Athletics Wollongong's 2023/24 Season Presentation was held on May 4th at Wollongong Tennis Club.
It was a pretty great night!
Kicking it off was the presentation of the R. E. Ward Athletic Scholarship. Local and international coach Dr. Graham Ward had passed away and - in lieu of flowers - his family asked people to donate to an athletic scholarship fund at his funeral service. His widow Roseanne subsequently reached out to the club, keen to bestow this collection upon a promising, high-achieving athlete that could make good use of the money. From among the club members that met the brief, she selected Delta Amidzovski - Junior Dual National Champion, recordholder and Australian representative - as the lucky recipient. Thank you to Roseanne and vale to Graham.
The evening continued with the presentation of awards that were associated with Athletics Wollongong's Summer Season of Wednesday Meets. The categories varied from attendance, to persistence, improvement and achievement.
We then broke for a quick snack, provided by Bistro on Beaton, before resuming with a token of appreciation to those bringing up 5, 10 and 15 years of continuous membership of the club.
The next section of the evening was for performances made largely away from the club's own meets, beginning with recognition of those who participated in the Junior & Open National Championships.
The various Most Outstanding trophies were presented to our worthy winners - from a very tough field of nominees - before we moved onto the final section of awards: those with respect to club culture.
The very last presentation was a token of thanks to Phil Frkovic, who - after many years of service as an athlete, coach and administrator - will be moving out of the region. His speech was a real tearjerker!
All-in-all, it was a wonderful evening and - as people were told of everything that we had to anticipate over the coming months - we look with enthusiasm to our next season: it would do well to match Season 2023/24!
A full summary of award winners is HERE.
