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President’s Message I hope everyone had a very Happy Christmas and In October, Australian Little Athletics held its New Year. second Roll of Excellence Dinner. It gives me great To date, a number of State meetings have been pleasure to announce that Hollie Grima, former Longford Districts Little Athlete, was inducted into conducted, including our State Relay Championships which were a great success. We the Australian Little Athletics Roll of Excellence in the category of Sportsmen. A full report is on are fast approaching the Walks and Multi‐Event Championships, followed closely by the State page 3 of this newsletter. Individual Championships. Good luck to all It is a timely reminder to all members that the athletes for the forthcoming championship TLAA has comprehensive Codes of Behaviour events. which covers athletes, officials, coaches, spectators and parents. The TLAA stresses to A big thank you to all who have made such everyone the requirement to comply at all times significant contributions to ensure these State to the various codes of behaviour, and the meetings are successful. penalties that will apply if these are deemed to be Once again this year, there were several Centres broken in any way. A copy of this policy is in the South of the state who, for various reasons, outlined in the TLAA Information Manual. were unable to gain access to their ground. We Just a reminder that the TLAA will be hosting the were fortunate that for most weeks, the Domain Australian Little Athletics Championships in April was available and members from the affected 2012 and we will be looking for many volunteers Centres were able to compete. The worst hit for the day – officials, junior officials, medal Centre was Claremont, and it was with regret that presenters, basket carriers, team runners….. the they went into recession for this season. Several list is endless. The TLAA will be calling on of Claremont’s athletes have registered with members (both adults and juniors) to fill in an Hobart Districts Centre, and we thank them for expression of interest form if you would like to allowing the athletes to retain their identity as assist at the championships, and I envisage this Claremont athletes. At the conclusion of this will be sent to Centres and be available on our season, Claremont will be looking at strategies website – www.littleathletics.com.au in the and a marketing campaign to revitalise their coming month. In the interim, if you would like to Centre. volunteer your services, please contact the office We continue to have great support from our to have your name recorded. sponsors, Aurora Energy, McDonald’s, IGA, Best wishes to all for the remainder of the season. Department of Sport and Recreation, MyState, Medalmania, Southern Cross TV, and Robbie’s Confectionery. Rhonda O’Sign President The TLAA was again fortunate to receive continued funding from the Department of Sport and Recreation for the employment of our administration officer. Former little athlete Matt Hey was appointed to this role after the resignation of Jacqui Singleton in October. Matt is an asset to the Association with his knowledge of Little Athletics and his broad administration skills.
Season 2010/2011 | January 2011 Page 2
Lime and Mind Yogurt Ices
Serves : 8 People Preparation Time : 10 Minutes
Ingredients 2 Cups Low‐Fat Natural Yogurt 1 Cup Firmly packed Fresh Mint Leaves 2 Teaspoons Lime Rind 1 Tablespoon Lime Juice 1/3 Cup (150g) Honey
Method Blend or process ingredients until smooth. Pour mixture into eight 1/3 cup (80ml) ice‐block moulds. Press lids on firmly. Freeze for 6 hours our overnight. Enjoy!
2009/2010 IGA Docket Competition Winners North East Little Athletics Centre was please to be pre‐ sented at State Conference with a cheque for $1,700.00 as winners of the IGA Shopper Docket Competition for 2009/2010. These funds will be used by the centre to purchase a container for storage, cover the costs for those that attended the TLAA State Conference and will also help to update some of the centre's equipment.
We thank out local IGA at Scottsdale for being very sup‐ portive of this promotion and out Little Athletics Centre. We look forward to tallying this year’s dockets up at the end of the season.
Image L‐R (Back): Tony Brooks (Scottsdale IGA Owner/Operator) & Catherine Irwin (NELAC President) with Little Athletes William Calder, Madeleine Calder, (Front) Mitchell Wooley & Talisha Wooley
Family, Fun & Fitness Page 3
Little Athletics Australia ~ Roll of Excellence
Inductees: Christine Grima (on behalf of Hollie), Jane Saville, Peter Wicks, George Harvey, Janine Shepherd, John Steffensen
A diverse range of individuals, were amongst those who were inducted into the Australian Little Athletics Roll of Excellence during a Gala Dinner at Wrest Point Tasmania on Saturday 19th October 2010. The Australian Little Athletics Roll of Excellence recognises former participants in the iconic junior sporting activity who have achieved at the highest level in their chosen sport or profession. The recipients were inducted into four categories : Volunteers, Achievers, Sportsmen, Track and Field. A total of 83 people from around Australia attended the dinner, including members from East Derwent, Devonport and South Launceston Centres. Other attendees included John Steffensen and Jane Saville, the two inductees in the Track and Field category. In particular, Tasmanian Little Athletics would like to pay special tribute to former Little Athlete, Hollie Grima who was inducted into the Sportsmen Category.
Hollie Grima Hollie was involved in Little Athletics from the age of 5, participating through to her Under13 year in 1997. Hollie was always an outstanding athlete, and today still holds 15 Centre Records. These records are in the following events : Long Jump, High Jump, Triple Jump and Javelin; the oldest record being recorded in the U7 Triple Jump event. In her Under 13 year, Hollie was a member of the Tasmanian State Team to participate in the Australian Little Athletics Teams Championships which Christine Grima accepting were held in Sydney in 1997. Hollie attended the AIS between 2000 and 2003 under a scholarship, the award on behalf of Hollie. and debuted with the Australian Opals Basketball Ball team in 2002 on tours to China and Lithuania. Hollie has been highly successful in her basketball career, earning herself many awards at both Junior and Senior level. Hollie has represented her country on numerous occasions, debuting at the 2002 World Championships in China where the Australian team won bronze. She has also won a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics after missing out on selection during the 2004 Olympics. She was also part of the Australian team that won the gold medal at the world championships in 2005 and the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
The Tasmanian Little Athletics Association
congratulates all 2010 inductees:
Volunteers George Harvey & Peter Wicks
Achievers Kendra, Chris & Matt Hey Anne Millington & Anne House Mick Halaby, Rhonda O’Sign & Dean Wadley Janine Shepherd & Chris Bradshaw
Sportsmen Hollie Grima & Geoff Ogilvy
Track and Field Jane Saville & John Steffensen
Michael & Janene Stubbs, Wendy Burridge Helen Moir, Paula Brown & Garry House Jeanette & Neil Cordy, Ross Burridge
Be Your Best Page 4
www.tlaaphotos.com.au Page 5
www.tlaaphotos.com.au Page 6 Centre News
Bar-coding A Success at South Launceston During the off season, the SLLAC timing upgrade sub‐committee worked tirelessly to provide a complete upgrade to our timing system and athlete data recording system. We would like to acknowledge the support of the Department of Sport and Recreation and also the Tasmanian Community Fund for their financial grants which enabled us to proceed with our ambitious project.
Like many other centres we purchased a set of timing gates and electronic timing system. Our ten lane system allows us to use six lanes for sprint events while using the inside lanes for distance events simultaneously thus maximising use of the track. The timing gates have certainly sped up the process of allocating performances to athletes as opposed to reviewing video tapes of races where it was often difficult to identify which athlete had finished in which lane. South Launceston also investigated many different athlete data recording systems and after extensive research decided on the Network Athletic Recording System (NARS) developed by Morricom as this system allows for barcode scanning of athletes at the conclusion of each track heat and also the extensive options with a web based networked system. In order to understand the benefits, a brief process overview is provided.
Process overview: Athlete details stored in NARS with a barcode allocated to their TLAA registration number. Iron on barcode attached permanently to athletes registration patch (Visitors are allocated a temporary number and given a stick on barcode for the meeting) Athlete details (Including PBs and records) downloaded to Laptop and installed into NARS Barcoding System (NBS) prior to start of meeting. Performances in lane order transferred from timing system via Bluetooth into NBS. As soon as the data is transferred, the next heat is started. Athletes pick up a lane tag from the ground in their lane and proceed to the ticket tent. Athletes barcode is scanned in lane order and the performance allocated to the athlete. As the barcode is scanned the athletes details are attached to the performance thus any PBs or records are highlighted on screen and instant feedback is provided . Process repeated for all track heats, including distance events if not run concurrently. Field events entered manually direct to the network recording system live online. Track results are exported from NBS and uploaded to NARS at conclusion of last heat.
The advantages of the combined electronic timing system and database include the following: Speed of heats – As soon as a heat is finished, the next one can be started – we have consistently completed two heats per minute for some events. More accurate timing – Capable of 1/1000th second No confusion over which athlete finished where. No manual recording of track event performances thus reducing error No time entering data into a data base – just an upload file Greater opportunities to share the workload via a networked system. Results and PB reports available for all online at the conclusion of the meet – Go to www.sllac.org.au and check out the links on the results page. Different user profiles to the data base (eg, read only) allows greater reporting functions and this reduces individual’s work loads.
We would welcome the opportunity of demonstrating the system capabilities or answering any questions. Please contact us at [email protected] or call Mick Halaby on 0408 123 068.
Huon Valley’s New Sponsorship
Huon Valley had a very busy off season chasing sponsorships for our centre to help finish our long jump run ups. Through a lot of hard work by a dedicated committee, especially our president, we were lucky enough to have TASSAL come on board as our major sponsor.
This brought about our new centre tops in TASSAL colours which look fantastic and the completion of our long jump run ups. Huon Valley are looking forward to working with TASSAL in the coming years.
Family, Fun & Fitness Page 7 Centre News
Queenborough Upgrades! Earlier this year Queenborough Centre were lucky enough to apply for and receive a grant from the Tasmanian Community Fund. The money, along with a substantial amount of the clubs funds went into the upgrade of facilities at our Sandown Park grounds.
The end result is a fantastic new synthetic surface High Jump area and the addition of electronic timing gates as used by quite a few centre’s now. The High Jump area and the gates were both in full use early December, a much quicker time frame than we had originally expected, this due mainly to the excellent service from Greg and Loretta at Synthetic Grass Tas‐ mania and Colin Kew who supplied the gates. These guys went out of their way to help us make our upgrades speedy and successful.
We are very proud of our new facilities and equipment, and enormously thankful to the Tasmanian Community Fund for helping us provide, a safe and exciting environment for kids in our area to stay healthy and active.
The power behind Tasmania’s sport
Under 13 & 15 Tasmanian State Team 2011
Under 13 & Under 15 athletes considering nominating for the 2011 Tasmanian Little Athletics Association State Team are urged to submit their nomination as soon as possible.
The 2011 Asics Australia Little Athletics Championships will be held on Saturday, 30th April in Sydney.
The Tasmania Team departs on Wednesday, 27th April and will return home on Sunday, 1st May.
Twenty two Under 13 athletes and four Under 15 Multi‐Event athletes will be selected to represent and compete for Tasmanian Little Athletics. The team composition will be announced on the second day of the Aurora Energy State Individual Championships ‐ Sunday, 13th March.
To be eligible for selection, please complete the application form and send to the Chair‐Person of Selectors, Rhonda O’Sign.
Be Your Best Www.littleathletics.com.au
Upcoming TLAA Events 2011 Cross Country
Aurora Energy State Multi‐Event & Walk Championships The southern cross country season begins in April, which St. Leonards Athletics Track, Saturday, 12th February 2011 will be the commencement of our 4th year. Entries close with your centre on January 30! The cross country season is open to Little Athletes in all Aurora Energy 2011 State Individual Championships age groups with age appropriate distances being Domain Athletics Centre, 12‐13th March 2011 provided. The courses we run on are varied and enjoyable Entries close with your centre on February 13! with a nice social atmosphere. The courses are set around the greater Hobart area.
It is a good way for our children to maintain fitness, make friends and enjoy keeping fit without the weekly commitment that can be required from a team sport. Our meets are generally conducted each fortnight, allowing for other things that might be on, and concluding with a Southern Regional Championship at the end of August and a State Cross Country Championship held on the first Saturday in September at Campbell Town.
Please visit our website www.xcsouth.org for further details.
For details of the Northern Cross Country please visit www.xcnorth.org for further details.
2011 McDonalds Coaching Camp
75 athletes from around the state headed to Camp Banksia on Sunday, 10th January as part of the 2011 McDonald’s Coaching Camp. The five day camp gives athletes the chance to develop their skills in five events of their choice as well as undertaking a sprints course.
As always a big thank you must go to the wonderful volunteers for their tireless efforts throughout the dura‐ tion of camp, in particular Camp Convenor, Garry House.
A full report will be in the TLAA’s March Newsletter.
Tasmanian Little Athletics Association :: 1300 888 713 :: PO Box 812 Moonah TAS 7009