The 55th Annual Meeting and Presentation of Nowra Athletics Club was held on Saturday 2nd May. This was a night for recognising and celebrating the achievements of the Club and its Club members over the last 12 months.
In the words of the outgoing secretary Jan Gibb, the success of Nowra Athletics Club is owed in part to the recognition of the balance of family and individual participation and respect for all levels of competition and talent.
Whether an competitor enjoying local competition, or a competitor reaching state or national standard, the Club likes to recognise all efforts, and did so on Saturday night with the presentation of trophies and certificates for various categories across Cross Country, Road Running and Summer Track and Field.
In the 2014 Cross Country Nowra Toyota Pointscore Competition the winner of the 2km Division 1 was Stirling Norwood. Jake Babian was second and Alec Dobson third. In Combined Division 2 the winner was Cameron Harrison with Angus Lowbridge and Alistair Urquart equal second; and in Division 3 Rachael Banwell was the winner, with Emily Burinaga second. The 3km course Division 1 was taken out by Peter Dooley, followed by Kieren Harrison and Jesses Buckham. Divsion 2 was won by Mikayla Check, with Joshua Banwell second and Lucas Johnson third. In the Medium Course Division 1 Matt Brennan won the pointscore with Cristine Suffolk second and Paul Bacchus third. Division 2 was won by Ethan Havadjia, and John Keenan was second and Zahra Wells third. Division 3 winner was Eva Moeller Duhme, followed by Darlene Musgrove and Gavin Urquart. Long Course Division 1 was sealed by Jye Edwards, closely followed by Bradley Sawyers and third was Leith Babian. Division 2 was snared by Milton Cox, second was Richard Bosdyk and third was barefoot runner Kevyn Davis. In Division 3 the happy winner was Laura Babian, followed by Sky Martin and third was Geoff Crook.
In Summer Track and Field Graded Point score there were more worthy winners. The highest overall events tally prizes went to Ethan Havadjia in the Men’s Grades competing in a massive combined total of 58 events. Winning the boys highest events tally was newcomer Matthew Higham competing in a combined total of 50 events. Sarah deVries won the Women’s Grades competing in a combined total of 40 events over the summer season and Eilish Norwood won the girls highest events tally with 45 events covered.
In the Summer Road runs Sky Martin beat hubby Scott Martin to take out the overall pointscore and third was Paul Jennings.
A list of all winners can be found on the Nowra Athletics website.
In the Special Award categories, outstanding achievements and improvement were recognised. Winning the Winter Season John Morris Encouragement Award for consistency, hard effort and personal improvement was Erin Martin. While the winner of the Nowra Toyota Encouragement Award was Kristina O’Shea for her continual efforts in the Medium course.
The Volunteer Award went to Karen Sawyers for her valuable, reliable assistance throughout the previous season.
The Neville Markham Distance Runner of the Year Award is awarded in memory of Neville Markham who was an outstanding age group club runner through the 1980s and 1990s for Nowra. This year this award went to Leith Babian for his high level of performance in distance events throughout the season.
The Frank MCaffrey Award for ‘top performance’ , presented in commemoration of the founder of the Nowra Athletics Club for great performance by an individual club member or club team was awarded to the Under 20’s Winter cross country relay team for their ‘stand out’ achievements and podium finishes across a number of State competitions throughout the Winter season.
Finally, the High Achievement Award was presented to Samantha Peace. The Club would like to openly congratulate Samantha on her excellent results in discus which have earned her automatic selection in the Australian team to compete in the IAAF World Youth Games in Cali, Columbia in July. Samantha trains and competes with the utmost dedication and is well deserving of this award.
Nowra Athletics club would like to congratulate all athletes on their awards and thanks them for their continued support, participation and involvement with the Club.
Next week’s cross country pointscore round is due to be held at Timberhills. Keep an eye on the website and facebook page for any change of venue notice in case of continued wet weather.