The world-renowned Illawarra Academy of Sport has had an amazing track record over the past 30 years, producing 15 Olympians, 20 Commonwealth Games representatives and 75 senior national team reps.
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They offer 300 scholarships per year over 10 sporting disciplines and to date have offered close to 7000 scholarships to talented sports men and women from the Illawarra, including many from Athletics Wollongong. These scholarships provide the professional, scientific and developmental assistance to enhance athlete's chances of achieving their sporting dreams.
Recently, the IAS hosted an Alumni night where Tokyo Olympians Emma McKeon and Sarah Carli spoke endearingly regarding the professional and detailed assistance the Academy provided in realising their Olympic dream. Athletics Wollongong's Tayissa Buchanan, a talented middle distance athlete, is a captain in the Lone Star program, which is run by the IAS and designed to assist talented athletes in areas not directly covered by mainstream academy programs. Buchanan, along with fellow program athletes Liam Halloran and Tierney Dunne, were most impressed by the inspirational speeches given by these two amazing Olympians.
Athletics Wollongong life member and chief track starter Howard McGarry and wife Carol McGarry, recently received recognition from LANSW for their incredible service to the sport of athletics. Howard not long ago stood down as the Mid South Coast zone athletics coordinator after 20 years selfless of service to the sport, which is only just a fraction of the 50 years service the couple have devoted to Illawarra athletics.
Howard will be awarded the prestigious Distinguished Long Service Award from Sport NSW at the NSW Community Sports Awards presentation to be held on June 30 at CommBank Stadium. Howard's legacy has now been passed on to his sons Kevin and Joe, with Kevin serving as Lake Illawarra's president for several years and Joe being a regular official at all levels of LANSW events.
Meanwhile, Athletics Wollongong's Thomas Noakes was announced as part of the Australian team of 14 going to the Pacific Mini Games. The Games will be held in the Northern Mariana Islands in late June. Noakes will be contesting the javelin and a combined event (an Octathlon - which skips pole vault and discus from his regular decathlon, and replaces the 1500m with a 1000m). This follows his unlucky experience at this year's nationals, where he injured his hamstring in his final training session and had to withdraw from competition.
Delta Amidzovski is going to a national jumps camp for a week before an U20s pre-departure camp on the Gold Coast in June. She has already taken part in an Open Invitational recently, competing in the open class 100m hurdles and came a creditable third in 13.83s. Such is the class of this amazing young athlete, that at the very young age of 16, Amidzovski will still have three more years to be able to compete in a World Junior Championships. Everyone is reminded that a fundraiser barbecue for Amidzovski will be held on Saturday, June 11 at Wollongong Bunnings to help with the cost of competing of her in the World Junior Championships.
Meanwhile, the St George Classic was recently held in southern Sydney. The club had three middle distance reps giving this a major event a go. Olivia Sivills ran quite a 5km in 19.51, while young Harry Keats finished fifth in 10.52 in the 3km run followed not too far behind by Austin Craig in 11.45. A special mention must go to Sivillis who by all measures is a prolific performer, tackling any middle distance event that comes along, such is the love she has for the sport.
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