EVENT REPORT After consultation with all North West Centres during the 2017 season it was agreed upon that there should be a competition available for all athletes in the North West instead of families having to travel thousands of kilometres to compete at the Country Championships the Little Athletics WA North West Regional Championships was created for the 2018 season and was held for the first time in Karratha at Bulgarra Oval, the home of Karratha Little Athletics Centre on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 August 2018 Through the support we received from our regional event partners Little Athletics WA was able to provide the following programs in Karratha; Coaching clinics to Pannawonica District High School & Pannawonica Junior Sporting Club, attend multiple faction carnivals and interschool athletics carnivals to promote Little Athletics, hold meetings with local stakeholders (City of Karratha, DLGSC - Pilbara & Garnduwa) to gain information on how we can support each other, host a free Coles Community Athletics Challenge event with a free sausage sizzle at the end of the event, conduct track and field skills clinics for athletes, provide coaching courses for all parents, provide on the job officials education training for parent helpers and of course we were able to host the North West Regional Championships competition.
Pannawonica District High School In the lead up to the North West Regional Championships, LAWA staff members Jake Trewin & Rebecca Del Pup had the privilege of delivery Little Athletics Program for Schools clinics to Pannawonica District High School. Pannawonica is a 2-hour drive from Karratha and is currently an iron-ore mining town home to many Rio Tinto employees. We would like to thank Ben and Tess from the Pannawonica DHS for making us feel so welcome at the school. Throughout the day we got to see students from Years 1 to 6 as well as their combined high school class of years 7 - 10. In total over 100 students participated in the LAPS program with each of them receiving a Coles Little Athletics wristband and hat to take home as a souvenir. Students got to participate in the various track and field events including sprints, long jump, triple jump, vortex and relays. LAWA also had the pleasure of hosting an afterschool session for the Pannawonica Junior Sporting Group which attracted over 40 participants ranging from 4 to 13 years old. They all got to experience different events to what they did earlier in the day whilst also having a lot of fun with each other. What was fantastic to hear is that the sporting group has shown interest in establishing Little Athletics was one of their sports that athletes can participate in so LAWA staff have now started working with the committee to get the ball rolling on this. The one thing that both Jake and Rebecca took away from their time in Pannawonica was realising how much talent there is in the remote towns. There were many students who showed great athletic ability in each of the events they participated in.
Coles Community Athletics Carnival & Sausage Sizzle The Coles Community Athletics Challenge was a great success with over 50 participants coming down to participate and took place on the Friday evening before competition day. Most participants were existing athletes from the various North West Centres, but it was great to see many participants from the public who just wanted to get out and do something different on a Friday night. Participants were split up into 3 teams and each were representing a different country, either Australia, New Zealand or Fiji. Each team got to rotate though each event trying to score as many points as they could for their team. The events included: -
75m Shuttle Baton Relay Target Javelin Shot Put 30m Hurdles Shuttle Relay 5 Step High Jump
There was lots of laughter and fun enjoyed from participants and their families with many participants trying some of these events for the first time. To round off the event we held a Sausage Sizzle with all items required for this proudly donated by Coles Karratha. Athletes also got to take home quite a few fresh Coles Bananas for dessert.
North West Regional Championships Competition The track and field competition attracted over 522 event entries which was received from the 150 athletes that competed. Over 240 events took place over during the competition which were spread across the 2 days of competition. Below is the breakdown of competitor numbers from each centre: Ashburton - 9 Competitors Broome - 12 Competitors Exmouth - 25 Competitors Hedland - 29 Competitors Karratha - 62 Competitors Newman - 13 Competitors The event kicked off on Saturday afternoon allowing time for families to travel from their various locations to get to Karratha. The opening ceremony included a Welcome to Country by Kerri who is a Ngarluma Elder representing the Ngarluma Aboriginal Corporation and the event was officially opened by the Mayor of the City of Karratha, Peter Long. Athletes requires a large number of parents to assist with each event and to start off with it was quite slow going at first but after a few announcements of the PA system and encouragement from our senior LAWA officials we had multiple parents helping out each event as well as in the marshalling tent which enabled the program to run smoothly with all events starting and finishing on time. Results were processed very quickly after each event which left athletes and their families very excited as all medallists was receiving their medals in record time with big smiles on their faces. Multiple Personal Best’s were broken by a lot of the athletes that competed and for many this was their first time competing against other centre athletes, so it was great that they all got to make new friends and create exciting new friendly rivalries between themselves. As this was the first North West Regional Championship event all first place getters (Gold Medallists) will have their time or distance set as the inaugural record for each event with all record holders receiving a record certificate acknowledging their terrific performances. To ensure the athletes stayed well fed during the 2 days of competition, Coles Karratha kindly donated over 600 bananas for all our athletes and families to enjoy. The championship shield was on the line for the centre with the most points accumulated across all events and for 2018 the winner of this was Karratha LAC with a whopping 1457 points. In the handicap trophy this went to Broome scoring an average of 32.8.
Championship Shield Points: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Karratha LAC - 1457 Points Hedland LAC - 614 Points Exmouth LAC - 611 Points Broome LAC - 394 Points Newman LAC - 342 Points Ashburton LAC - 265 Points
Handicap Trophy: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Broome LAC - 32.8 Ashburton LAC - 29.4 Newman LAC - 26.3 Exmouth LAC - 24.4 Karratha LAC - 23.5 Hedland LAC - 21.1
Coaching Course & Officials Education Over 20 coaches attended our coach education session during day 1 of competition. This was presented by LAWA staff member Rebecca Del Pup and James McCooey who is currently doing his practical assessment for teaching in Karratha and has been involved in Little Athletics for many years. Rebecca and James went through various drills and training techniques coaches could use for each event and answered the many questions are keen coaches had. The legacy that is taken from this coaching course is that all attendees can now take back all of the useful information they learnt and part this knowledge onto the athletes and other parents that may be interested in taking up a coaching position at their centre. LAWA was very fortunate to be able to have 5 experienced officials attend the North West Regional Championships to provide training and education to over 100 parent helpers. Coral McCooey, Fiona Brown, Melissa Lewis, Bev McCagh & Sean Hancey provide guidance to parents on how to set up a competition site, how to officiate it the events and how to organise athletes and other parent helpers. They received this training whilst on the job, which is the best ways to learn about athletics officiating. We also hope that the legacy that is taken from this education is that all parent helpers will now feel confident enough that they can now coordinate track & field events back at their centre competition.
2018 North West Regional Championship Event Partners