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Looking Back at State Relay Championships 2013
The State Relay Championships are Little Athletic Victoria’s main team competition for the season and also one of our busiest. They are the only Championships where boys and girls can run against each other and also be on the same team. This year’s event was a resounding success and produced many memorable moments for everyone involved.
Centres and their athletes started filing into Lakeside stadium early on Saturday morning as teams set up their own stations in the grandstands. The stadium was soon awash with colourful Centre banners and flags, and athletes warming up for the first races of the day. The day’s racing got officially underway after the national anthem was sung beautifully, in full, by Madison Clark – an Under 11 Little Athlete from Southern Peninsula.
The relay action on the track was practically non-stop throughout the day with many best performances recorded across the different age groups and races. Just as impressive as the BPs, was the team camaraderie on display at the event. Whether athletes came in first or eighth, their enthusiasm and friendship towards each other was absolutely fantastic! We’ve got plenty of photos from the day to prove it too!
A number of awards were given out during the day’s lunch break, including the Bryan Neighbour – Centre Coach Award. This award to honour the services of coaches at Centre level was renamed in honour of Bryan Neighbour, who passed away earlier this year. Bryan was a true leader in the field of coach education and firmly believed in coaching at the Centre level as a meansof developing young athletes and nurturing their talents. A special congratulations to Brendan Dixon of Yarra Ranges, who was the inaugural winner of this award.
After more than nine hours of racing and hundreds of medals awarded, the State Relay Championships finished up just after 7pm with the last of the 4x100m relays. It was yet another brilliant day on the track and another State Championships to be proud of. On behalf of Little Athletics Victoria, we would like to extend a big thank you to everyone involved at this year’s event, including our Centres, officials, volunteers, parents and of course all our fantastic athletes!
