Harriers on track for 100 years

BENDIGO Harriers Athletics Club is celebrating its centenary this year, reminiscing on years of physical triumph and community engagement.

Club chair Neil Macdonald said he felt privileged to be at the helm of the club for the major milestone.

“For a club to reach 100 years is an achievement in itself, especially when you think it survived the Second World War, and life has been very difficult the last couple of years with COVID,” he said.

Mr Macdonald joined the Harriers as a kid in 1952 before a youth program was ever offered.

“I was 11 or 12 and the only competition available in those days was under 15s. There was no such thing as Little Aths, it hadn’t been invented,” he said.

“They called us the junior Harriers and we used to run on a Saturday morning from the YMCA in Mundy Street, and it evolved from there.”

Since then, Mr Macdonald said the Harriers has grown to become a community oriented club through events like the Dragon Mile, a key feature of the Bendigo Easter Festival.

“It involves nearly all the schools and hundreds of kids. Maybe they don’t continue on in athletics, but we get them involved in sport in some way and lots of the kids that have been involved in the Dragon Mile have gone on to be basketballers or footballers,” he said.

“We’ve got them involved in the community and physical activity, and that’s the important part.

“Even here on a Saturday in the summertime, we’ve got an enormous amount of seniors running now, which we never used to have.”

The club will commemorate the anniversary with a centenary dinner on Saturday, 11 June and is calling on past members to join in the celebrations.