Athletes return from state championships

BALLARAT Little Athletics Centre has returned from the Little Athletics Victoria State Track and Field Championships at Casey Fields with six gold medals.

The club had 33 children take part in the competition and its competitors also took home six silver and three bronze medals.

Six centre records were broken and 15 athletes placed in fourth to eighth positions.

The club’s under-9 boys relay team also won silver at the State Relay Championships.

Ballarat Little Athletics secretary Sam Gent said the club was proud of the athletes’ achievements.

“We had our new athletes as under-9s getting their first experience of state events and then we had two ageing-out under-17 athletes that competed as well,” she said.

“Our strongest athletes were in our distance events where we achieved four medals.”

Five athletes have been selected to take part in the Australian Little Athletics Championships in Adelaide in April.

“We are really proud of them that they’ll be heading to Adelaide at the end of April,” Ms Gent said. “We will be sending five athletes from a regional centre to a national event, and we believe we’ve got strong growth in our community of members this year.”

Ms Gent said attending the event was not just about winning medals, but also about building friendships and getting competition experience.

“It may not be about walking away with a state medal, it may not be about having a personal best, but it’s about the experience of competition at a different centre, competition under different officials,” she said.

“It is about healthy, active kids that are having fun, socialising and building up a network of friendships not just at our centre but across the region and state.”