On Sunday 19 November we sent 137 junior and seven adult athletes to the annual Capital Athletics Mick Morris Relay Carnival.

Corroboree have won the last three editions after Woden won six in a row. Woden wanted the title back this year and sent 149 kids and were determined to put an end to our run. Corroboree had a smaller team that the previous couple of seasons as Futsal seemed to be the main obstical in getting kids there. After I saw the entry lists and names in their teams, I realised we were going to have a fight on our hands. Because Woden run on a proper track, they tend to attract a lot of the representative runners and they all came out to play but what they don’t have in their management team is a mathematician. The key to success in the relay carnival is to have a team in every single age group and then some more teams to block other teams from scoring high points as well.

Right from the start we hit the lead as we were the only club to have U6 girls teams (two of them). The girls had a ball and took home gold and silver and more importantly for the club, 39 points for three wins that Woden didn’t contest. The U6 boys showed us there are many ways to run a relay and carry on the tradition of entertaining the crowds. Our other U7-U8 teams also pulled off some wins and high places and by the end of the first session we had a surprising 50 point lead. From here it was always going to be difficult for Woden to pull back our lead as long as we contested every race from there on in.

As suspected, the Woden U9-U12 teams were very strong and won many of the second session events, but we either finished second or third which meant we still scored plenty of points and even pulled off a few wins of our own and the margin was still hovering around 40 points going into the last session.

Woden continued to take the victories in the bulk of the races but then chose not to contest one of the U14 boys events in favour of the senior relays later on. Our young men score big points in that race meaning everything Woden had clawed back was lost in one race. We pulled off another couple of victories including a fabulous win in the U15-U17 Swedish Relay (our second team also came third) and I was confident we had done enough.

Sure, enough when the final pointscore came in, it was Corroboree by 39 points (thank you U6 girls) and a forth title in a row for our great club. I don’t have the official results to give credit to our medalists but when I do, I’ll be sure to send them out.

It was great to see more clubs support this event this season. We had full teams in some races from six different clubs and that’s what its all about. Hopefully, that continues into the future. Another highlight for Corroboree was seeing our Mums and Dads racing against some of the fastest kids in the ACT in the 4×100 and 4×400. We managed three bronze medals in that area as well and besides Masters and Goulburn, we were the only club with a full team of runners.

Thank you to all the entrants for turning up on the day, we only had one withdrawal which was late on Saturday night. Thank you to those who filled in when I rang you personally. Thank you to the younger kids who raced in older age groups to ensure Corroboree had full teams in every division. Thank you to the parents and in particular, Andrew Martin, Ruud van Scheppingen, Bec Jackson, Kimberley Charman, James Peek and Jasmine Stevens who had official roles for the entire day. Thanks to everyone else for assisting in key area to ensure the carnival ran as smoothly as it could. Kimberley was an outstanding Team Manager.

One of the great things the Corroboree committee noticed was the amazing sportsmanship our athletes displayed all day. This was a message I received from one of our helpers after the event:

“The athletes were a credit to their club and their families. I got to see every single Corroboree kid today come through the finish tent, they were smiles, they were polite, they supported each other, they were well organised and most of all they gave it all. None of them had anything left in the tank when they finished their races. I was so proud to see them high fiving and congratulating their competitors at the medal podium, cheering the other teams over the finish line and jumping in to help the smaller clubs fill teams when they were short. What outstanding athletes and spirit!”

That says it all!

1-2-3 Corroboree!