Welcome all new and returning members and families to the 2021 season of athletics for our ever-growing hard-working club who is being talked about Australia wide after our successful, covid interrupted, 2020 season. A little recap for all our members in the lead up to now.

2020 saw our season get interrupted to begin with thanks to COVID-19 and got us looking at ways to get our club back and running. One of course was the start of our annual tri-series running festival which had 2 events held in the Normanton area and 1 in the Karumba area. We had a great turn out for the series with plenty of winners and the good old colour run to finish off with. 2021 will see the return of the series so stay tuned to hear when it is on.

In 2020 the club also was able to take a team of 12 athletes to the Tablelands Pentathlon in Tolga just outside of Atherton. A big thank you to all the parents involved who also brought their kids along and was cheering on everyone with plenty of encouragement. A big Well Done to the athletes as well who gave everything their best go and those who managed to get places, smash personal bests and represented the gulf with great respect. We had so much positive feedback from the other clubs including how awesome our uniforms looked with our athletes just stood out in front of everyone. Made it easy to keep track of everyone as well . We look forward to attending more carnivals this year and are preparing to hold our own as we invite all the clubs to our region on the 24^th of July for our own pentathlon.

A big Thank You to our 2020 Sponsors as well JUST LORDS, CHAPPO’S PLUMBING, PACIFIC CUSTOM SPORTSWEAR and ERGON ENERGY. We are pleased to have you all again for our 2021 season as well as we welcome on board OBRIENS GRADER HIRE, DKJ ELECTRICAL, BYNOE CACS and GULFLAND MOTEL. Without the support from you guys it would be harder for our awesome club to grow. If there are any others who would like to jump on board, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.

During our off-season members of the club and the club itself was nominated for many awards for 2020 which included local, regional and national awards. These included:

• XAVIER LORD – ANQ J Squad Bronze member and Junior Sports Person of the year Carpentaria Shire
• Amanda Scott – Sports Administrator of the year Carpentaria Shire
• Jacob Daniels – Volunteer of the year Carpentaria Shire, Administrator of the year finalist ANQ

And of course, the following for our Club:

Event of the Year                    Rookie Club of the year                     Club of the year Finalist Carpentaria Shire                             Good Sports                                              ANQ

                                Massive congratulations to everyone as we have worked hard as a club and we are being recognised for it.

               During the off season we had the wonderful Kate Coolahan come out and pay us a visit and put some of our parental volunteers through a coaching course so we are now pleased to announce we have more than double the amount of coaches to offer and we now have a level 2 coach meaning that we are now allowed to start training the older kids in how to do scissor high jump. Sorry but we cant do flop for another year.

Uniforms

Regarding the uniforms there is currently a slight delay as we have had new sponsors as well as an increase already in memberships this year. We hope to hopefully have our new stock around the end of May beginning of June. If anyone is wishing to compete in a carnival before they arrive, we do still have some old stock available. Once the new uniforms get here all paid members will receive a free Supporter shirt, singlet and shorts or girls can choose bike pants. Any parents who would like to purchase one we are getting some of the black polos for people to purchase.

            Club training days are on Wednesdays 4:30 – 5:30 for kids and 5:30 – 6:15 for masters. Mondays there will be event specific training from 4:30 – 5:30 for anyone wishing to go away for competitions.

Permission Slip

Please sign the relevant parts to yourself or your children and return to the club.

Multimedia release

From time-to-time club members will take photos/videos of our club members in action and display them on social media and club website. These photos may then be viewed publicly or used by our governing bodies (ANQ, QA, AA) in social media, sometimes with names of those in the photo.

• I give permission for my child/ren and/or myself to have their photo and name displayed
• I give permission for my child/ren and/or myself to have their photo only displayed
• I do not wish for my child/ren and/or myself to be displayed online

Child/ren name:                                                                                                                                                     

Parent’s name:                                                             Signature:                                                         Date:

Bus Travel

If your child is interested in participating in the Monday event specific training or whenever the club holds an event in either Normanton or Karumba there is the option of being able to travel on the club’s bus. There will be other times when the club goes away for carnivals, but other permission slips will be done closer to carnival dates.

• I give permission for my child/ren to ride on the bus to Normanton/Karumba
• I wish to be called on                                     first if my kids wish to go on the bus
• I do not wish for my child to go on the bus

Child/ren name:                                                                                                                                                     

Parent’s name:                                                             Signature:                                                         Date:

Competitions

The following is a list of carnivals the club has identified of possibly attending. Please indicate if your child/ren are interested in attending an if they will be travelling with the club or with family. This will help us start planning for the season.

Child/ren name and age:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

• Mulgrave Relay Day 16^th May – Gordonvale                        Club                      Family
• Cairns Twilight 22^nd May – Cairns                                            Club                      Family
• Festival of athletics 18^th – 20^th June – Townsville                Club                      Family
• Coral Coast Carnival 17^th – 18^th July – Cairns                        Club                      Family
• Normanton Pentathlon 24^th July – Normanton                    Club                      Family
• Tablelands Pentathlon 1^st August – Tolga                             Club                      Family
• Outback Sunset Carnival 21^st – 22^nd August – Longreach  Club                      Family
• ANQ Championships 24^th – 26^th September – Townsville  Club                      Family

Permission forms and travel plans will be handed out as each carnival approaches. Please note for children to travel with the club to carnivals there will be other factors to be considered as well like behaviour and training attendance. There may at times be a small cost as well.