After several years of lobbying for funds, negotiating with architects and holding meetings with the Council, work has finally started on upgrade of the club rooms.

The tender for the works was split into two packages – the ground floor works and the upstairs extension. There was considerable interest in the works with a number of companies submitting tenders, however the tender prices received were significantly higher than the estimated costs, which meant that the contract value for the whole project was significantly higher than the currently available funds. In addition, due to delays with issue of tender documents and finalisation of award of the contract, it was clear that both stages of the work could not be completed in time for the start of the next track season. For these reasons, it was decided that only the first stage of the works will be awarded initially with the second stage to hopefully follow immediately after the end of the next track season during the 2002 winter. The scope of works for the first stage includes:

• Construction of new public toilets, showers and change rooms to the north of the existing change rooms
• Extensive modifications to the existing facilities to create a new officials room, first aid room and public address room
• Upgrades to the men’s and women’s toilets
• Conversion of the existing men’s change room to a weights room / circuit room.
• Construction of new change rooms
• Enlargement of the equipment storage room
• Removal of the grandstand roof and construction of a concrete slab floor for the first floor extension
• Construction of access stairs to the upper level.
• Construction of a fenced access-way to the Parkside Pre-School Centre behind the existing club rooms to provide dedicated access to the Pre-School.

Note that the whole building is now a construction site and NO access is available for club members until works are completed. A new light switch will be provided outside the building so that lights will be available for training while the works are in progress. An access track has been constructed around the south end of the track from the gate near the storage sheds to the club rooms for access by heavy construction vehicles so all members are requested to avoid this entrance and enter the ground from the Willow St gate at the north end of the track (near the water jump). The Club has arranged for hire of a portable toilet which will be installed near the Willow St gate for use by club members until the new toilets are ready.

It is planned that the new public toilets will be available for use by about mid-July, with the whole of the works being completed by the end of August. Your co-operation and support is requested throughout this period to minimise disruption to the works and ensure that the new facilities are available as soon as possible. The committee has tried to minimise the disruption to members and we apologise for any disruption to your training that may result from the building works.

On Saturday 14^th July the Box Hill Athletic Club is required to provide 10 helpers to assist with officiating at the Cross Country Championships at Bundoora Park. In addition to providing these 10 helpers, we are required to operate the canteen and BBQ (from which we keep the proceeds). To avoid disqualification of our athletes and maximise our return from the canteen it is imperative that we have as many members turn up on the day to help, if only for an hour or two. If you are able to assist in any way, please contact Graeme Olden on 9885 0890 (h), or Julie Milner on 9428 7679 (h).

The next fundraising event for the year is a trivia night to be held on Saturday 21^st July 2001 at Canterbury Girls School main hall commencing at 7:30 pm. There are a number of great prizes to be won on the night so get your table of 8-10 organised now. The cost of the evening is $10.00 per head but you will need to bring along your own food and drinks. Please contact Westly Windsor on 9890 3653 if you can attend or return the attached tear-of slip TRIVIA NIGHT FLYER by Saturday 14 July 2001.

Note that we are still looking for donation of prizes to be won or auctioned on the night so if you are unable to attend on the evening, donation of a prize to the value of $10 or more would be greatly appreciated. Please contact Bert Tilley on 9807 2487 if you can help by donating a prize.

The annual general meeting of the Box Hill Athletic Club is being held at the BOX HILL AQUATIC CENTRE on Wednesday 4 July 2001, commencing at 7:30 pm. The committee would love to see a good attendance from the members as a small token of recognition for hard work that is put in during the year and in particular to prepare the annual report which is presented at the meeting. The committee would also love to see some more volunteers to join them and a nomination form is attached which you are invited to return. There are many exciting challenges ahead over the coming years as we move into our new club rooms and look forward to the Melbourne Commonwealth Games so why not make sure that you are part of this by joining the Box Hill Athletic Club committee.

Congratulations to the Women’s State League Team on its nomination for a Vicsport Award in the Teams category. The team was nominated following an excellent season which saw them go through every round undefeated and taking out the Premiership for the second consecutive year.

The awards will be announced at a function on Wednesday 27^th June, 2001 at the Vodaphone Arena. The RSVP date is 20^th June and tickets are available at $30 per head. Anyone interested in attending contact Val Armstrong 9841 8707.

It was great to see so many people turn up to see The Mexican at Balwyn Cinema on the 18th of May. The supper provided proved to be more then even 150 hungry athletes could handle but it is not every day that you can enter a cinema with 6 cupcakes on a plate it is Rob?

While various statements were made about the movie, one girl saying that she didn’t like it because Brat Pitt never took his shirt off, the gay hit man proved a winner with everyone and Jason Hinken gave us some mid movie entertainment when he fell over while trying to make a quiet exit for the toilet (due to his never ending supply of Bundaburg).

Congratulations must go to Fiona Buchanan who single handedly brought the night together and raised $1000 for the new clubrooms.

Also on this night a special guest Anna Burke, Federal Member for Chisholm, came along to present Angela Robbie with her Caroline Chisholm Volunteer award. They are named after Caroline Chisholm, a tireless worker for the welfare and political rights of women and children in the 18th century. Angela was one of about 20 recipients of the award from over 70 nominations.

Adam Pepper has organised a good quality club tracksuit top manufactured by Kea. A sneak peak was given at the Movie night but I if you ask nicely Adam may have some left for you.

The winter team managers are:

Women - Chris O'Connor (9882 6108) and Westley Windsor (9890 3653)

Men - Ian Sloane (9549 4486) and Graeme Olden (9885 0890)

For many years now, Banksia Sports Clinic has been a sponsor and supporter of the Box Hill Athletic Club. For every Club member that attends the Banksia Sports Clinic for treatment (or for anyone referred by a Club member), a proportion of the treatment fee is returned to the Box Hill Athletic Club. Banksia Sports Clinic offers physiotherapy, myotherapy and massage services so if you have a muscle injury of some description or are just feeling a bit sore, call Jason Thompson on 9499 8887 and he will make sure that you are well looked after.

Without sponsors like this, it would be necessary to increase fees or hold regular fundraisers just to cover the running costs of the Club. So help yourself by getting your injuries treated and support the Club at the same time.

Registration fees are now due. Please keep in mind, if you haven't put in a season entry, individual entries for the winter must be in 10 days prior to the event and you must be registered to enter.

The Australian  Track & Field Coaches Association recently awarded 22 coaches with their Level II coaching certification. One of those people who had to put in over 60 hours work during the nine day course was our own Leanna Tilley who specialized in "Coaching the Young Athlete".

Candidates in the Coaching Young Athlete group consider the particular requirements of athletes in the ten to fifteen years age group, including special growth considerations, psychology of the young athlete, resistance training for the young athlete, and problems of the fast/slow mature.

Though perhaps Leanna is best known for her inspirational 3000m at the National Club Championships, I am sure the wealth of young talent coming up through the club will greatly benefit from experience of Leanna.

Our Irish friend Juliet recently left her Australian training ground of Box Hill for Perth before she heads back to Ireland. "Thanks to yez all for being extra bleedin wonderful to me" she said as she left.

We are all going to miss her, especially Barry who was, for a while, was not the only Irishman around.

Box Hill juniors Heidi Riordan and Mohamad Zeed have been selected to represent Australia at the 2nd IAAF World Youth Championships in Debrecen, Hungary from 12-15 July. The World Youth Championships are for athletes aged under 18 years for 2001 (@ 31 December 2001).

Both athletes have been having to do hard training in the dark and wet during what would normally be their off season and we wish them both well.

New Box Hill member Rachael Dacy recently represented Australia at the East Asian Games in Osaka Japan. Though not jumping as high as her nation silver medal winning performance Rachael came a credible 5^th. "I feel like a princess as I sit in the shade and an army of 30 Japanese men manually shift all the mats - just for me!" she was quoted as saying. Obviously she had a great time!! If only there was 30 men running after you over here eh Rach.

We have one of our largest international teams since the 70’s with five Box Hill Athletes selected for the World Student Games later this year. Rachael Dacy, Rosanna Ditton, Steve Hooker, Georgie Power and Tim Williams are all going to be going for international glory.

While Georgie, Steve and Tim were all veterans of the last World Junior Championships, Rosie and Rachel are newly joined club members who have come to Box Hill and subsequently made the team due to the inspirational coaching of Mark Stewart. It should be noted that the entire pole vault team for Australia is made up of Box Hill Athletes.

June. June means exams, rain and work. All of which do not make for great attendance at training. Rumors are flying around as to the composition of the State League competition next season and the roof of the clubrooms is coming off to make way for the redevelopments. Who ever said athletics was a summer sport?

Club member and coach, Westly Windsor is offering a great deal to Club members on the popular Casio ACL200 sports watch for runners.

The main features are full stop watch with 50 lap memory, time of day shown until start button pressed then screen changes to elapsed and split time, count back timer with two separate but linked screens, up to 50 repeats, ten pre set alarms that run concurrently with the main stop watch screen, a marathon time possibility calculator based on input of 10k race time, electro glow light that can be manually or automatically operated, water resistant and 3 years guarantee. The Casio recommended retail price is $199.00. Box Hill Club members price is $169.00 which includes a rebate to the Club. If you need a new watch, contact Westly on 9890 3653 and help support the Club.

Box Hill Athletic Club operates the Barlow Foundation as a registered project with the Australian Sports Foundation for the purpose of supporting elite athletes and coaches in state league interclub competition. The project makes grants to athletes and coaches from tax-deductible donations made to the foundation.

Proposed distribution of Barlow Foundation grants for 2000/01 season

• $200 Reimbursement of expenses to the leading Female State League points scorer
• $200 Reimbursement of expenses to the leading Male State League points scorer
• $200 Reimbursement of expenses to the coach whose athletes (including both male and female) score the greatest combined total of State League points.
• Payment of Athletics Victoria membership for the following season for any athlete who scores 100 or more State League points.

All donations are tax deductible.A donation form can be displayed ofr printing out at the follwing link: BARLOW FUND DONATION FORM

If you have any questions about the Barlow Foundation, contact Colin Organ on 9813 3597 or via email (colo@bigpond.com)

Box Hill's women’s team did not equal their brilliant results of the Brimbank Park relays, but there were still several outstanding performances at the Flemington road race. It was difficult to follow the progress of the women's 10k race as the open, U20 and U18 women were all running in the same race as the U30 and U18 men.

Nikki Chapple, however, was clearly among the leading women and although she faded slightly in the second half she still finished strongly in 5th position in a time of 36:05. After not having raced for several years Nikki is likely to keep improving as the winter progresses and she will hopefully gain even better results throughout the rest of the season.

Marion Gamble ran well to finish in 46th place in a time of 40:54 ahead of Megan Sloane 47th in 41:07, while Kerry Walker was 63rd in 45:45.

Jessica De Bruin ran well to achieve a time of 37:26 in the women's under 20 10k, only truly outstanding runs by Victoria Mitchell of Eureka and Joanna Wall of Deakin pushed Jessica back into 3rd place.

Jocelyn Keage continued her great form with a huge win in the under 18 10k. Jocelyn ran a time of 36:23 to pick up the gold medal, more than four minutes ahead of the second under 18 girl! She was also the 12th woman to finish overall, including open and under 20 runners. Kate Thornton also ran well to finish 9th in her first 10k in a time of 48:43.

Juliet Thonton ran a great race while just missing a medal in the under 16 3k event. She ran the fast time of 10:49 in finishing 4^th in this event. Juliet will still be in this age group next year making her performance all the more meritorious. Georgie McCallum also ran well, not far behind Juliet, but was passed by a couple of runners in the final sprint, to come in 7^th in 11:14.

Unfortunately Hayley Tomlinson's entry for this event was late and she had to run by invitation, but her performance was truly outstanding. Not only did she easily win the girl's under 14 3k in the brilliant time of 10:06 (more than a minute ahead of the next under 14 girl), but in so doing, she also beat all of the under 16 girls and all of the under 14 boys!

The Box Hill men continued to struggle against strong opposition with most of our higher ranked runners running well below their best at the moment, however there was keen competition amongst the leading group of runners and with the first 7 runner within one and a half minutes of each other, there is plenty of depth. Hopefully this group of runners can improve as the season progresses to lift the team up towards the front of the field once again. Scott Jackson showed that he is slowly getting back into shape to be the first Box Hill athlete to finish in 36th place. It was pleasing to see Luke Yeatman returning to form to finish just behind John Meagher who carried on his fine form from the cross country relays.

The outstanding performance of the day came from Andrew White who broke 34 minutes and finished 3rd in the Under 16 race. Andrew battled on really well after going out very fast at the start to continue on his fine form from the summer. Hopefully he can continue this form through for the rest of the winter races.