By Tyler Lewis
This week’s School Sport Australia National Track and Field Championships will be owned by seven local stars.
The seven competing in the grade four, five and six carnival all come out of the Berwick Little Athletics centre and go to school in the local region.
Berwick Little Athletics competition manager Steve Woolfe was extremely proud of the seven individual athletes, while also over the moon for the way his centre will appear on the national stage.
“They have the experience through little aths and then have the experience through the schools,” he said.
“It goes district, division, region, state and then this national level stuff.
“It’s pretty big isn’t it… it’s massive for us to get seven kids from your centre to make the squad.
“They probably only pick – I am only guessing – maybe a dozen kids per age group, per gender, so that’s roughly 70 kids and we’re fielding 10 per cent of them just from our centre.”
Berwick Little Athletics runs a Tuesday and Thursday night session, where young aspiring athletes – or kids that want to just have fun – can compete in both track and field events.
“Most of them have been in athletics from the start, since the very early days, I mean they’re still only 10, 11 or 12 (years old) type of kids, but they’ve been there since the start,” Woolfe said.
“They’ve learned their events and developed them to be able to make it to this level.
“We have Tuesday and Thursday, we do two hours, 5-6 (pm) on track stuff spread amongst the coaches and then 6-7 field stuff spread amongst the coaches as well.”
The carnival kicks off on 17 November at the Queensland Sports and Athletic Centre (QSAC) in Brisbane.
LOCAL COMPETITORS
NAME CATEGORY SCHOOL EVENT (S)
Oscar Ellis 12YO Boys St Catherine’s PS Combined Event
Shot Put
200m
Medley Relay
Hudson Stanford 11YO Boys Berwick PS Shot Put
Medley Relay
Marika Eliadis 11YO Girls Hillsmeade PS Shot Put
Lucas Newman 10YO Boys Timbara PS High Jump
800m
Medley Relay
Adidev Arun 10YO Boys Bridgewood PS Discus
Portia Miller 10YO Girls St Catherine’s PS Combined Event
200m
Long Jump
Medley Relay
Ashlee Winder 10YO Girls Hillsmeade PS 100m
Long Jump
4 x 100m Relay
*The Combined Event is four events earning points to a total score (a small version of Decathlon/heptathlon) 100m, 800m, Long Jump, Discus (Boys), Shot Put (Girls)
