Firstly congratulations to all the athletes who competed over the weekend. It really is all about getting out there and having a go, and competing to the best of your abilities. It’s tough competition in the EMR and you shouldn’t feel too disappointed if you did not get to step up on this dais this year. Continue to train hard and have another crack next year.

Having said all that, it is important to acknowledge a wonderful performance from the club and many individual competitors. CMLAC had a squad 32 athletes this year and we finished with 36 medals (11 gold, 14 silver, and 11 bronze). This was roughly equivalent to last year’s medal tally but with a smaller squad this year. So overall a stronger performance this year. Well done to our competitors and tireless coaches.

The boys really lead the charge with medals this year. Full credit to Jordan Culbert, Axel Woods, Andrew Edgerton and Kai Vestergaard who finished with a medal in all events they entered. Double gold winners were Axel and James Kerr. Bailey Culbert, Jordan Culbert and Andrew Edgerton were the other gold medal winners for the boys. The Culbert brothers hauled in 6 medals between them. An outstanding performance! Fred Visentini and Fred Strong both finished with 2 medals, and Zac Nissen ran a great race to take bronze in the 1500m.

For me, one of the highlights of the day was watching Axel’s continued dominance in the sprints, no wonder he smashed the 100m club record last Saturday. The other was Jordan Culbert and James Kerr going neck and neck all day and really dominating the under 9 boys events. Jordan has been carrying a nasty illness so a really courageous effort from him.

The girls also performed admirably. Georgia Hansen took out gold in the 800m and 1500m – which we almost come to expect. Such a pleasure to watch Georgia run! Jessica Mackenzie took gold in the Javelin, and Maddie Hume, with a thrilling run late on Sunday, took gold in 400m, to add to her bronze in the 70m.

Maddy Miller picked up 3 medals – she is a young talent to watch. Eva Worrell-Smith took bronze in the 400 and the Long Jump, and Jemma Rigoni also finished with 2 bronzes – in the hurdles. Georgia Durham took silver on the High Jump, and Penny Giddy was robbed of gold when they re-ran her hurdles race, and had to settle for silver. But that story did have a very happy ending, when the gold medallist sent Penny a gift.

Congratulations to all our competitors for a wonderful performance. I believe many have qualified for the state championships at Albert Park in a few weeks. I wish you every success and I know you will do yourselves and the club very proud.

Now, equally as pleasing was the help and support from parents. The club relies 100% on volunteers and the level of parent help has a direct bearing on our success. Our aim if for parent duties to be second nature so we can concentrate on preparing the kids on the day. EMR was a bit or a trial for Colin and I as first timers and we think it went well. We didn’t hear Camberwell Malvern called out too many times and we are now well rehearsed ready for the rest of this season and years to come. We did learn that the Chief Official roles are relatively important with a couple of announcements over the PA lloking for us, but our Chiefs stepped up magnificently! It would be dangerous to name individuals in case I missed someone, all I can say is that there were some marathon sessions by some! Special thanks to Rachel Chan and Spike Woods who manned thee assistant computer operator positions brilliantly which LAVic kindly allocated to CMLAC on both days. My personal thanks to Colin Woods for taking on a key roles for the club leading into the competition days, both at Kooyong and away. In particular developing the duties rosters and coordinating on the day which are not easy tasks.

See you at training!

Richard