Maverick, Thomas and Ebony can’t wait for the new Little Athletics season to begin. 86735_02 Picture: DAMJAN JANEVSKI
By LIAM TWOMEY
THE Keilor Little Athletics Club is getting ready for an exciting homecoming.
With upgrades to the running track and facility officially completed earlier this year, the club is preparing to kick off its first full season back at its traditional site.
Athletes will return to an IAAF standard 400-metre running track, as well as new long jump run-ups, new discus cages and a pole vault staging area.
But it is not just at a junior level that members are set to benefit from the upgrades.
Keilor LAC will be joined at the new facility by Keilor/St Bernards, providing athletes with a senior club on the same site to transition into.
Little athletics club president Sam Barbuto said the partnership would make it easier for juniors to remain in the sport long-term.
“The challenge for little athletics clubs can be once kids get to 14 or 15 they transition into senior sport,” he said.
“One of the priorities for our club was to give our athletes the opportunity to transition to a senior club where we are located.
“The beauty of that is many of the executive committee members of Keilor/St Bernards were actually part of the founding committee of the Keilor Little Athletics Club some 40 years ago so that has a really nice tie-in.
“We have always had Keilor/ St Bernards as our feeder club for our athletes to progress to the seniors and now they have relocated to our facility as well.”
The Brimbank community is also benefiting from the upgrade with a number of schools hiring out the facility for their athletics carnivals.
Barbuto said over a dozen schools had used the site. The club will also now be able to host high calibre regional athletics events such as the Regional Relay Championships in November.
With the combination of the new track, the partnership with Keilor/St Bernards and an Olympic year, Barbuto was confident membership numbers could grow by as much as 30 per cent for the new season.
He encouraged any athletes wishing to join the club to attend the registration night on Wednesday 19 September from 6.30pm at the clubrooms.
More details can also be found on the club’s website www.keilorlac.org.au
“Leveraging off an Olympic season we are expecting it to be a really big growth in terms of numbers. We want to see everyone back here competing at our new facility,” Barbuto said.
