Athletics Stars Return To Their Roots
Coles Community Round has seen some of Australian Athletics’ biggest names visit Little Athletics Centres across Australia.
Recent statistics released by Athletics Australia show that 4.1 million Australians are registered to take part in regular athletics, an increase of 204% since the 2000 Sydney Olympics. A significant percentage of those participants can be found at the nation’s Little Athletics Centres each week.
At the recent Paris Olympics, female athletes dominated Australia’s contribution to the medal tally, with Nina Kennedy’s pole vault gold medal headlining amazing performances, and then some more medal-winning performances followed a few weeks later at the Pralympics.
The 27 year old Western Australian has been one of several Olympians and Paralympians to give back to local communities over the past two weeks as ambassadors for Coles Community Round at Little Athletics Centres across Australia. Javelin World Champion Kelsey-Lee Barber and 2012 Olympic Champion Sally Pearson have also been among the list of athletes to go out and inspire the next generation of would-be Champions, as well as those kids who take part simply to make friends and stay active.
HER WAY went along to one of the centres that Nina visited on Friday evening, at Minchinbury in Sydney’s west, and the inspiring World and Olympic champion was a hit with both kids and adults alike, where they had set up a replica pole vault beam to show the height of Nina’s 4.91m Australian record performance.
Over the past two week, Nina has visited centres in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and “most of them in Perth”, and she told HER WAY the opportunity to give back to grass roots and inspire the next generation was a privilege:
“Genuinely, it is so nice to go back to kind of go back to where my journey started , and it was a club very similar to this and you’re just outside with your friends, and it’s just a really nice way to give back to the community.”
As part of the visits, the athletes have conducted Q and A sessions, taken on the kids in banana themes races and games, as well as delivering new equipment to centres that have recently received funding from the Coles Little Athletics Community Fund.
Coles Little Athletics Australia CEO Myles Forman said there has been a record interest in Coles Community Round this year, thanks largely to the calibre of ambassador visits on offer.
“Coles Community Round has been a feature of the Little Athletics calendar over the past four years and it’s pleasing to see its popularity continue to grow with nearly 300 Centres running an event over the next two weeks,” he said.
Coles Community Round is a great way to celebrate our partnership with Coles, which has provided over $2.5 million in sports equipment grants and more than five million bananas to our centres since 2017. The round also encourages centres to put the ‘fun’ back into the Little Athletics motto – family, fun and fitness.”
See more from Nina’s visit to Minchinbury below.