THE Swan Hill Little Athletics Centre’s Open Day broke records both on and off the track on Sunday, with a record number taking part in the now annual event.
One hundred and eighty eight registered participants took part in the club’s second Open Day, with the number up significantly on the 118 athletes who took part in last year’s initial competition.
Participants came from 24 Little Athletics centres across Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, with more than 700 attendees cheering on the next generation of track and field stars.
It was a proud day for Swan Hill Little Athletics Centre president Steve Colombo, with months of planning and hard work culminating in another successful event.
“We’re fortunate that we have a very strong committee that’s also very hands on and pitches in and helps when they need to,” Colombo told The Guardian.
“That’s probably the most pleasing thing, that every committee member wants the kids to achieve their personal bests and every parent is all for creating an environment for our members to do exactly that.
“We’re all doing it for the kids to have opportunities to compete against good athletes from other clubs and to be able to do that in our own back yard. It just helps to put our club on the map a little bit more and highlight some of the talent that we have.
“Even though we’re a small regional community, we have some big talent.
“There were a significant number of personal bests and athletes bringing home some records, but one of the most pleasing things for me was the number of different clubs who travelled and took part.
“We’re used to travelling and we’re going down to Albury next weekend for example.
“But it was really good to get some metropolitan clubs travel up and compete, they don’t have to travel because they have plenty of different opportunities where they are from. But they did and that has positive effects not just for our club but also on our local economy with accommodation, hospitality and tourism.”
While hundreds of personal bests were achieved, along with many club records, new ground was also broken for the event itself. This year was the first to not only include the under-17 age group, but also have high jump as part of their program.
It also included a points based system, where athletes earned points for their Little Athletics centre and the state across the day.
“Every athlete who wins earned eight points and then it went down to those who finished eighth and below, who all received one point towards their teams tally,” Colombo said.
“Everyone contributes to their overall team points and then in an event like the javelin, we had three zones set up where if an athlete threw into that zone, then they got an extra 10 points for their team.
“That was designed for athletes who might not always win, but it still gave them the opportunity to contribute to their team tally in a big way.
“Normally, the athletes are competing against themselves and other athletes, but our club is heavily focused on community and that’s what our Open Day was focused on as well.
“The really big clubs, like Geelong, who have over 600 athletes, use this system, but this was our first time using it.
“We’ll definitely do it again next year though, the feedback about it has been overwhelmingly positive. I think those who attended really appreciated the lengths we went to in terms of preparation and set up which was another positive.”
South Australia finished as the winning state, with a score of 29.6 average points per athlete, with Vic Metro finishing as the runner up with 28.83 average points per athlete, with Vic Regional (27.43) and NSW (23.43) filling the minor placings.
The top Little Athletics centre went to South Australia’s Bordertown, which finished with an average score per athlete of 47, with Warrnambool (38) and Corio (35.8) the next best.
