2016-17 ANNUAL REPORT Contents Message from the President 2 Message from the Chief Executive Officer 6 Message from the Australian Sports Commission 8 High Performance 10 Australian Records 14 Program Development 16 National Participation 18 Commercial & Competitions 20 Board & Committees 25 Financial Report for the Year ended 30 June 2017 28 Directors' Report 34 Auditor's Independence Declaration under Section 307C of the Corporations Act 2001 42 Statement of Profit or Loss and Other Comprehensive Income 43 Statement of Financial Position 44 Statement of Changes in Equity 45 Statement of Cash Flows 45 Notes to the Financial Statements 46 Directors' Declaration 59 Independent Audit Report 60 Athletics ACT 64 Athletics New South Wales 66 Athletics Northern Territory 68 Queensland Athletics 70 Athletics South Australia 72 Athletics Tasmania 74 Athletics Victoria 76 Athletics Western Australia 78 Vale 82 Honour Roll 92 Athletics Australia Board of Directors & Staff 102 athletics.com.au 1 Message from the President • The world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, racing Athletics Australia has supported numerous in Australia for the first time, on all three teams to international competition, most nights and captaining the Bolt All Stars recently the Para and able-bodied World team; Championships in London. These events were highlighted by a stunning gold medal to Sally • 93% of attendees agreed they would Pearson (100m Hurdles) and well-deserved encourage family and friends to attend a silver to Dani Stevens (Discus) as well as three future Nitro Athletics event; and top-eight performances by Kurtis Marschall • Teams competing from China, England, (Pole Vault), Brooke Stratton (Long Jump) and New Zealand and Japan as well as the all- Dane Bird-Smith (20km Walk). conquering Bolt All Stars. Our para athletes also had an outstanding Athletics Australia will continue to work world championships, finishing 5th on the towards future Nitro events and to expand the medal tally with 28 medals. To put this result exciting format across all levels of the sport. in perspective, our para athletes won eight We thank all our partners and Mr Stokes for gold medals more than what was achieved in their generosity to athletics. Rio just 12 months earlier. Our gold medallists ATHLETICS AUSTRALIA 2016/17 NITRO LAUNCHED – 3.1M AUSTRALIAN AND included Cameron Crombie, Isis Holt (2), Scott PRESIDENT’S REPORT - #AusAthsRising GLOBAL TELEVISION AUDIENCE COLES COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP Reardon, James Turner (3), Evan O’Hanlon, The last 12 months has seen the continued Nitro Athletics was an initiative of Athletics Directly tied to the success of Nitro Athletics, Jayden Sawyer, Deon Kenzie and Madison de rise of athletics in Australia, as we pursue our Australia to give our athletes national the sport has now entered into a long-term Rozario with Cameron, James, Jayden and Isis key goals: to be the largest participation sport prominence outside of the Olympics and partnership with Coles who will be the setting a world record each along the way. in the country and for our athletes to achieve Commonwealth Games and to launch athletics Community Partner for Athletics Australia and From a development perspective, our greatness on the world stage. back on to commercial television in prime the major partner for Little Athletics Australia. Commonwealth Youth Games team had time. Nitro was one of the largest events ever This partnership, the largest in the sport’s considerable success in the Bahamas topping MEMBERSHIP UP BY 19% AND GROWING undertaken by Athletics Australia and required history, will be the commercial backbone of the medal tally with 17 and our team produced a great deal of commercial collaboration Increased participation is at the heart of our athletics into the future, helping us to increase an extremely successful outing at the inaugural and financial support from the Victorian efforts as a movement. A bigger and more participation and promote healthy lifestyles edition of the World Para-Athletics Junior Government, Channel 7 and our commercial active membership will provide the sport with through our mutual “Aths for Life” goals. Coles Championships held in Switzerland, collecting partners. a larger talent pool and help us to increase is one of Australia’s best known and most 10 medals in total to place 3rd on the medal commercial revenue that can be reinvested in Importantly, Athletics Australia was fortunate respected brands and their social responsibility table. There were also strong performances the sport to support coaches, officials, athletes and extremely thankful to have received is to be admired. We are proud to be associated at the World Cross Country Championships, and the grassroots. the financial backing of Kerry Stokes, who with Coles for our sport and look forward to our including a 13th place from Patrick Tiernan. supported the event in year one, ensuring that members embracing them. From that perspective, 2016/17 has been Athletics Australia is proud of the work of our Nitro could be held without any financial risk to extremely successful with membership high performance network and coaches and Athletics Australia. COMPETING PROUDLY ON WORLD STAGE increasing by 19.3%, reaching just over 43,000 has great ambitions for the future, supporting Our athletes have continued to rise and achieve from 36,000 in 2015/16. even more athletes to achieve their goals and The results surpassed all expectations and on the world stage. The Rio Olympics was reach the podium for their country. Since 2013 the sport’s registered membership achieved global and IAAF praise. The key highlighted by Jared Tallent collecting silver in has grown by 40%. There are very few achievements included: the 20km Walk and Dane Bird-Smith claiming organisations that have seen this sort of rapid • Australian television audience of 3.1 million bronze in the 50km Walk. The Rio team of growth in recent times and it is a credit to the viewers; 60 also showed that the future will continue work of our State and Territory officials and to be bright as we head towards our home clubs that are throwing open their doors to new • 265 international broadcast hours across Commonwealth Games in 2018, with nine of our members. Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, Central top 16 finishers under 25 years old. America and USA; In addition, our partner parkrun now has 500,000 Australia’s Paralympic team to Rio saw Brayden registered participants and the Sporting Schools • Over 6.7 million social media accounts Davidson (T36 Long Jump), Scott Reardon (T42 program continues to go from strength to reached with 10.4 million impressions; 100m) and James Turner (T36 800m) crowned strength with a 57% increase in participants over • 24,000 fans attending across three nights; Paralympic Champions, as well as earning an the past 12 months. In two years the program additional nine silver and 14 bronze medals. continued has provided coaching to more than 115,000 children across more than 1,000 schools. 2 Athletics Australia Annual Report 2016-17 athletics.com.au 3 Message from the President THANK YOU ATHLETICS FAMILY As a grassroots sport, it is most important that we recognise the countless number of officials, volunteers, parents and coaches that give up their time freely for the betterment of the sport and the athletes. On behalf of the Australian athletics community, a big thank you. To our corporate partners, specifically Coles, General Electric, Rebel, Adidas and 2XU – we deeply value your support and commitment to growing athletics and look forward to working with you in future. Also, thank you to our State and Territory members for their fine work and to the management and staff at Athletics Australia. To our One Sport partners at Little Athletics, parkrun, Australian Masters Athletics, Athletics International and ATFCA, we deeply appreciate your commitment over the past 12 months and the contribution to the welfare of athletics. Onwards to the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and I wish Team Australia the greatest of success at every level - #AusAthsRising Mark Arbib President 4 Athletics Australia Annual Report 2016-17 athletics.com.au 5 Message from the Chief Executive Officer OneSport and its philosophy of collaboration • Driving our OneSport policy and philosophy; remains a cornerstone. As major proponents • Creating a vibrant and innovative competition of the OneSport policy, I thank the State and structure; and Territory Member Associations for their continued hard work in applying the philosophy on a daily • Improving and sustaining engagement with basis. A range of methods have been put in place athlete community and stakeholders. to ensure greater alignment, including: The year ahead provides the perfect platform to • Joint board meetings, information begin addressing the above, with 2018 seeing sessions, advisory panels and committee the return of the Commonwealth Games to representatives Australian shores. I am very much looking forward to witnessing our athletes perform on • Sharing of resources and platforms for marketing, the Gold Coast, particularly following our strong communications and digital systems collection of successes for our para and able- • Aligning values and cultures between the bodied athletes at the World Championships respective organisations in London. Our athletes will have the chance to test out the Games venue in February when • Joint competitions, event calendars, holiday I am pleased to present my first annual report as In February 2017, the inaugural Coles Nitro our national championships and nomination clinics, coaching course and HP athlete the Chief Executive Officer of Athletics Australia. Athletics Melbourne was staged. The event trials take place at Carrara Stadium, with this development programs Whilst I have been involved in the sport through delivered world-first, innovative, athletics event also presenting coaches, officials and Nitro Athletics and other capacities, I am thrilled entertainment, resulting in the largest crowd Our great partnerships with parkrun, Little administrators the opportunity to gain familiarity to have been recently welcomed as the new CEO.