Johnson and Heart Foundation Trophy Recipients Janene Kingston ...

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Page 24 — June 2013 VetrunnerAn Unusual Easter in CanberraBy Jan BanensIt has been known for some several years that theACTVAC, as per the normal rotation between the States,was to again host the Australian Masters AthleticsChampionships over Easter in 2013. Procrastination,suggestions by some individuals that it was going to be alltoo hard and that we should say to AMA that we couldn’t orwouldn’t host the Championships, meant that there was alate start to planning.For some innocent or was it foolish ACTVAC membersEaster started in earnest about eight months ago with theestablishment of the AMA Championship Local OrganisingCommittee (LOC) and various sub-committees and thedesired outcomes put to paper. To the uninitiated like methe overall planning and organisational tasks at firstglance appeared to be overwhelming but then Iremembered that every year similar groups of individualsband together to organise these Championships.While a small group of us had already started exploringopportunities for sponsorship and merchandise before theestablishment of the LOC, I nevertheless took a deepbreath and got friends together as part of a sponsorship sub-committee. Emboldened by our now formal status we soonpounded the streets, flooded the internet, and accostedperfect strangers in the street for sponsorship money.Pauline Armstrong got the ball rolling through ameeting with the Tradies Club that elicited a very generousoffer of cash and in-kind support and resulted in thembeing one of our two major sponsors. The in-kind supportwas what eventually helped us to feed the officials andvolunteers for the four days of competition plus put on agreat awards dinner night. Taking a leaf out of Pauline’sbook I thought “Go to the top Jan’, so I made anappointment to plead a sponsorship case with MinisterAndrew Barr. To my surprise we were successful to thetune of $20,000 from the Community Centenary ofCanberra Fund, which had our finance sub-committee ofone, Graham Burke, rubbing his hands together with glee(Why did he suddenly head off for a holiday in Dubai?).Pauline, back at full-time work, stayed focussed on hertask, and was undeterred in sending out scores of letters(all in all over 150 letters) seeking sponsorship donationsfor the Championships.In a similar vein, Fran Harris was busy lining up herneighbours with a promise of happy hour drinks, and whenthey were very happy she hit them with a sponsorshiprequest which they found difficult to refuse. She similarlyturned her beguiling charm and motherly assertiveness onher sons till they too relented with similar success.In Civic, shops were even being worked over by Franand another classy mature-age female beggarette, whilefurther afield Bob’s sister and brother-in-law, who aremacadamia producers, were also touched for support.Eventually we had enough goodies to fill athlete and officialbags and to provide the many door prizes at the Awardsdinner.Given all this success, I thought I would try my luckasking Bob to produce the Program and Results books,after all he was just about finished in producing theOceania Masters Athletics Handbook and there was atemporary lull in his work in re-writing the World MastersAthletics Constitution and By-laws. One month intoputting together the Program Book, which included mostevenings and several weekends, and a final all nightsession to finish it off, I wasn’t sure whether we were notspeaking to each other or whether it was just sheertiredness that was affecting us both.Geoff Moore our website guru gave us the best websitefor information and competition entry according to a lot ofinterstate athletes, and he calmly and efficiently dealt withany entry and information problems that arose. Initiallyentries trickled in slowly, such that some LOC committeemembers doubted that we would get the numbers to breakeven. However, with some additional publicity via Stateassociations, the last two weeks almost saw the website gointo meltdown as entries flooded in. The final competitornumbers were the second highest ever at a Championship,and only a few behind last year’s Victorian record.Other LOC sub-committees were also in full swing withVal Chesterton leading the charge with the medals andtrophies. The beautiful medal design by Sonya Hammondresulted in lots of positive feedback and people tried veryhard to win one whereas others tried very hard to get a fullset. The trophies were also a credit to Val and her team – Iwas desperate to get my hands on a trophy and while myperformances and sense of fair play did not really permitthat, I do have the Brian Foley award for highest agegradedpercentage in a middle distance event in mypossession (that is until I can get it to Lavinia Petrie).Val Chesterton, Cory Collins, Alice Scott, Jenny Galvin,and a number of others were the amazing, unflappable andhighly efficient medallic ladies who announced the resultsof each event and presented the medals. Jenny and Alicewere particularly professional and agile on the microphonedodging in between the starter’s whistles and the upstairsannouncements, while every piece of paper had a place andany result could be found in the blink of an eye. Questionsabout medal presentations and minor blips wereaccommodated or deflated with a smile and some friendlybanter. They must have done something right becausethere were always people milling around and hanging offtheir every word.Maria White and her merchandise team also came tothe party with a series of very smart and colourful shirtsthat sold so well she had just a couple left at the close ofcompetition – Bob and I had more than enoughChampionship shirts, but we thought they were so nicethat we couldn’t resist buying two each! The shirts and themedals have left no doubt in anyone’s mind that thebluebell is Canberra’s flower and that elegant simplicity ishard to resist.Jimmy White, although unable to compete because of aninjury, still got into the thick of things. He was Maria’smerchandising assistant on registration day and then spentthe next four days with his trusty camera taking photos of
everything that moved or didn’t move. I heard the figure of5,000 photos being bandied around!Michael Thompson our intrepid LOC chairpersonoperated under considerable difficulties with a move tocountry Victoria at a critical stage of Championshipplanning. We tried to carry on with a defunct Skype setupand then a mobile phone sitting precariously on top of awater decanter at the meetings that he could not attend.When there were lots of urgent questions in need of urgentanswers Graham Burke became our alternative soundingboard. Whenever there was any sign of panic by a LOCmember, Graham’s advice was to exhale and then find ared and a bottle opener. However, on the first day ofcompetition Michael was back in town and in his element,and could be seen striding around the track clip board inhand. He was there for the four days of the competition,always ready to diffuse problems, make a decision orjudgement call and keep the competition moving along,always with his trusty clip board in hand.Jayne Hardy was in charge of all things technical and italmost seemed that she had a sleeping bag somewhere inthe hurdles shed, as she was to be seen at the track fromearly in the morning to late at night. In addition toensuring that the equipment issues were sorted out and thetrack swept clean, Jayne officiated, and also competed withgreat distinction. She set an Australian record in theJavelin and won the Royce Foley Award for the highestThrows Pentathlon score. Her trusty technical sidekickswere Chris Timpson and Greg Gilbert. Greg, as you mayhave heard, sadly passed away two weeks later on the wayhome, having officiated at an another competition inSydney.Kerry Boden was in charge of looking after athleteservices and well-being, which included putting togetherthe competitors and officials bags. The bags arrived in thenick of time resulting in a strange and frantic humanproduction line at the Tradies. There a happy band of eightworkers took four hours to fill 840 bags, despite beingdistracted by a constant supply of drinks and food fromMichael Thompson. Should the four hours for 840 bags beconsidered a Championship record?Massage services was another area of Kerry’sresponsibility – it is always interesting to see which groupof athletes most uses the massage services – is it thedelicate sprinters, the frail jumpers, the cream-puffdistance runners, the precious walkers or the broken-downthrowers whose tender muscles or injuries are more in needof a massage. Unfortunately the attractive femalemasseuse messed up any objective assessment of thisquestion – at least in regard to the male patrons.Neil Boden had the envious task of finding enoughofficials and volunteers to run the Championships and hadthe look of a worried man until the day of competitionarrived, but I think he was very satisfied. The competitionand all events ran smoothly with the occasional minorhiccup, and as usual the throwers were always happy tohelp with officiating when they were not competing andsaw that throws officials were needed.Robin Whyte was in charge of the race walks, given hisextensive experience with organising such events and hisattention to detail and rules the walks went off without aJune 2013 Vetrunner — Page 25hitch and were enjoyed by all competitors. Graham beganto organise the cross country before he fled to Dubai andleft the responsibility to Richard Faulks, and as with thewalks they were conducted competently and smoothly.Sherryl Greathead and her foodie colleagues had manymeetings with Woden Tradies and came up with a splendidvenue decorated in club colours, a meal that was agastronomic delight and a great band. Sherryl did gomissing at times throughout the dinner as her otherresponsibility was as a mini bus driver, driving people tothe dinner and then back to their lodgings. Michael was theMaster of Ceremonies for the night and kept the mood lightand friendly. The highlight of the evening was theannouncement of the AMA most outstanding athleteawards, with our own Jayne Hardy winning the Thrower ofthe Year Award, Rad Leovic the Multi-Event Athlete of theYear and Lance Purdon Most Outstanding IndividualPerformance of the Year. The other winners were 18 luckydiners who won a worthwhile door prize (none of them awater bottle!). A photographic slide show of athletes fromprevious Championships, put together by Bob, provided aback drop on the four big screens, which had a lot of peoplesaying “Oh there’s that old bastard… what was his nameagain?”.Unlike opening ceremonies at previous championshipswhich were held during competition days and were poorlyattended, this opening ceremony was held on the eveningbefore the Championships and was attended by a largenumber of athletes and friends. The Tradies provided alarge marquee with bar facilities and finger food, andMinister Barr along with Phil Lynch (who at about 2.12metres is a man you have to look up to!) representing theTradies were the guest speakers with Graham Burke theMC. It was great to see a happy and animated crowd thatlingered afterwards chatting to old friends and discussingthe competition over the next few days.The coaches and athletes forums were combined andheld trackside in the hurdles shed at close of the day’scompetition and had over 100 athletes in attendance. Thetwo speakers were Dennis Goodwin a Level 4 middle-longdistance coach who provided very interesting insights intotraining; and Stan Perkins World Masters Athletics (WMA)President who spoke about the increasing closer relationsbetween WMA and the IAAF, and the challenges facingWMA. A hot topic of the AMA athlete’s forum was the trialof a 2.5 day nationals in Hobart at a time other thanEaster. The debate became very spicy and sharp objectshad to be placed out of harm’s way. The meeting closedwith the issue unresolved.The good weather was ordered from above and wereceived perfection – mild, sunny days with a hint of breezethat enabled us to all wear our lovely shirts and brag toanyone who would listen that Canberra at Easter is notonly beautiful but also has perfect weather. TheChampionships were enjoyed by everyone, and the highcompetitor numbers meant that competition was strong.Despite planning and other challenges these EasterChampionships were an outstanding success and everyoneinvolved in the planning and the conduct of theChampionships should take a bow. Already they have beendescribed as the best Australian Masters AthleticsChampionships ever.
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Johnson and Heart Foundation Trophy Recipients Janene Kingston ...

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