The Bowral Little Athletics club sent off 2021 with a bang at the South Coast Highlands Zone Championships last month.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In a superb performance which defied many expectations, Bowral's team of 54 athletes picked up 50 gold medals, 52 silver medals, and 42 bronze medals, along with four zone records.
- Also read: Swim club celebrates another big season
Club secretary, Katie Blake, said the accolades came as a surprise not because a lack of faith in the kids, but a disrupted lead-in due to the COVID-19 lockdowns.
"We didn't start the season in October like we wanted to, so we lost at least four weeks of club nights," Blake said.
"The weather didn't work in our favour either, so instead of having six nights before the Zone Championships, we had four.
"So that wasn't ideal ... it was probably less than half of the opportunities we would have had in any other year."
Despite the lack of training, Bowral starred among the clubs gathered at Wollongong's Kerryn McCann Athletics Facility on December 18 and 19.
Arguably the four standouts for the club were Isaac Reko (hurdles), Pixie Hanson (1,500m), Charlotte Withers (javelin), and Alex Harris (100m), who set new zone records in their respective disciplines.
This in itself was a thrilling achievement for the youngsters, but Blake was unsurprised to see these children excel.
"Pixie's new to the club, so that was exciting to see," she said.
"Isaac didn't compete at Zone last year, but he's a very strong competitor at club level and has made it to State before.
"For the last two seasons, Alex has put a lot of effort into his sprinting. Last year he was one of the top runners in the state, and he'd competed the week before at All Schools and got second. He's very focused at the moment and has a sophisticated training regime.
"Charlotte has been breaking records each year at Zone ... she's notorious for getting better and better and works very hard at it."
The next step for many of the Bowral competitors are the Regional Championships, which will take place across February 5 and 6, once again at Wollongong.
Athletes who placed in the top three at Zone automatically qualified for the next event, and while Blake knows it will be a serious step-up in competition, she is confident the kids can once again produce strong performances.
"We'll be at the same track in Wollongong, which is great because it's not too far," she said.
"It makes us competitive against all other regions going into State. It is a very big area that we compete against ... so the competition is stiff out there, we have a very strong region. But in saying that, we have a great little club and if they keep training during the break, I think they'll do great."
Blake also made a point of thanking the volunteers from the club who helped out during the Zone Championships.
"It's all run by parent volunteers, and because we had so many athletes compete, we had to provide a lot of parent volunteers," she said.
"We were so successful with getting our team to come together and help out."
While you're with us...
Did you know Southern Highland News is now offering breaking news alerts and a weekly email newsletter? Keep up-to-date with all the local news: sign up here.