Picture: Graham Cowan.
SATURDAY afternoon saw the second Interclub Athletics Competition for the season being held at the Katherine Town Oval.
Athletes from Darwin and Rural Athletics Centres travelled down to compete against local athletes from Katherine.
Girl-power was in full force from the Katherine Athletes with four girls breaking significant track records.
Newcomer Nyokah James continues to impress, smashing the 7 year old girls track record for the 300m run while in the littlest age-group, the 5 year old girls, consistent performer Emily Boalar broke yet another record over 70m.
Seasoned competitors Kayla Costello and Charlotte Pickering broke records in the 9 year old girls 800m run (Kayla) and 11 year old girls 100m sprint (Charlotte) and the improvements made by these girls through their hard work in training was clear to see.
Thank you to Lewis Lampton and Rod Gregg for your hard work thus far in preparing our older athletes for competition.
The results speak for themselves as to how much this training is assisting, with a consistent improvement from all of our athletes.
The afternoon was a terrific success, athletes and their families who attended from Darwin commented on how well organised the meet was and how smoothly it ran; thank you so much all those parent helpers who got out there in the afternoon sun to make it so.
Above and beyond the the actual competition, it was really great fun, a friendly atmosphere; well done to all athletes who participated.
A huge thanks also to all those parents who made the effort to arrive early and help with setting up events and running the canteen (fabulous as ever); as always, we couldn't do it without you.
The athletes seemed to enjoy the relay games; the chicken walking relay was a particular favourite - we must do this one again.
Any Katherine athletes who missed out on a relay prize, we have a huge supply of bags, water bottles, caps and a few lunchboxes left over for you to take possession of next Friday night.
A big thank you to local businesses, Macs Hire, LJ Hooker and Willem Westra Van Holthe, who were kind enough to donate shade structures for the day to keep competitors and officials out of the blazing sun.
Willem came to the track with his shade structure, dressed to compete, and took out second place in the 100m run – we hope to see more of you down at the track Willem, now we know your hidden talent.
We would also like to thank Alex van der Meer, Development Officer for Athletics NT who travelled down for the day and organised the warm up activities, speed sprints and assisted throughout the day.
Congratulations to all athletes on a terrific day, and well done to those junior athletes who backed it up on Sunday to compete in the 10km Fun Run – Bryn Pickering and Mitchell, Teegan Kariko and Elsa Dean.