The Oceania Athletics Championships, which is the pinnacle event within the Oceania Area for Athletics, will see the best track and field athletes head to Mackay from the 7th until 11th of June.

Mackay Regional Council Mayor Greg Williamson said having Mackay as the host city in 2022 was an amazing opportunity and a testament to the world-class nature of the Mackay ARC (Aquatic and Recreation Complex).

He said Mackay Regional Council, through its Events Attraction Program, had worked hard to secure the event, which was expected to generate 11,725 bed nights and result in a $2.5 million dollar stimulus to the region.

“To be able to boast facilities that put us on an even playing field with the capital cities of the Oceania region is a huge coup for Mackay,” Mayor Williamson said.

“We look forward to welcoming athletes from across the Pacific and hope they take the time to enjoy some of our region’s must-do activities – like see a platypus at Eungella, meet the Cape Hillsborough wallabies on the beach at sunrise or simply enjoy a meal in our City Centre,” he said.

The 2022 edition of the Championships aims to maximise and highlight athletes’ performances in a sustainable way.  

The Championships will take a new and exciting format and will be the first Area Championships to be inclusive of all age groups and abilities.

The Senior, U20 and U18 Championships will take place in their traditional format, with the Area Championships in 2022 an important stepping stone for athletes wanting to compete at World Championships, both in Eugene (Senior) and Cali (Under 20) later in the year. For the Senior Champions, it would mean an automatic qualification to the World Championships in 2022, provided they are selected by their Federation.

The introduction of an Under 16 competition, into the Area Championships, is seen as an exciting development for Oceania Athletics. With school athletics being so strong throughout the region, with competitions such as the Coke Games, Colgate Games, Australian All Schools to name a few, seen as significant within their own Member Federations. The U16 competition will take the format of Teams Competition, with teams able to enter through, Clubs or Schools, Regions, States or Member Federations.

Oceania Athletics has always had a strong relationship with Masters Athletics, and the introduction of a full range of master’s events to be contested, will be a first for Oceania Athletics and the Oceania Masters Athletics Association.  The event will also play host to the Queensland Masters Athletics Championships.

To be an all-inclusive event, Oceania Athletics has led the way with the introduction of Para-Events within the Area Championships program. For the first time, a full program of events will be offered throughout the Championships. Without a World Para Championships occurring in 2022, the Oceania Championships will serve as an important stepping stone in the lead up to Paris 2024.

Oceania Athletics President, Robin Sapong-Eugenio, is looking forward to the Championships in Mackay.

“Mackay has proven itself to host major sporting events, including athletics competitions, over the past few years, and we are pleased to be working with the Mackay Regional Council as the major partner and sponsor of the Championships,” Sapong-Eugenio said.

“With Covid affecting travel throughout the region over the past 2 years, this will be the first opportunity that the Oceania Family will be together in the flesh since 2019.”

“The Championships is going to be the most inclusive that Oceania Athletics has ever held, with athletes of all ages and abilities heading to Mackay to compete.”

“We can’t wait to see everyone in Mackay for the Oceania Area Athletics Championships.”

This will be the 7th time the Oceania Athletics Championships has been hosted in North Queensland, and the first time in Mackay.  

The Mackay facility, built in 2019, hosted the 2019 Oceania Masters Athletics Championships, and has gone on to host the 2020 North Queensland Championships. The facility was a beneficiary of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with most of their equipment received from the Games.

Mackay becomes the 6th City to host both the Oceania Masters and the Oceania Championships, joining Suva, Townsville, Papeete, Apia, and Christchurch.

Williamson and Athletics North Queensland Dayne O’Hara are excited to welcome athletes from across Oceania to Mackay in June. Photo credit: Amanda Wright

Mackay masters athletes Catherine Hoare (second left) and Amanda Wright (centre) represented Australia in the 2019 Masters Oceania Championships held in Mackay. They were joined on the podium in the weight throw by athletes from Great Britain and New Caledonia

Mackay masters athlete Les-Lee Reid (centre) brought home a number of medals for Australia in the 2019 Oceania Masters Athletics Championships

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Whitsunday Golf Monthly Medal was held Sunday with a field of 21 players.

Jason Bourke won the Men’s A Grade followed by runner up Wayne Temby. Longest Drive went to Clay Coles.

Men’s B Grade winner was Don Cameron with runner up Wilf Herweg and Longest Drive to Mark McDougall and Pin shot to Dean Kercher.

Ladies’ A grade winner was Tiina Randmae and runner up Anna Winterbourn, longest drive went to Penny Wardroper nearest the pin was claimed by Anna Winterbourne.

Ladies’ B grade was won by Vicki Tuck, runner up was Pam Casey and longest drive went to Joanne Moynihan, nearest the pin Vicki Tuck.

Thank you to Airlie Panel and Paint and Master Butchers Whitsunday for sponsorship of the Monthly Medal.

Contributed with thanks to Joanne Moynihan.

Ladies’ A grade winner Tiina Randmae

Men’s A Grade Jason Bourke

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The winners on the day were Mandy Patterson, after an extended layoff, with 79 on a countback from Elspeth Scotford.  

The men’s winner was Gary Scotford, the Scotford’s cleaning up again, followed by Frank Mahoney on 77.

Pin shots went to Mandy and Leanne Alexander in the hole on 9 - Mandy on 18 and 12, Rehab Hull on 1, Peter Fox on 1, Trevor Paroz on 18 and Warren Deighton on 9.

Chip-ins went to Nick Apruzzese and Mandy rounding off a great game.

Gary Scotford and Mandy Patterson

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The highlight of this week's competitions was the introduction of the Skins competition held on Saturday -it was interesting to see the tensions rise when cash is the prize!

The winner on the day was Club regular Tyson Flavel with a haul of 14 skins.

Another highlight to the day was when Alan Clinch secured a 'Hole in One' on the 10th while competing for the skin.

Friday's prawn run was won by Tim Harris on 20 points followed by Gary Goddard with 19 points and Perri Simpson with 18 points.

Sunday's 9-hole stableford was won by Wayne Singleton on 18 points, followed by Andrew Gomez on 16 and Michael Walton on 15.

This Saturday, the Club committee introduce 4 Ball Better Ball, so find a partner and get on down to the Club.

Contributed with thanks to Kate Cross.

Alan Clinch and Tyson Flavel

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There was some great talent on display this week starting with Wednesday afternoon’s Jackpot Bowls run by Merve Stewart with 30 bowlers competing for the prize.

John Askew’s team of lead Mario De Martini and Russell Jackson were the big winners of the day.

Wednesday night saw round two of business house bowls and it was the Whitsunday Gold Coffee team skippered by John Trembath, Robin Brown, Henny Tattam and Mark Mawson who won a close game.

Clay Coles, Aaron De Brincatt and Josh Christian showed great skills in going down 7 to 6 in a wonderful display of bowls. Thanks to the organising skills of Brian Delaney.

On Wednesday we were also advised of the passing of the fantastic Scotsman Stewart Clanachan whom will be sadly missed but always remain in our hearts.

Saturday mornings is now something that everyone can look forward to with John Askew’s Scroungers having 25 good bowlers going for this week’s prize money and it was Ash Warland, John Trembath and Peter Barratt contesting the final with Peter Barratt being the victor of the day.

45 people turned out for the official open day which was opened by our major sponsors PRD real estate with Annette Neil opening the proceedings.

The day was hotly contested with three teams being on equal points and the highest score coming out the winners of the day.

Congratulations to Nick Fernbach, Colin Morris and Peter Barratt ending a highly successful week leading his team to victory.

Thanks to all the beautiful afternoon tea supplied by Lyn Graham, Margo Stanley, Elaine Kippen and organiser Henny Tattam ensuring it was such a successful day.

Contributed with thanks to Mark Mawson.L-R: Chairperson Karen Jensen with John Harris, Annette Neil and Darryl Brewer from PRD and Men’s President Peter Barratt Please zoom in and crop picture to remove the extra empty space

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The club’s annual Classic Weekend was a great success again, thanks to our sponsor Abbott Point Operations for this event.

The second annual Ladies Fours Carnival is due to take place from Monday 28th February to Tuesday 1st March, starting at 8am on both days.

With $2,500 in the prize pool this is expected to be a highly contested event.

The Classic Weekend Winners : Rep Allan Brown with John Fielding, Gavin Milne, Peter Bruce BBC presenting trophy, Barry Saroglia and Luchie Gardel

2nd Place Winners: Bruce Macs,Mark Hawkins,Jeff Brease, Steven Mottin with Allan Brown.

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Local bowlers travelled to Bowen and Mackay on the weekend to compete in some Bowls Carnivals. John Fielding (Airlie Beach), Luchie Gardel, Gavin Milne and Barry Saroglia won back-to-back Bowen Bowls Club Fours Carnival winning 4 out of 5 games and drawing the fifth.

There was also a carnival on at West Tigers in Mackay over the weekend. The team of Martin Corr, Jonathan Bye, Wade Vidulich (Northern Beaches) and Wayne Handley won the carnival with 4 wins and 1 loss. This is their second win in three years at this carnival.

The team of Todd Leys, Dale Haack, Ted Cullen (Airlie Beach) and Graham Kinnear finished fourth at this carnival also with 4 wins and 1 loss.

10 players turned out on Wednesday for social bowls. Regina Aquilina and Gary Alexander defeated Sandy Daffara and Jim Quod 19 to 12 and Alan Anderson, John Lahney and Arthur Griffith defeated Alan Sanderson, Mary Hedgelong and Phil Brown 26 to 13.

On Sunday the rain held off and we had 8 players enjoying a game of social bowls. Mary Hedgelong, John Lahney, Philip Brown and Jim Quod defeated John Anderson, Sandy Daffara, Peter Lawton and Barry Zillmann 24 –22.

Contributed with thanks to Wayne Handley.

West Tigers Winners: Wade Vidulich, Wayne Handley, Jonathan Bye and Martin Corr

West Tigers 4th place: Scott Grayson (West Tigers official), Todd Leys, Graham Kinnear, Dale Haack, Ted Cullen, Dave Pinkard (West Tigers official)

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On Saturday fifty-four people ran, jogged and walked the 5km waterfront course. Seventeen were first timers from locations that included Airlie Beach, Bowen, Cairns, Mackay and Melbourne. Four people recorded new Personal Bests - well done Martin, Nyrie, Gus and Laura.

It was great to have an enthusiastic team of junior (and some not so junior) water gun shooters to keep participants cool.

The event was made possible by 14 wonderful volunteers: Tim Oberg, Kara Olver (Run Director), Chris Hands, Megan Drennan, Sarah Voigt, Nathalie Bloome, Darlene Reid, Susanne Willmott, Valerie Kimpton (Photographer), Ronald McCall, Levon Cookson, Laura Oates, Annette Turner and Brad Turner.

Airlie Beach parkrun started on 5th December 2015. Since then 3,611 participants have completed 19,710 parkruns covering a total distance of 98,550 km, including 2,333 new Personal Bests. A total of 313 individuals have volunteered 2,616 times.

There will be a tropical themed celebration for Airlie Beach parkrun’s 300th event on February 26th. Participants are encouraged to come along tropically themed. All finishers will receive a frozen mocktail and My Rainbow Bakery are providing complimentary tropical juice for the post parkrun celebrations.

Every Saturday Airlie Beach parkrun meets at 6:50am for a briefing at area D, Coral Sea Marina (adjacent to the top carpark). Parking is free in the lower carpark till 9:30am if a parkrun barcode is placed on the dashboard.

There are no winners at parkrun and nobody comes last – the Tail walkers do. Regular participation is rewarded rather than performance, with ‘parkrun milestone shirts’ available to people to recognise their achievements in coming along.

Contributed with thanks to Airlie Beach parkrun.

Last weekend’s parkrun

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Pickleball is gaining momentum at the Cannonvale tennis courts where there are a number of Pickleball courts marked out. On Thursday afternoon 3 courts were in action putting into practice what they had learned from state Queensland coach Brendan Lee the week before.

Saturday morning was no different with a turn up of 12 Picklers playing. It was great to have the Applegate family back on court. They all said they were tuckered out at the end of the morning, but assured me - "We'll Be Back"

It is fantastic that new faces are appearing on court each week. You could also be one of the new faces and have a whack of the wiffle ball.

It is never too late to learn a new sport - so come and have a go!!

Pickleball court available for hire, equipment is supplied.

Come down at 4.30pm Thursday afternoons and 7am Saturday mornings.

Contributed with thanks to Jenny Kirkman.

Saturday morning Picklers

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The Cannons have another big week with 55 swimmers participating at Club Night and 15 swimmers travelling to Brisbane for the Queensland Sprint Championships.  

On Wednesday, the club presented Ehsan Helou, Jacob Bell, Lochlan Jamieson, Tora Delac, Scarlett Gascoyne, Holly Perrin, Lukas Trevaskis, Ella Harland, Oliver Bond, Lilli Bond, Tiana Bell, Anisa Helou, Charlie Doherty, Daniel Saunders, Rohan Gascoyne, Mark Erickson (Coach) and Ken Crittenden (Coach) with State Shirts.

On Wednesday night, Anisa Helou, Ehsan Helou, Nelson Malady, Oli Bond, Remy Hedges, Jasper Korosec, Addie Sanders and Celeste Orenshaw were presented with Upgrade Certificates. Club Records were presented to Jacob Dewis and Oli Bond. Stevie Lee was presented with the Chocolate Award for the biggest PB.  

Highlights from Club Night include: Don Algie swam a 10.3 second PB in his 100m Backstroke. Koa Harland and Taj Murray were both in excellent form, swimming PBs in all their events.  

Jack Ganter aged 13 years swam a fantastic time of 3.15.51 in his 200m IM. Millie Groom swam a super 12m Breaststroke in 12.31 seconds (a 9.2second PB). Heidi Hiscox swam extremely well in her Breaststroke and Freestyle races, taking over 2 seconds off her previous best times. Connor Lee performed extremely well in his Breaststroke, Freestyle and Butterfly to swim PBs.  

Special mention to all the other swimmers who swam PBs on Wednesday night: Jasper Korosec, Stevie Lee, Abiageal Maher, Lily Maher, Mason Harland, Remy Hedges, Anisa Helou, Jax Clayworth, Oliver Bond, Jai Dennison, Jacob Dewis, Charlie Doherty, Evie Doherty, Austin Edwards-Bland, Liam Filewood, Isaac Pisaniello, Nathan Saunders, Lukas Tevaskis, Alannah Ogilvie, Celeste Orenshaw, Shailee Mewha and Lilah Mewha.  

Contributed with thanks to Raylene Rasmussen.

Jasper, Addie and Celeste with their Upgrade Certificates

Stevie Lee with her Chocolate Award

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Saturday morning dawned bright and the young ladies of the Saturday morning group turned up with "bright eyes and bushy tails" for a morning of energy filled tennis.

Saturday afternoon social tennis was a terrific with social players delighted to have new faces on court. Big thank you to: Cam, Sienna, Luke, Francessco and Tanya

The Tuesday and Thursday afternoon tournament training team is working tirelessly to improve their overall fitness - Well done to this group for 100 per cent effort.

The boys of Friday Brekky Group were more than keen to get back into hitting mode - Top work - Remy, Brax, Charlie and Fletcher.

On Friday night court hire regular Nicholas brought along his friend for a mighty game of tennis.

Contributed with thanks to Jenny Kirkman.

Saturday morning warm-up

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This week the Friday prawns were won by Club Handicapper Rob Lodders with 24 points, second was Wayne Singleton who just beat the third placing Tim Harris on a count back, both on 22 points.

Saturday saw a return to the 18-hole competitions. This week it was stableford, won by Justyn Durbin with a very impressive score of 40 points, closely followed by Terry Kimpton on 38 and Adam Singleton on 37.

Sunday's 9-hole was won by Dave Burke on 22, Kendal Nash on 21 and Tyson Flavel on 19.

Next week the Club commences the introduction of a variety of competition styles starting on Saturday 12th with a SKINS competition with 4 Ball Better Ball the following week.

Head to the Whitsunday Green website to find the competition calendar.

Contributed with thanks to Kate Cross.

Kendal Nash and Kev Fancke

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A huge word of thanks to Justin Butler and the team for organising the 2022 Sports Expo!

Thursday afternoon can only be described as colossal when state Queensland coach Brendan Lee was in attendance. Our local Pickleball players were all enthused by Brendan's instruction and couldn't wait to put it into practice.

Three pickleball courts were in action with much striking of the wiffle ball and plenty of laughing.

Pickleball hit Australian shores in 2015 - the most popular word to describe this sport is - fun.

If you are keen for this new sport that is taking Australia by storm - social pickleball is on every Thursday at 4.30pm and Saturday mornings at 7am. Pickleball court available for hire at your convenience. Equipment and wiffle balls supplied.

Contributed with thanks to Jenny Kirkman.

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Firstly, JJK Tennis and Tennis Whitsunday would like to thank Justin Butler and team for the amazing effort they put into the Sports Expo, it is greatly appreciated.

Tuesday night social tennis had Norm and Daniel in a tight tussle, unfortunately Thursday night was a victim of the watery weather.

Fit, fun tennis the original and best cardio workout on a tennis court had the girls ecstatic to be on court on Thursday morning. If you are keen for fitness laughter and good company it hits off at 8.30am, equipment supplied.

Nathan Harriett was keen to give his brand-new racquet and tennis shoes a workout on Saturday morning and he looked in the zone. Lookout Coach Jamie when you next hit the courts together!

On Wednesday the 4pm squad and 5pm squad worked like demons. Footwork, fitness and rallying were all part of the hour-long squads.

Reminder Social tennis is on at 7pm on Tuesday and Thursday nights, and Saturday morning 6.30am and Saturday afternoon 2.30pm. Court Hire available. Members and visitors most welcome.

Contributed with thanks to Jenny Kirkman.

Nathan Harriett serving up a storm

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One of Bowen’s largest junior rugby league clubs has made the leap, taking the club’s vision to incorporate a senior grade side to grow the sport in the Whitsundays northernmost township.

Bowen Seagulls Junior Rugby League Club is no longer just for the kids, with the addition of a senior grade side in the Townsville and District Rugby League (TDRL) competition after discussions between the TDRL board and Seagulls President Darren Piggott.

The club has entered two teams, a reserve grade and women’s grade, into the Townsville based competition in a move that will hopefully grow the sport in Bowen.

It has been many years since a senior league team has represented Bowen in any form.

Representatives from the TDRL visited the Bowen Senior League team’s preseason training as part of their assessment of whether the rugby side would be confirmed a place in the Townsville comp.

They were joined by Whitsunday Mayor Andrew Willcox and Councillor Michelle Wright, who were excited to see the return of a club side to represent the famed mango town.

“The work the Bowen Seagull committee have put in to date should be recognised and working to bring new future opportunities for our junior players,” Councillor Wright said.

The TDRL representatives were extremely impressed by the sheer number of potential players that came out on what was known as the “Senior League Meet and Greet Night.”

The very next day, the club received the news that they dreamed of, and now the group kick into gear for the preseason, and they “could not be more excited to bring senior league back to Bowen.”

Mayor Andrew Willcox was ecstatic about the opportunity for Bowen to add another sport into its retinue.

“Very exciting news for Bowen and surrounds, and a big congratulations must go to Darren Piggott and club for the long hours put towards making this come to fruition,” Mayor Willcox said.

“Train hard, play hard, make us proud!”

The senior sides will play home games at Denison Park, with preseason training taking place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30pm.

Their season fixtures are yet to be announced

Mayor Andrew Willcox, Townsville and Districts Rugby League representatives Roger and Andrew, Bowen Seagulls President Darren Piggott, and Councillor Michelle Wright

Some of Bowen’s contingent of new senior Rugby League players

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