Athletics NSW Chair's Message

Chair’s Message

To the NSW Athletics Community,

To say that the past few months have had some mixed emotions for the athletics community would be an understatement. We have lived and breathed every minute of the excitement of a Tokyo Olympics we feared may never happen, while at the same time accepting the reality of our lock down at home and once again our inability to come together as a community to participate in the sport we all love.

Tokyo Olympics and Team NSW

Where else to start but with the exceptional performances of our athletes at the Tokyo 2020(1) Olympic Games and in particular our NSW Team. Credit must first go to Athletics Australia - who went above and beyond to select every athlete possible for the Games and as a result sent our largest ever athletics team to an overseas Games.

The team at ANSW also deserves an enormous amount of credit for a last ditch effort to ensure that several athletes were given the opportunity to make Tokyo notwithstanding Sydney's lockdown - with exemptions being obtained from NSW Health to hold two permit meets in the final days (and hours) of the qualification window. Without those efforts, Morgan Mitchell and Jenny Blundell certainly would not have become two-time Olympians in Tokyo and Georgia Winkcup's selection would have been in jeopardy as well. The fact that all three ladies lined up in Tokyo is a testament to what can be achieved when athletes, coaches, state bodies and AA all work together.

Once our record team arrived in Tokyo and we survived the agonising wait for the athletics to roll around (albeit with some remarkable swimming performances to tide us over), the athletes rose to the occasion arguably better than any team before them. Team NSW would send 21 representatives to Tokyo and bring home with them:

• a brilliant silver medal from Nicola McDermott which captured the nation's imagination;
• six Olympic Final berths from McDermott, Jessica Hull, Oliver Hoare, Mackenzie Little, Brandon Starc and Eleanor Patterson; and
• two Australian records from McDermott and Hull.

However, the raw statistics don't tell the full story. They won't tell you how Rohan Browning gave Australia another race that stopped a nation, how Sarah Carli capped off one of the most inspiring comeback stories in the history of sport or how Dani Stevens established herself as perhaps the most consistent Olympian in ANSW history by making her fifth Games are returning from a devastating injury.

Whatever the statistics say, I regard Tokyo as the Australian Athletics Team's most promising Games - not only for the results, but also because of what the Team looks like in two respects. First, their youth. This is one of the youngest teams we have ever sent to an Olympics and names like McDermott, Hull, Patterson, Browning, Edwards, Winkcup, Little, Hoare, Oboya, McDonald, Carli, Davies and others have well over a decade left in their potential international careers. That so many are already competing in Olympic finals and threatening for (or winning) medals is cause for enormous excitement. Secondly, was the unmistakeable bond that the team formed. While I wasn't in Tokyo as I had planned to be, there was no mistaking from a distance the comradery and support the team built for each other - I suspect only strengthened by the unique and testing circumstances brought about by the pandemic.

The Games themselves have been a testament to all involved. From the Japanese Local Organising Committee who managed to conduct the Games safely and with minimal positive tests, to the AOC and Athletics Australia who were brilliant in ensuring the health and safety of the Australian Team and to the coaches and athletes who adapted on the fly to fast changing circumstances and an Olympic preparation like no other. The Olympics also could never happen without the dedication and skill of the officials and volunteers. For me, one stands out above the rest. The 21st member of Team NSW was newly minted ANSW Life Member Janet Nixon - one of the pre-eminent photo finish officials in the world - who was integral to the technical team in Tokyo and who has given up well over a month of her life between quarantine requirements and the Games themselves to help out in Tokyo - to say nothing of the years of dedication she has given to the sport back home.

All in all, for me the Games were unique and remarkable for so many reasons and a cause for great optimism as we look towards the World Championships and Commonwealth Games next year, as well as Paris in 2024.

Tokyo Paralympics – Team NSW

Of course, the excitement of Tokyo does not end with the Olympics but continues with the Paralympic Games due to kick off on the 24^th of August. We are thrilled that NSW is sending six of the 24 total Australian team members to Tokyo, with Team NSW consisting of Christie Dawes (T54 marathon, coach Andrew Dawes), Evan O’Hanlon (T38 100m, coach Iryna Dvoskina), Guy Henly (F37 Discus, coach Kim Cousins), Luke Bailey (T54 100m, coach Andrew Dawes), Rosemary Little (F32 Shot Put, coaches Karyne Di Marco and Breanne Clement) and Sarah Walsh (T64 Long Jump, coach Matt Beckenham).

There are also some remarkable stories on this team, as first reported by ANSW statistician and historian David Tarbotton. Christie Dawes will compete at a staggering seventh Paralympic Games in Tokyo after debuting as a teenager a quarter of a century ago in Atlanta. Guy Henley makes his sixth consecutive global appearance after debuting at the World Championships in 2013 and looks to take his first Olympic podium in Tokyo after just missing in Rio, while Sarah Walsh of Sutherlands will appear in her fifth consecutive global Championship. Two-time Paralympic Champion Evan O’Hanlon makes his fourth Paralympic appearance, while Rosemary Little will become a field Paralympian in Tokyo in the Shot Put after having competed twice on the track in London and Rio. The team is rounded out by Paralympic debutant Luke Bailey in the 100m, who will head to the big dance for the first time after having made his international debut at the most recent World Championships in Doha.

As with the Olympic Team, the ANSW team and officials have also made a significant contribution in getting this team to Tokyo. Back in April, the ANSW officials worked with AA to deliver the marathon qualification event in Penrith which was directly responsible for handing ACT-based athlete Jaryd Clifford the platform he needed to qualify for the Paralympic Marathon. That event also saw Jaryd and teammate Michael Roeger break their respective marathon world records and was another example of what can be achieved when the sport’s organisations and volunteers come together to support their athletes.

I know that the entire NSW athletics community will get behind our Paralympic Team and support them on their journey to Tokyo. There are some remarkable stories on this team and we can’t wait to see them play out.

COVID & ANSW

Back at home, the story has obviously been less exciting and the optimism has been harder to find. We are now in week nine of the Greater Sydney lockdown and many of our regional areas have now also entered lockdown. That lockdown has prevented us from being able to get many of our winter events away as we had so been looking forward to doing after a brilliant start to the winter season with the Sydney: 10, St George Classic and Cross Country Relays. While we are doing everything we can to postpone events for as long as possible, we are obviously realistic about the prospects of being able to do any events in the immediate term.

The ANSW staff and the Board are continuing to monitor the COVID regulations closely. We will return to competition as soon as we are able to do so safely, as we did in 2020 when ANSW was one of the first organisations in NSW to return to sport. We are armed with that experience and will put it to good use as soon as we are able to.

At the AGM in just over a week's time we will also report the financial result for the 2020/21 financial year. Pleasingly, the prudent management of the Board and the tremendous dedication of our staff has ensured that we effectively repaired all of the financial damage from the 2019/20 financial year that COVID caused in the 2020/21 financial year, leaving the organisation in effectively a net zero change position at a high-level over the two-year period. While the current lockdown is clearly impacting our forecast for the 2021/22 financial year, the Board and staff are managing that situation closely and will take the steps necessary to ensure the financial health of ANSW and ensure we minimise any impact on our staff and operations as much as possible.

Work is Continuing

While the lockdown has put a hold on our events, major work is very much continuing at ANSW and we have made progress on a number of key strategic initiatives for the organisation. Those areas include the following:

• One Athletics: As recently announced, we have entered into a Heads of Agreement and formed a Unification Committee with Little Athletics NSW to drive progress towards the unification of our sport in NSW. This process, which is only a few months old, has already produced real and tangible progress with some exciting unification initiatives being worked on for the 2021/22 season. I want to thank the team at LANSW and the athletics community more broadly for putting aside historical divisions and working in the best interest of the sport as a whole, including in particular our youngest members with the longest futures ahead of them.

• Summer Competition: Pandemic permitting, ANSW will continue on the work that started in the 2020/21 summer season this year as we look to support our clubs to take on an increased role in hosting competitions and provide more relevant competition opportunities for our athletes. Increased club delivery of competitions, with ANSW support, will assist in developing our clubs, increasing the net number of competitions available to the athletics community and the number of local events for athletes, including in regional areas. At the same time, ANSW will ensure that there is a high-profile series of high-performance events to cater for our most elite athletes.

• Affiliation Updates: As club administrators would be aware, ANSW has been in the process of reviewing and updating our club affiliation requirements to improve the levels of governance of both ANSW and our member clubs. These changes are designed to ensure that ANSW moves towards compliance with best practice standards in the industry and ensuring that our clubs are also striving for that standard - which will in turn result in them having a better platform for success. While I am aware that there has been plenty of discussion on this subject in the community, I can assure all club administrators that support will be provided to clubs in putting in place any necessary changes and that the updates are motivated by a desire to ensure our clubs are as well run as they can possibly be. ANSW is about maximising participation in our sport and we will ensure that everyone is able to do so while also ensuring that the necessary governance standards are met.

Obviously this is not the winter season or the lead in to the 2021/22 summer season that any of us had hoped for. I understand that everyone is feeling the effects of the pandemic. However, I'm also optimistic that with vaccination rates increasing rapidly there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In the meantime, I encourage our entire athletics community to stick together and support each other as much as we can until we're able to come back together in person.

At the end of the day, that is what we are - a community brought together by a shared love of the sport of athletics. Never has that been more apparent than as we watched along during the Olympic Games.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing you all again around a track.

Yours in Athletics,

Matt Whitbread
Chair – Athletics NSW