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Club
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Phone: 9890
3631 http://www.boxhillathleticclub.org/ | |
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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY |
CONTENTS
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Tues 9 Dec ’03
State League Rnd 6 - OP | ||
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Despite Athletics Victoria’s attempts to level the playing field at State League, both the men’s and women’s teams from Box Hill are dominating this season. The Men are yet to lose a round and the Women, after a third place in round 1, have been undefeated for the rest of the season.
With only two rounds of State League to go both teams are sitting pretty for the finals on Thursday 5th February. This year the finals are held over only one day meaning that our field event teams are going to have to be very strong to defeat the likes of Bayside.
Depth in both teams is becoming very strong as athletes are competing for spots instead of the usual of team managers begging for athletes to compete.
Lets keep the pressure on and guide our men to their 3rd victory in a row and the women to their 3rd in five years.
“Box Hill Athletics Club, Australia’s most successful athletic club.”
The third annual Whitehorse Gift meeting was held on 22 November and despite the threat of rain and a few misty showers throughout the evening, record entries were received for most events and the competition was close and exciting.
With 55 entries received for the 400 m Whitehorse Gift,
the field was split into 5 heats to determine the runners to compete in the
final where backmarker and long time club member Andrew Wilcox just failed to
catch all the runners in front of him to finish a close second. Councillor Bill
Bowie presented the sash and prize money to the winner of the Gift and
complimented the Club on the conduct of the meeting.
A new event on the program this year was the Victorian Mile Championship which was conducted for the first time in many years. With a large contingent of Box Hill members in the field, it was great to see Marcus Tierney outrun the rest of the field to win the race and win his first Victorian Championship individual medal.
The strong contingent of young distance runners from Marcellin College dominated the Runners World 3000 m handicap race and took home the prizemoney in this event. Hopefully they will continue to show this form in years to come to help strengthen the Club’s distance running ranks.
Paul Chiodo took off very quickly in the Runners World 800 m handicap and was able to hold off the fast finishing Johnny Gray, Georgina Connell and Bill Feutrill to win the race.
In one of the closest finishes for the day, Simon
Bromley revealed some hidden form to just manage to hold off Richard Moore and
backmarker Justin Lewis in the Ashwood Bamboo Blinds 110 m handicap.
The big field and damp weather made conditions difficult for the pole vaulters, however Adele Holland was able to handle the conditions the best and jumped a PB to win the handicap event from Dion Pocklington and Georgia White. Joel Pocklington jumped the highest of all the men, clearing 4.30 m, while Irie Hill was the best of the women with a jump of 3.70 m.
There was a huge field of 45 entered for the Banksia
Sports Gait and Posture Clinic 1600 m race so despite there being several
scratchings, there was still a large field that fought out a closely contested
race.
With the numbers continuing to grow each year, we are hopeful that this event will develop into one of the highlights of the athletics calendar in Melbourne each year. We are grateful for the great support again shown by our sponsors and all Club members are encouraged to support them, so that they continue to support us. Thank you also to all those who assisted with officiating and helping on the day.
The Club is required to provide a number of people to assist with running State League and Interclub competition each week. If we don’t provide four helpers at State League and 13 helpers each week at Interclub competition, then the teams are penalised points and the hard work of our athletes is wasted. To spread the load across all of our members, we require each member to provide a friend or family member to assist on at least one occasion during the season.
No particular skills are required – the tasks available
include putting out and packing away equipment, raking jumps pits, measuring
throws, recording results, helping in the canteen, judging finishing places or
replacing high jump or pole vault bars. Please contact Joan Hines on 9859 5081
or Julie Milner on 9818 1278 to advise when you or a friend or family member are
able to help.
This year's Melbourne Marathon was held in near perfect
conditions for marathon running, a cool morning with a tail wind all the way
from Frankston to Melbourne. Two Life Members of the Box Hill Athletic Club
completed the course, with Chris O'Connor tackling the marathon distance, while
Neville Gardner completed yet another marathon to keep intact his remarkable
record of having run in every Melbourne Marathon that has been held.
Chris discovered that the marathon is a very unforgiving race
and didn’t enjoy the last half of the race very much after running a bit fast
for the first half, however he battled on gamely to finish in 160th
place with a time of 3:08:16.
Neville showed the benefit of his many years of experience to run as well as he has for many years to finish in 778th place with a time of 3:53:57. Well done to both of these athletes on completing this challenging event.
For a limited time there are some "State League" Long Sleeve Training Tops now available for only $20. Also a new order of Club Tracksuit tops has just arrived so get in early before they all go for $85.
There are
also copies of the video shown at the 70 Year Dinner and Presentation Night
available for purchase in DVD format for just $30. The professionally produced
video shows many of our members from the last 30 years in action and is a great
record of some of the athletes who have competed for Box Hill.
For any of the above, or uniforms please contact Julie Milner on 9818 1278 or email juliem@brd.net.au.
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. These grants have
played a significant part in the success of the State League teams over the past
few seasons and the Club is committed to continuing to provide these
opportunities for our State League athletes.
The distribution of Barlow Foundation grants made at the presentation night for the 2002/03 season was:
· $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 (both male and female) score the greatest combined total of State League points.
To help ensure the continued success of our State League teams, we are requesting donations to help fund these grants. All donations are tax deductible. If you would like to obtain a donation form to send in a donation, or have any questions about the Barlow Foundation, please contact Colin Organ on 9813 3597 or via email (colo@bigpond.com). Alternatively you may wish to download a form directly from the Club’s web site at http://www.boxhillathleticclub.org.
Is Rob Falkenberg in heaven or what? On Saturday we had athletes the calibre of Steve Hooker, Chris Ferreira and Rhett Medford competing invitation in the 200m because both the Division 1 teams were full. In round 1 of interclub the Box Hill Men’s 4x100m team ran a time that would have won state relays last year quite easily. The challenge I put forward to the club and its athletes is: Can Box Hill come first and second at State Relay titles?
Last year Box Hill clearly dominated the State Relay Championships, and this year our teams seem even stronger on paper. Surely the only competition will come from another Box Hill team. Why should we limit ourselves to one relay team with athletes like Williams, Budlender, Fraser, Duke, Wilcox, Hooker, Harrison, Zeed, Medford and Ferreira just to name a few.
It is up to the athletes to convince the committee that they are dedicated and determined and convince them to enter multiple teams in the State Relay Championships.
To submit
articles either see Cameron Baker or el Presidente Graeme Olden down at the
track or email Cameron on vaultcam@hotmail.com.
With the retirement of Stewart Livingston and Alan Cross during the last track season, we have been left with a major challenge to look after maintenance of equipment and the numerous tasks required to set up and pack away each week. We have managed to find some volunteers to assist with the many tasks, however we will require assistance from others throughout the season to help spread the workload and ensure that all the equipment is available for competition each week.
Peter Robbie has taken on the job of maintaining and preparing all the equipment so that it is ready for the competition season while Adam Pepper has agreed to act as Technical Official on competition days and Grant Hodges will take responsibility for putting out and packing away equipment. To help ease the load on these people, it is essential that others step in to help with putting out equipment each week and cleaning up and packing away after competition. If you can help out in any way, please talk to Adam or Grant or contact a member of the committee.
Congratulations go to Ronnie Buckley who threw an Australian Under 20 record and World Junior Qualifier on the weekend at Interclub. Hopefully he can repeat his success at the recent World Youth Championships and bring home a medal from the World Juniors.
After a most successful track season last year, the committee has decided to re-appoint the Club captains from the 2002-2003 season for this season. Congratulations to Cameron Baker and Leana Tilley on setting a great example in this role last year and for being re-appointed to this prestigious position again this year.
All Club members are urged to follow the fine example of their club captains and support them in helping the Club to follow up the successes of last season to make this year even better.
The Club’s tax deductible Barlow Fund also includes a separate building fund. With additional funds needed to be able to fund the Stage II Pavilion Upgrade (upstairs extension), donations to this fund are urgently required. Any donations made to this building fund will be directed solely towards the club room upgrade. Now is an excellent time to help the Club to fund your new club rooms and reduce your tax bill. Any donation of $100 or more will be recognised with a plaque recording your donation prominently displayed on a brick in the new clubrooms. Donation forms can be downloaded from the Club’s web site - www.boxhillathleticclub.org - or obtained from Colin Organ – phone 9813 3597 or email at colo@bigpond.com.
Former Box Hill Athlete and our first World Record holder, Emma George has retired from athletics due to persistent injuries. Emma was a pioneer of women’s pole vault and took the sport to great heights.
Emma had this note for us all:
To my friends and family,
I wanted to let you know that I will be officially retiring from vaulting this Tuesday. It's been a difficult decision for me however I can see it's clearly the right one and I am grateful for the many experiences and opportunities I have been given through sport. Both Ash and I are looking forward to living a 'normal' life and enjoying the freedom of weekends, holidays and eating whatever we want. I would like to thank you for all the help and support you have given me over the years, I really couldn't have done it without you.
Love Emma.
She will be sorely missed by all involved with Australian Athletics.
Early in August 2003 the Work for the Dole programme commenced at the Athletic Club and will run for 26 weeks. Work for the Dole is funded by the Commonwealth Government and the programme at the Club is sponsored by Mission Australia.
The objectives of the Work for the Dole are to:
· Provide work experience to unemployed people
· Develop good work habits in unemployed people
· Involve local communities in activities that provide for unemployed people and assist them at the end of their activity and
· Provide communities with activities (facilities and services) which are value to them.
Graeme Olden who has also spent the last two months working with the participants negotiated placement of the programme at BHAC.
To date the following projects have been completed or are near completion:
· Installation of a new frame and netting at the hammer cage so that the cage will now comply with the latest IAAF regulations.
· Re-alignment of the hammer throw sector markings to comply with the latest IAAF regulations for the sector dimensions.
· Remarking of all coloured lines on the track to indicate hurdle locations and relay change boxes.
· Repair and painting of the bench seats in the grandstand and around the ground.
· Installation of new "Toilet" signs to guide visitors to the public toilets.
· Replacement of broken shade sail poles and installation of new bracing between the existing poles.
· Repair and painting of hurdles (ongoing).
· Cleaning and painting of the pole vault uprights.
· Installation of a concrete slab which will enable a combined third pole vault pit and second high jump pit to be established on the north side of the high jump area.
· Installation of concrete paved areas on the inside of the track for stacking of hurdles.
As you can see from the completed projects a wide variety of skills is required. Many of the participants already had these skills while some have developed them over the last three months. Three of the original participants have now left the project, as they have obtained full time work.
Congratulations to all involved and a special thank you to Graeme Olden and to Peter Robbie.
Unfortunately, due to an increase in the manufacturing
costs, the price of club singlets and women's bodysuit tops will be
increased to $30.
On Monday 22nd December Robin Barkley will be
running his second Chin Up and Bench Press Competition for the year. Last time
Steve Hooker won the Chin Ups and Robin himself controversially took out the
Bench Press Competition after the real winner Adrian Grace was disqualified for
not actually being a Box Hill Athlete.
