Now that our Regional Relay competition is over I just wish to extend my congratulations to each and every one of the participants for their fabulous effort last Sunday.  You all ran extremely hard and were amazing Brighton Little Athletics Centre representatives.  Well done!!!  The confusing weather coupled with a lengthy delay in the program wore heavily on both athletes and parents alike but all remained patient and committed to the spirit of the day.

We entered 45 teams into the competition of which 42 competed on the day.  From our 42 competing teams 27 advanced to the finals of their specific event and out of those 27, 7 teams placed 1st, 2nd or 3rd.  While we are assured that two teams have advanced to the State Relay Competition in December we await to hear if others have advanced based upon their times.  Congratulations to our U9G 4x100m and 4x200m teams on their advancement to the State Relay Championships.

Regardless of the final result of each team, we hope that all the athletes enjoyed the inter-centre competition which included athletes from 18 other centres which make up the Southern Metropolitan Region.  I admired and appreciated your enthusiasm and commitment to the “team” by attending training sessions and turning up to run on the day.  It is a valuable life lesson to make a commitment and follow it through to the end especially when others are relying upon you as is the case with relays.  Again, well done.

To the parents, all I can say is WOW!!  Thank you so much for supporting your child/children during this experience.  It is such a huge injection of your time to transport them to and from training, provide uniforms and ensure that they get there on the day.  The other area of commitment is to do the required duty.  You all put your hands up so willingly and remained faithful to your commitment.  For those who offered to do a second duty a double thank you.  The delay in the running of the schedule meant officials were needed for longer than the programmed time.  Jill Mowat did a great job in coordinating this.  Thank you Jill!  I also really appreciate all the support parents and athletes have offered me during the past weeks.

On behalf of the athletes I wish to extend a big thank you too to Ian Scott for selflessly offering his time and expertise in coaching the athletes in of all the relay techniques.

With this, our first Regional event over we are now coaching the qualifiers for the State Relay Championships in December and planning for the Regional Track & Field competition which is set to run on 16-17 February 2008.  More information about the Track & Field events will follow in the next week or so.

Debbie McCann
Team Manager.

Please email our team manager Debbie McCann if you have any questions regarding the relay championships or the other championship events held throughout the season.