Eridge Park once again shook with the thunderous sound of runners as Bowral Little Athletics finally got its season underway on Friday.
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After waiting to ensure restrictions were lifted in time, there was a lot of pent up energy on display with two club records broken on the night.
Charlotte Withers broke the 2020/21 Under 13 Girls javelin record throwing 28.62m whilst Drew Cooney set a new Under 11 Girls shot put record, breaking the 2012/13 milestone with a 8.33m throw.
Club secretary Katie Blake said it was a great night all-round.
"These are two girls who are very competitive and probably kept up their training during the offseason but to break a club record is not easy, some of these records have stood for 30 years," she told the Southern Highland News.
"It was great. We've had a lot of complications leading up like most people in the world at the moment but we came back as quickly as we could. We were five weeks late starting but we had to fit in with all the rules. It has made it quite difficult in some ways and in other ways it's business as usual."
Whilst the heavens opened up and prevented any long jump events, Blake said the committee was just focusing on delivering what they can in the wake of a hugely disruptive year.
"The weather wasn't our friend. We normally do four events but we canned our jump and went with two runs and a throw," she explained.
"It was somewhat of a soft start to the season but all our committee is thinking about is just getting the kids back to sport and forgetting about what the kids can't control.
"We want them to get back to normality and doing what they love. We started off with a huge group of tiny tots (ages three-five) which we've had to cap because they are such a big group.
"Our overall club numbers aren't as big as last season but we're happy. We have over 160 kids registered now so that's pretty damn good for what we've just come out of. It's a very different year, usually registrations open in August including last year."
There was one upside to the downpour with the club able to test out some new equipment obtained in the offseason.
"We got another grant so we now have covers on long jump and throw-in circles," Blake said.
"When it is raining we leave them on and while they're not perfectly dry they're so much better than having two inches of water sitting at the bottom!"
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