best athletes, it's to encourage everyone to attend when they can and give every event a go - you may just discover a new favourite.  Some of our members attend sparingly - or not at all - and that's just fine, too!  Our goal is to provide the opportunity for our members to have the best possible experience in our sport: that's not always going to look the same for everyone.

Other competitions

Members with an Open, Concession, or Junior Membership are eligible to participate in the next level of competitions.  You can generally find details of these events on the NSW Athletics calendar HERE. That page also includes some great summaries, including the Championship Calendar and the event grid (where you can tell which upcoming competitions are holding the events that you're interested in).

If you're new to this level of track and field, it would be very much worth your while to read an explainer of the types of events held, on the NSW Athletics website.

The wider, Summer track and field program begins with the first round of the Treloar Shield on October 12th. 

State Progressions

The latest release of data from the Partnership regarded how athletes can qualify for the various State Championships.  While the general info had been released previously, the State Championships Entry Requirements and Progressions 2024/25 document has now gone into far greater detail.

There is little that has changed for those born in 2009 or earlier: they'll still enter their State Championships events directly, with no qualification required.  Those in the 16's or 17's (i.e. born in 2008 or 2009) will also be eligible to contest Zone and Region events, but only for 'competition practice' purposes.

Athletics Wollongong are unable to offer a membership that gives eligibility to contest Zone/Region/State Champs to those born between 2013 and 2018 (7's to 12's).  The necessary membership will have to be pursued via a Little Athletics Centre (NB - athletes can still additionally join Athletics Wollongong, but will have to register as a Community member via our webpage).

13's to 15's (born 2010 to 2012) are where the significant changes are.  Some events like hammer, pole vault and steeplechase will have direct entry but, for the remainder, this cohort will have to qualify through Zone and Region Championships to make it to State.  Those who don't qualify via Region placings can still make it by having one of the next best performances on record from nominees.  These performances can be logged at Region or any of the Treloar Shield meets or Country Championships.

We're not certain of the entry process at this stage.  Nor have we even received confirmation of which Zone we're in!  We expect this information will become available in the fullness of time.  For now - and for those who anticipate having an interest - we encourage you to read the document noted above.

U20 World Championships Results

Wow!  It was incredible enough to have two of our members selected in the Australian team for the U20 World Championships.  Then there was an amazing response from our community, to assist with fundraising and getting our representatives onto the plane.  And finally: there were the results in Peru!

Chelsy Wayne narrowly fell short of qualifying for the Discus final, finishing in 15th overall.  An admirable performance from someone who's young enough to qualify for the next event in two years' time.

Perhaps we may see a similar trajectory as taken by Delta Amidzovski, who made her U20 World Championships debut in Colombia two years ago.  Delta may not have executed that opportunity as well as she had hoped - but boy did it drive her to an incredible performance this time around!  In Peru, Delta first won gold in the Long Jump, before backing it up with a bronze medal in the 100m Hurdles!

What an inspiring effort from our clubmates!  Congratulations to you both.

Masters World Championships Results

The Masters World Championships were recently held in Sweden, with four Athletics Wollongong members making the trek: Adriana Van Bockel, Donna Hiscox, Justin Miller and Rebekah Power.

It was a hotly contested event, with over 8000 participants; you can see the results of our members HERE.  Particular note must be made of Rebekah Power's efforts in the 45-49 events.  She brought home a silver medal in the 100m and a bronze in the 200m.  What a great effort!

Paralympics

The Australian team did the nation proud at the Paris Paralympics.  One of the stars of the event was former Athletics Wollongong member James Turner.  He won two thirds of the gold medals claimed by our track and field team, taking out the T36 100m and 400m. 

Australian Cross Country Championships Results

Five Athletics Wollongong members represented the club at the Australian Cross Country Championships in Tasmania.  Congratulations go to: Ayla York, Joe Hinds, Liam Chetcuti, Robert Shannon and Xavier Wilson.

Full results of our members are available HERE.  Special note must be made of Xavier Wilson, who won a gold medal in the U13 Para Men 2km race.  Well done!

Sponsorship

Athletics Wollongong are proud to announce D.Frame Electrical as a sponsor of the club for Season 2024/25!  They're a local company who have been providing electrical services to business and industry for over 20 years.  They also do residential EV Charger installations.  Check out their website for the full range of services that D.Frame Electrical can offer.

Club Vice President Tom Schambron has done a great job in our off-season, putting together a variety of sponsorship packages for individuals and businesses keen to join in AW's athletic vision. 

If you have an interest in providing the club with some financial support, please see details of the sponsorship packages that are available on our website.  Feel free to pass the link on to anyone you think may be interested.

Tennis Club Membership

Our neighbours in the Beaton Park sporting precinct, Wollongong Tennis Club, are also a sponsor of Athletics Wollongong.  One leg of our deal is that we are reimbursed a percentage of purchases made across the bar and bistro by Tennis Club members who have noted an affiliation with AW.

We strongly encourage our members to also join - and patronise - the Tennis Club.  WIth a one year membership there costing only $10 ($5 for student or pensioners), you'll be saving in no time.

Membership forms are HERE and can be submitted anytime at the Tennis Club bar, or their reception during office hours.  Remember to note 'Athletics Wollongong' in the Sponsorship Group section.

Athletics Wollongong will be making a group booking for dinner at the Tennis Club following our meet on October 23rd.  Wednesday night is Schnitzel Night!  Come along for a great meal and some good company.

Coming Dates