Welcome to the new season

From the President.

Welcome everyone to the new athletic season.

This year we can look forward to fun, friendship and competition at the Colgate games which will be held in Hastings for the North Island and Invercargill for the South.

Add in the Grade 14/Under 15 Island Interprovincials in Dunedin and Taranaki and the season ending Grade 12/13 Interprovincials in Masterton and we again have a busy season on the national level.

But it is not all about top competition or even competition at all. Athletics is the base of almost every other sport, and many of our top children’s athletes have gone on to excel at a variety of other sports. The skills you learn at your clubs will stand you in good stead in the future, no matter what direction you take.

Many of you, like me, will have been watching the Olympics and Para-Olympics from Rio, and sharing in the many outstanding performances from the New Zealand track and field athletes. I hope the interest and enthusiasm in athletics, generated across the country, as a result of their success, will convince more children and their families to join our wonderful sport.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the various meetings around the country as I too catch up with the many friends I have made through athletics.

All the best to all the clubs, athletes, parents, and officials, for the coming season.

Brian Cockeram