The Journal of Athletics NSW.
No 3
5 June 1998
Athletics NSW
PO Box 723
Glebe 2037
Telephone: 02 9552 1244
Facsimile: 02 9552 1987
Email:

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1. Athletics NSW News
2. Around the Track
3. New age groups and field event specifications - Australian All Schools & Under Age Champs

• A reminder that the AGM will be conducted on Thursday 25^th June 1998 in room 209, Sport House, Wentworth Park, Wattle St, ULTIMO commencing at 7:30pm sharp. A reminder for clubs to get their delegate nominations forms into ANSW as soon as possible.
• Entry forms, including final timetable, for the 1998 Commonwealth Games Trials will be available from Athletics NSW next week. Minimum entry standard is the Open Australian Championships standard, recorded since 1/1/97.
• Athletics Australia has called for nominations for technical positions at the Selection Meeting for the Commonwealth Games and World Cup in Sydney on the 8-10^th August 1998. Applications close on the 30^th June 1998. For a nomination form contact the ANSW office.
• Anyone who is interested in travelling to the World Juniors in France, ATFCA have organised a coaches and supporters package. For more information contact the ATFCA office on (07) 3368 3033.
• Athletics Australia is seeking expressions of interests from people wishing to be considered for Athletics Technical Officials positions at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Applications close on the 30^th June 1988. For a nomination forms please contact the ANSW office.
• The Women’s Sport Unit, of the NSW Department of Sport and Recreation, has developed the NSW Sportswomen Register. This is a register of sportswomen who represent positive role models for women and girls in sport and recreation. Any women on the register can be used by your club for guest speaking, trophy presentations, workshop leaders, and/or any other relevant functions you may be having. The majority of women are free of charge and only require their travel expenses be met. The women representing athletics on the register include; Mavis Gibbs, Kellie Handford, Catherine Haney, Kylie Hanigan, Jane Jamieson, Sue Mahony, Louise McPaul, Melissa Medicott, Alison Quinn OAM, Kerry Saxby-Junna AM, Sophie Scamps, Helen Searle and Amy Winters. For further information or use of one of the women on the register contact the Women’s Sport Unit on (02) 9923 4377.
• NSW Sport and Recreation can assist your club by providing speakers on a range of topics such as Sponsorship, Increasing Club Membership, Strapping and Taping and more for a minimum cost. All you have to do is provide a group of people and a venue free of charge. For more information phone 13 13 02.
• The Australian Society of Sports Administrators (ASSA) are conducting Level 1 and Level 2 Sports Administrators courses. For more information phone (02) 9966 9055.
• Sports Medicine Australia are conducting Sports 1^st Aid, Sports Medicine Awareness, Level 1 and Level 2 Sports Trainer courses. For more information phone (02) 9660 4333.
• A Careers in Sport and Exercise conference will be held on Sunday 28 June 1998 at Cumberland Campus, Sydney University. For more information contact the ANSW office on (02) 9552 1244.

• A big welcome to two of Australia’s leading athletes Renee Poetschka & Mari Viduka who recently relocated to Sydney. Mari enjoyed a very successful 97/98 season improving the Australian triple jump record twice in two days. Renee, the No 2 400 metres sprinter in Australian history, should at least be in medal contention when she teams up with Cathy Freeman in the 4x400 metres in the 2000 Olympics. Renee’s sister Lauren, an Australian 400 metres hurdles medalist at the Australian Championships for seven concessive years from ’91 to ’97, has also left Perth and is now resident in Canberra.
• In Togliatti (Russia) on May 17, Russian Olga Kuzenkova improved her own women's hammer throw world record to 73.80. Kuzenkova improved her previous WR of 73.10, set at last year's European Cup in Munich. Tragically her coach died the day after her new record.
• The University of Massachusetts at Boston will confer an honorary degree this month on recently retired track great Carl Lewis. Lewis will receive an honorary doctorate of laws degree.
• Just before the men's 10,000m at the recent Adriaan Paulen Memorial Meet in Hengelo, Fanny Blankers Koen was honored on the occasion of her 80th birthday.
• Hollywood Pictures plans to release a film this fall about Ethiopian distance star Haile Gebrselassie called "Endurance." The film will cover Gebselassie's early life through his Olympic 10,000m victory in Atlanta. Olympic filmmaker Bud Greenspan is involved in the effort.
• Jim Thorpe, the hero of the 1912 Olympics, was honored by the U.S. Postal Service during its Celebrate the Century' program. The program honors significant people, places, events and trends of the 20^th Century. At the 1912 Stockholm Games, Thorpe won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon.
• University of Houston coach Tom Tellez has announced his retirement, effective the end of this season. Tellez's pupils included 100m world record holders Carl Lewis and Leroy Burrell, plus Olympic 200m champion Joe DeLoach. Tellez coached at Fullerton Junior College and UCLA before moving to Houston. He served as an assistant coach on U.S. Olympic staffs in 1980 and 1984. Tellez was also head men's coach for two other nationals teams: in 1987 at the Pan American Games and in 1991 at the IAAF World Championships. This is his 22nd year at the helm of the Cougar track program. Tellez says he'll continue as a volunteer coach at Houston. He'll also continue to coach the Santa Monica Track Club now training with him through the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
• "The impact coach Tellez has had on the sport worldwide and in this country is just beyond measure. Without his athletes, this country wouldn't have produced much in the Olympics in the sprints and jumps. It's very sad for me." Olympic legend Carl Lewis on the retirement of U. of Houston and Santa Monica Track Club coach Tom Tellez.
• "I don't often get to try and break a world record in the United States. This is an opportunity I want to take advantage of." Olympic decathlon champion Dan O'Brien on the Goodwill Games.
• "(Marion Jones) may not break Flo Jo's impossible' world record of 10.49 this year, but I think that by the time the dust settles in September we will all be convinced of something I and many many others long thought was impossible: that Flo Jo's 100m world record is vulnerable. Ditto for the 200m and long jump record. And don't forget that Jones ran a rare 400m this spring at the Mt. SAC Relays, clocking a lifetime best of 50.36. Is it crazy to think that should she attempt it at some point, she could scare Marita Koch's global standard of 47.60?" Jeff Hollobaugh, writing for ESPN SportsZone.
• Sporting Images Photo Agency has made its database of 35 000 Athletics images now available to view at the following site: http://www.sportingimages.com.au
• Electronic Telegraph, Tuesday 2 June 1998 Tom Knight - HAILE Gebrselassie shattered the world record for 10,000 metres in the IAAF Grand Prix last night with an extraordinary display of distance running. The 25-year-old Ethiopian crossed the line in 26 min 22.75 sec to carve more than five seconds off the mark set by Paul Tergat of Kenya in Brussels at the end of last summer to regain the record for the second time. It was his 13th world record and his fourth in the Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadium. Paced from the gun by three compatriots, including Milion Wolde, the world junior cross-country champion, and Assefa Mezgebu, who leads the world rankings at 5,000m, Gebrselassie was accompanied throughout by the pounding rhythms of John Scatman's thumping dance music and roared on by a capacity crowd of 15,000 . Known as 'Mr Hengelo' because of his exploits on this track, the world and Olympic champion becomes only the third man to have held the world 10,000m record three times and joins the legendary Emil Zatopek and Ron Clarke in the history books. It was a supreme display of precision running. The timing of the 25 laps showed little variation as his pacemakers did their job. Gebrselassie was led through the first half of the race in 13 min 11.53 sec, more than five seconds inside Tergat's record and there followed repeated circuits of 63 and 64 seconds. Mezgebu dropped out with 10 laps still remaining but, while the strain was clearly showing, Gebrselassie maintained the punishing schedule. He ran the final mile in a shade over four minutes and finished with a flourish, a last lap in just 58 seconds. Eamonn Condon, Phoenix, AZ
• The April issue of IAAF NEWS reported that certain competitor tatoos are illegal in IAAF competitions. Quoting from the publication: A new trend in ambush advertising has developed recently. More and more often, attempts to use tattoos on athlete's bodies identifying sponsors' logos are reported to the IAAF. Council confirmed that the use of commercial tattoos and other items abused for ambush advertising at international athletic meetings is illegal. At last summer's WCA's, French distance runner Chantal Dallenbach actually had a hole sewn into the rear of her running briefs (bun huggers), revealing a tatoo on her butt cheek. I failed in my attempt to identify the the tatoo with binoculars, or by moving closer to the track...
• FROM the Electronic Telegraph Saturday 30 May 1998 (Tom Knight) ROGER BLACK opens his 13th and last summer as an international athlete tonight in Seville knowing that the young pretenders to his crown are already snapping at his heels.

• list of events to be contested at the Australian All Schools Championships (A)
• list of events to be contested at the Australian Under Age Championships (B)
• revised throwing implement, hurdle and steeple specifications for age group competition (C1 and C2)

3. Other issues relating to Australian Championships

• New events - womens under 16 hammer; womens under 18 2000m steeple, under 14 4x100m relays
• Eliminating the current 200m and 300m hurdles and their replacement by 10 hurdle 200m hurdle events and 400m hurdle events, in the relevant age groups as per the attached sheet

• as from 1998/99, on a trial basis, a schools 4x100m relay championship be conducted in the under 20 and under 16 age groups. [only two age groups are chosen for the first trial year to give schools greater opportunities to field four athletes] There will be no restriction on the number of teams per state. If necessary, heats and finals will be conducted. Entry fee of $20 per team;
• any athlete chosen in his/her school relay team who is not qualified for any individual event at the championships may compete, upon the payment of the individual entry fee in the normal way, in the 100 metres event in his/her own age group, without the need to have qualified;
• a schools point scoring competition will be introduced (method to be devised - could be either placing or scoring table based) with a view to determining the champion boys and girls schools at the Championships overall (not each age group)
• interstate teams point scoring to be discontinued in view of the enormous divergence in team sizes and strengths

• introduction of the following new events - womens open 3000m steeple and womens under 20 2000m steeple
• on a trial basis, the replacement of the interstate relay events with relay events for the best first claim club team from each Association. Each Association would select the team to compete in each event from its own state/territory relay championships or other nominated selection event. Northern Territory would be given the option of entering either an Association or a club team. Where any team is unable to participate the place would be offered by the Association to the next eligible club and so on. Where a state/territory is not represented any remaining available place will be offered in the following order:
• to the best available club team selected by Athletics New Zealand, such teams competing on the same basis as individual internationals
• by random draw to any other Australian clubs which have indicated their desire to be invited