Nowra Athletics Club held their 57th AGM and Presentation night on Saturday 28th April. Nominations for the new committee were accepted and the positions filled.
The ongoing President of the Club is Scott Johnson. Secretary is Lisa Johnson. Committee members are Terry Bailey, Darlene Musgrove, Melinda Mustapic, John Price, Perry Strand, Sue Strand and Steve Thomson.
The position of Treasurer was not filled and the committee welcomes anyone interested in this position to please contact them.
As part of the Presentation, night trophies were awarded for the first three placegetters in each grade for Track and Field Competition from the 2017-2018 season. Congratulations to all our winners. A full list of placegetters is available on the website.
In addition, a number of special annual awards were presented.
The John Morris Junior Encouragement Award is awarded for a junior Club member competing in Cross country in the 2 or 3km distance. This is for a Club member who competes regularly, tries hard, shows improvement but does not necessarily figure in the top results. This year’s award went to Rommey Hazell who always tries her best and ends each race with a smile.
The Ian Henry Nowra Toyota Senior Encouragement Award is for senior members competing in the medium or long distance events at cross country. This year Brad Sawyers was the worthy recipient for always running each week with enthusiasm and never-say-die attitude. Brad always gives 100% effort and continues to improve his times.
Congratulations to Rommey and Brad for their cross country awards.
The Neville Markham Distance Runner of the year award went to Annette Sampson. This award is presented in memory of Neville Markham who was an outstanding age group runner through the 1980’s and 1990’s for Nowra. Annette was chosen for this award for her participation in a number of distance events throughout the year with notable results, including winning the state 10km road championship at Homebush in May.
The Frank McCaffrey Award was presented in commemoration of the founder of the Nowra Athletics Club. This award is for a great performance by an individual or team in local, state or National competition. The prestigious award went to a standout athlete, Cooper Thomson. After what has been an extremely successful 12 months, which included state and national medals, Cooper was also selected for the Athletics Australia under 17 talented athlete program. Cooper’s most recent achievement was a National Bronze medal in the 2018 Australian Junior Combined Event Championships in March 2018. Cooper competed in the Nationals Under 18 Men’s Decathlon where he achieved a massive 5 Personal Bests and showed utter determination throughout the competition. His hard work was rewarded with a National Bronze medal then and now has been rewarded with the Frank McCaffrey Top Performance Award by his Club.
This year the Committee introduced a new award for Club Performance. This is for performing well at a Club level with regular participation, personal improvement and support of the Club. The inaugural award went to Kerrie Jones for her performance and enthusiasm in the throwing arena. Kerrie set new records consistently throughout the season, continually bettering her throws in javelin, discus and shot put. Well done Kerrie.
The Harry Scouller Award was introduced in 2016 in honour of one of Nowra’s finest young athletes. Harry Scouller first emerged in athletics in his early teens, running for Nowra Athletics Club; competing in the state cross country and distance events from 800m to 3000m. At the December 2011 Australian All Schools, Harry, making his national championships debut, won bronze in the 400m and 800m events. Harry wore the green and gold of Australia when in June 2012 he was selected to compete in the open 800m at the Oceania Championships in Cairns, which he won in 1:52.76. In February 2013, few who witnessed the NSW under 20 years 800m championship will forget the race the guys delivered. On the line, Jordan Gusman took the win in 1:51.21 with Harry second just one hundredth behind in 1:51.22, nearly a one second personal best. On Saturday night Peter Dooley recalled this particular race, explaining to the audience about Harry’s toughness and athletic ability.
Harry passed away aged just 21-years-old, from an epileptic seizure. In honour of his amazing athletic career, the Harry Scouller Award was introduced for promising young track and field athletes. This year it was presented to Sam Taylor. At the 2018 NSW Junior Championships Sam was impressive when he won gold in the Under 18 long jump with a massive jump of 6.48 metres. He went on to make the final in Under 18 long jump at the 2018 Australian Junior Athletics Championships coming 8th. Sam also claimed fourth in the long jump at the All Schools Athletics National Championships in Adelaide in December 2017. Sam competes regularly on Wednesday nights at Nowra Athletics local competition and is an impressive athlete and valued member of the Club.
Last but certainly not least the Most Valuable Volunteer Award went to Andrew Carroll. Andrew is the man behind the website who spends endless hours trying to upgrade and improve the website design. Andrew put in a great deal of behind-the-scenes hours with the King of the Mountain event and more recently has been the man behind the BBQ on a Wednesday night, volunteering his time to feed hungry athletes. Thank you, Andrew.
As with all amateur sporting organisations, Nowra Athletics Club relies very much on the help and expertise of volunteers and we appreciate everyone who volunteers their time to assist the club, no matter what role they perform. Every helping hand counts.
The Committee would like to thank everyone who attended Saturday night’s presentation. All photos and a copy of the video presentation showcasing our track and field athletes is on our facebook page.