OVER the February 20-21 weekend, 10 members of the Inverell Little Athletics Club travelled to Newcastle to represent the club at the Regional Championships, held at the Glendale Athletics Centre.
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The outcome yielded several podium finishes.
The team consisted of Maxwell Cracknell, Erin Higgins, Sam Lavender, Breeze Melia, Haydon and Zackery O’Grady, Matilda Oliver, Lochie Solomon and Clare and Conor Wilkins.
Team members were representing the club in a total of 34 events in both track and field.
For many of the team, this was their first experience at an artificial surface centre, and for others, their first time at this level of competition, but they adapted quickly to this new surface and the higher level.
Team manager and club president, Bob Burling, said that the team represented well and while only one athlete managed to automatically qualify for the state championships in Sydney, several others are in with chances, depending on the results from the other seven NSW regions.
Bob said that the small number of athletes meant that the club only had a small support crew to fulfil the extensive duty roster that they had for the weekend. However, parents and others pitched in and duties were covered.
“I am very grateful to those parents and one former member of the club (now living in Newcastle) who put up their hands for the long duty sessions we had to complete,” Bob said.
“Without that help, it would have been very disappointing.”
Athletes all progressed from their respective heats in the track events to feature in the finals, while those in the field events also performed very well, considering that, for many, this was the first time at this high standard.
With the experiences gained from this level of competition, the club expects many of these to feature in coming years as all but one of the team were aged under 13.
The athletes enjoyed relatively good weather, with cloud cover for much of the two days of competition, which kept things a little cooler for everyone.
At this stage, Macintyre High School student Breeze Melia is the only athlete with automatic qualifications for the state championships, where she will be looking forward to being able to also see her brother, River Melia, in action, now that he attends Hunter Sports High School.
