Country champs back in Bendigo

ATHLETES from all over the state will be in Bendigo next year for the Victorian Country Track and Field Championships.

The Athletics Victoria event rotates between Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo every year, and Friday, 28, January will mark the first major event for Athletics Bendigo in two years.

General manager Terry Hicks said he’s expecting up to 1000 competitors from under 14s to over 60s in all track and field events.

“It’s good to have an event back,” he said. “It’s always successful, the four Bendigo clubs are always very much into the team, points, scoring side of the event.

“It’s an individual championship across all events, there’s also some individual championship shields for men, women and overall and the Bendigo clubs have dominated in these over the years, so we’re happy to have it here for that reason.”

The Bendigo clubs include Bendigo Harriers, Bendigo University, Eaglehawk YMCA and South Bendigo.

Clubs from Gippsland, Shepparton, Albury, Ballarat and Geelong will compete, and metropolitan Melbourne clubs can also compete by invitation.

“When you include all of that there are around 50 clubs in Victoria, we would have competitors from most of those come to Bendigo and we’d hope to get between 800 and 1000 individuals that will compete across the three days,” he said.

Mr Hicks said participation at Athletics Bendigo has been strong across its Little Athletics and Athletics Victoria State League competitions which began in November.

“Our numbers are better than they’ve been for a few years not COVID including, we’re very happy with the numbers we’ve got,” he said.

“The Little Aths has been really successful with good numbers and going along quite well and the AVSL competition, all the clubs are doing very well in their respective divisions.

“We’re quite happy with how we’re going considering we got off to a slow start, about five weeks later than we normally would. The numbers have been great.”