Welcome to Little Athletics for the 2024-25 Season. It will be great to see all our new and returning families at Goldsworthy Reserve in Corio from 1pm this Saturday. We’ve got over 100 registered athletes for South Barwon so far and a large number of trial athletes too, so things might be a little manic at the start, but we’re so excited to embark on another season filled with fun, growth, and community spirit!

Bib collection & volunteer sign-up

We will have competition bibs at the South Barwon area for everyone who registered (and in the case of new families, provided their proof of age documentation) before the end of Thursday. These bibs are worn throughout the season at Landy Field as well as at regional and state events.

All competitors will need to be accompanied to the bib collection point by a parent or guardian, as we will have the duty rosters available for the pre-Christmas events. Each family needs to commit to two pre-Christmas volunteering shifts. Those who don’t select their own dates in the first two weeks will be assigned a slot on the duty roster – which this year will be displayed on a white board at the South Barwon tent.

Uniform sales

On our competition days at Landy Field, all South Barwon athletes compete in our red and blue uniforms. There’s a range of options to choose from, and we will have some samples on display and for sale in our area on October 12. If you’d like to purchase beforehand and beat the rush, please send us a message on southbarwonathletics@gmail.com or via our Facebook page.

Remember, all uniform tops need to have a Coles patch sewn on. We will have these available on Saturday.

This week’s volunteers

Many thanks to the families who have signed up for volunteer duties already. We really appreciate your help in getting the season started for our athletes.

Back Straight:

• B. Smith (Chief)
• J. Ringin
• H. Carson

Long Jump 1:

• B. McDougall (Chief)
• A. Miles
• A. Maugeri
• C. Moores

Long Jump 2:

• J. Carracher (Chief)
• B. Martin
• J. Muhlenberg
• A. Wilkinson

OnTrackers:

• Alistair McArthur

Can all volunteers please meet at the South Barwon area at 1pm?

South Barwon is also on pack-up duty this week so we would appreciate it if our families could stick around at the end of the session to help tidy away the equipment. This duty rotates between clubs each week and it’s a much quicker process if everyone pitches in

Events

This week is Week 1 on the GLAC program. Events start from around 1.00pm, so listen for the announcement for your child’s age group. Each event call is made three times before the event begins. OnTrackers, the program for our U6s and U7s, will be called separately – please wait in the South Barwon area until you are called sou our athletes can walk across together as a group. The weather’s looking good for Saturday so far, but be sure to follow our Facebook page where we’ll post updates if there are cancellations or changes.

If you have any questions about Little Athletics, the South Barwon Little Athletics Club or how the season will run, feel free to come and talk to us in the South Barwon area (bays 9 and 10, under the shelter). We’re so pleased to have so many athletes signed up to compete for South Barwon this year and we can’t wait to see how they compete and improve over the months ahead.

Have a great season, everyone!

Just like that, our 2023-24 athletics season is coming to an end. Our last day of competition at Landy Field is the Geelong LAC Stiegen Championship Day this Saturday (2 March). We’re looking forward to seeing our South Barwon athletes shine in their chosen track and field events!

OnTrackers

The OnTrackers program will continue with its usual format on Championships Day and will be followed by presentations for our Under 6 & Under 7 athletes.

March Past

As part of Championships Day, all clubs will take part in the Annual March Past parade. Could we ask that all our athletes come dressed in their correct South Barwon uniform and be ready by 8am to assemble in their age groups. The March Past will begin at 8.15am, followed by the national anthem. Competition for U8-U17s begins at around 8.45am.

Events

On Championships Day, U8-U17 athletes can only participate in the events that they have registered for. No changes can be made to the events on the day. As GLAC will be running almost all the events that have registered participants, this will be a longer day. There will be first, second and third place medals for each event, which will be presented as soon as possible after the events completion.

Lunchtime events

During the Championship Day lunchbreak there will be a parents relay – make sure you stick around to cheer on the South Barwon team!

There will also be a meeting about Cross Country for those interested in taking part during the winter season.

Volunteering

Thanks to all the families who have volunteered to help out this week. You can see a list of our volunteers below (note: if you have organised changes to your shift in the last 24 hours, this will not be reflected here).

Thank you

Finally, on behalf of the SBLAC committee, thank you so much for a wonderful season. We’ve loved seeing so many personal bests each week as each of our athletes continue to improve. Thank you to all the families who have helped out with volunteering on the long jump, on the back straight, and with so much organisation behind the scenes. We look forward to welcoming you all to our South Barwon presentation day later in the year – we’ll be in touch via our Facebook page for more details.

Thanks again, and have a great Championship Day!

Well, just like that we’re approaching our last day of normal competition at Landy Field for the 2023-24 Athletics season. It’s program three again this week, and we’re looking forward to seeing our athletes and families at the track on Saturday morning.

Volunteering

South Barwon’s on set-up duty this week, so we’d appreciate all the help we can get to ensure everything’s ready for the events to start on time. Please meet us at the South Barwon area at 7.30am.

In addition, this week’s general volunteers are:

• G. Laurie
• J. Mason
• A. Wilkinson
• A. Sherry
• S. Dhaliwal
• R. Nicholls & S. O’Neill
• B. Smith
• J. Welsh

Our chiefs are:

• M. Smith & B. McDougall (Long Jump)
• J. Javni (Back Straight)

Geelong LAC Steigen Championship Day (2 March)

Saturday 2 March is Championships Day for all U8-U17 athletes who have nominated for events. The start lists for each event will be updated to reflect the nominations, and changes are not possible. As all events will be run, this will be a longer session these athletes.

OnTrackers will run as usual, with a presentation after the session completes.

Please see your emails for other important event information from Geelong Little Athletics Centre.

See you on Saturday!

Congratulations to all our athletes who gave their all in very hot conditions at the Regional Track and Field Carnival in Williamstown last week. Despite the heat, it was a great couple of days of competition with South Barwon athletes achieving medals and personal bests across a wide range of events. All the best to those who have qualified to compete at the State Championships in March!

This week we’re back at Landy Field, for Program 2 events. This means that Walks events will be happening for athletes aged 9 and up. All athletes who wish to compete in the Walks need to wear shorts that are a minimum of 10cm above the knee – no leggings or trackpants.

Volunteering

This week’s general volunteers are:

• C. McDougall
• C. Cheng
• Dhaliwal family
• J. Mason
• A. Miles
• A. Wilkinson
• K. Findlay

Our chiefs are:

• R. Nicholls & S. O’Neill (Long Jump)
• J. Ringin (Back Straight)

Please meet us at the South Barwon area at 8am.

We also need volunteers for the next two competitions. We will need our regular volunteers for next week, but also need to cover both AM and PM shifts for the Geelong LAC Steigen Championship Day on Saturday 2nd of March. Can all families please come by the South Barwon area this weekend and put your name down for a shift? The Championship Day’s a great end to the season and more help we can get, the easier all our duties will be.

Nominating events for Geelong LAC Steigen Championship Day

All families need to nominated events for their U8-U7 athletes for Geelong LAC Stiegen Championship Day by the 22nd of February. This can be done via the Nominations tab when you log in to ResultsHQ. Athletes from U8-U17 can select up to 5 events (either 3 track and 2 field or 2 track and 3 field).

OnTrackers will run as usual, with a presentation after the session completes.

Please see your emails for other important event information from Geelong Little Athletics Centre.

See you on Saturday!

Somehow the summer holidays are over, and heading into our last month of competition for the 2023-24 season at Landy Field. However, there’s still plenty of time for Personal Bests, at Landy Field and at the Regional and State competitions.

This week’s events

This week we’re back to our normal Saturday morning timeslot at Landy Field for Program 1 track and field events.

This week’s volunteers

Thanks to all the South Barwon families who have volunteered to help out with this week’s event. If you haven’t done a duty since before Christmas, please come by the South Barwon table this Saturday and put your name down for another slot before the end of the season. We want to finish strong, and it requires the support of all our South Barwon families to keep Little Athletics running.

This week’s general volunteers are:

• Knuckey family
• English family
• Fotiniotis family
• Feldman family
• C. McDougall
• G. Laurie
• B. Smith
• C. Hargreaves
• Chaudary family (On Trackers)

Our chiefs are:

• C. Cannon & B. McDougall (Long Jump)
• J. Javni (Back Straight)

Please meet us at the South Barwon area at 8am.

Congratulations to all our South Barwon athletes who took part in the State Combined events at Lakeside over the weekend. There were lots of personal bests achieved over the two days of competition!

This week is our Twilight Meet at Landy Field. Instead of Saturday, our regular Little Athletics program (including OnTrackers) will be held on from 5-9pm on Thursday 25 January.

We’re back to Program 3 this week. Please see below for the scheduled events.

Volunteers

Thanks to all the South Barwon families who have volunteered to help out with this week’s event.

This week’s general volunteers are:

• K. Maugeri
• A. Gundry
• C. Graham
• L. Corrigan
• M. Smith
• L. McKenna
• J. Fontiniotis
• A. Orvis (On Trackers)

Our chiefs are:

• J. Ringin & J. Carracher (Long Jump)
• J. English (Back Straight)

Please meet us at the South Barwon area at 5pm.

See you on Thursday!

Happy New Year to all our South Barwon athletes and families. We hope that you’re having a wonderful holiday and that 2024 is treating you well so far!

This Saturday we’re back at Landy Field for the Geelong Combined Events Day. If you are competing at the State Combined Events on the 20th and 21st of January at Lakeside, the Geelong event allows you to practice the same events. However, all of our athletes aged 8+ are welcome to take part.

The Combined Events will run between approximately 8.15am and 12pm. Points will be awarded based on performance in each of the athletes’ five events, with the top three competitors across all the events in each age group (for both girls and boys) being awarded medals on the following Geelong events day. For full details of the day and scoring system, see the notification from GLAC on the Teams App. The events for the day are available on ResultsHQ.

OnTrackers

OnTrackers will be running as normal on Saturday, from approximately 8.30 – 10.00am.

Volunteering

South Barwon will be responsible for the back-straight timing and long jump as normal. If you are able to do a duty this week, please let us know via our Facebook page. We are also on packup duty this week, for both OnTrackers and the main events this week and would appreciate all our South Barwon families pitching in to get the equipment away quickly.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again on Saturday!

PS: Dates for the rest of the season have been updated on the GLAC website.

We’re hoping for warmer (or at least less wet) weather this week, so we can be back at Landy Field this Saturday for the last day of Little Athletics competition for 2023. As we missed last week, this week will be Program 2 again. This means that Walks events will be happening for athletes aged 9 and up and all competitors need to wear shorts that are a minimum of 10cm above the knee – no leggings or trackpants.

Volunteers

Please note that families who haven’t yet done two duties have been assigned to empty volunteering spots – please check the list below to confirm if you have been rostered on for this week.

This week’s general volunteers are:

• L. Wolf
• M. Merry
• M. Munn
• K. Findlay
• C. McDougall
• A. Gundry
• Templeton family
• C. Prickett (OnTrackers)

Our chiefs for this week are:

• C. Cannon and R. Nicholls/S. O’Neill (Long Jump)
• J. English (Back Straight)

Relay training

Congratulations to the South Barwon athletes who will be competing in the State Relay finals on the 16th of December at Lakeside Stadium in Melbourne. Keep an eye out for messages from your coaches and team managers about final training sessions and other preparations for this event.

See you on Saturday!