Johnson and Heart Foundation Trophy Recipients Janene Kingston ...

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.