ATHLETES from all over the state will be in Bendigo next year for the Victorian Country Track and Field Championships.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
General manager Terry Hicks said he\u2019s expecting up to 1000 competitors from under 14s to over 60s in all track and field events.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to have an event back,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s always successful, the four Bendigo clubs are always very much into the team, points, scoring side of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an individual championship across all events, there\u2019s also some individual championship shields for men, women and overall and the Bendigo clubs have dominated in these over the years, so we\u2019re happy to have it here for that reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bendigo clubs include Bendigo Harriers, Bendigo University, Eaglehawk YMCA and South Bendigo.<\/p>\n
Clubs from Gippsland, Shepparton, Albury, Ballarat and Geelong will compete, and metropolitan Melbourne clubs can also compete by invitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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\u2019d hope to get between 800 and 1000 individuals that will compete across the three days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Hicks said participation at Athletics Bendigo has been strong across its Little Athletics and Athletics Victoria State League competitions which began in November.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur numbers are better than they\u2019ve been for a few years not COVID including, we\u2019re very happy with the numbers we\u2019ve got,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re quite happy with how we\u2019re going considering we got off to a slow start, about five weeks later than we normally would. The numbers have been great.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s expecting […]<\/p>\n