TLAA Starting Line ...the news starts here 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.