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Celebrating 50 Years of Little Aths in style.
From humble beginnings with a small group of children on an oval in Geelong in 1964, Trevor Billingham helped build Little Athletics into what it is today - a nation-wide organisation with over 100,000 participants. Trevor's competitive spirit and sense of community gave thousands of children the opportunity to experience the fun and enjoyment of athletics.
This competitive spirit and sense of community were certainly on display at Sunday's 50 Years Open Day and Region Challenge event. John Landy Field, the venue of that very first training session 50 years ago, once again played host. This time around over 500 athletes competed in a fantastic day of colour, fun, and excitement.
After plenty of wild weather at recent skills clinics, the sun was already hot as LAVic staff, officials and volunteers put the finishing touches on the event set-up. The seven Region tents, set up along the 200m bend, added a splash of colour to the track and set the scene for an exciting day of competition.
The 50 Years Open Day event, open to all athletes from Under 9-16, was a great success. Athletes were very excited about the chance to win commemorative medals and the excellent performances they all put in certainly showed it! The special addition of athlete's names on their bib numbers was also a big hit with the kids.
The Region Challenge team event added another level of buzz to the festivities. Derived from the first place getters of the U9 to U15 age groups of the 2012/13 Region Track & Field competitions, each Region fielded a team of up to 34 athletes in this inaugural event. With Region points on the line for each event, athletes were extremely motivated to put in their best performances and help their team win. The Region relays at the close of the day provided a grandstand finish to the event as the athletes pushed their tired legs hard one last time.
After the scores were tallied, Gippsland Country Region came out on top and was awarded first place in the Region Challenge. Western Country Region and Northern Country Region took out second and third place respectively. No matter their placing every single team member had a big smile on their face as they posed for team photos at the end of the day. A big congratulations to all the teams involved!
On behalf of Little Athletics Victoria, we would like to thank everyone involved in the event, including the athletes, parents, volunteers and officials. We are all very proud that we could celebrate our 50 Years anniversary in such fantastic fashion!
A collection of photographs from the day are now up on our Little Aths Facebook Page for you to enjoy. Click here to see them!
Full results are now available on our Events & Results page.
