Dozens of Forbes athletes joined hundreds of the Central West's best young athletes at Dubbo's Barden Park on Saturday, November 23 and Sunday November 24 for the Western Zone Championships.
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The event, which serves as a qualifier for the Zone 3 Championships in February, saw 21 Forbes athletes compete against athletes from more than 17 different centres in the hundreds of events.
The attendance numbers speak particularly well for the strength of athletics in the regions, according to Little Athletic's Mick Gardiner, because there was a lot of concern about weather conditions in the lead up.
"There was very good representation and good numbers," Gardiner said.
"We thought that the weather might have played a bit of havoc with us with the dust and the smoke, but it turned out well and we were able to run the full program."
The qualifying selection process means that the six top placed athletes from the weekend's events will move on to February's Zone 3 Athletics Championships.
Forbes Little Athletics had some 15 athletes qualifying for the next level of competition, with several qualifying for multiple events.
In a post to Facebook, Forbes Little Athletics said congratulations to all the kids for the achievements and efforts at the Central West Zone Championships.
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For several members of Forbes Little Athletics, this was the fist Zone Championships that they had entered.
Among them were Brock and Indy Maynard, who also managed to qualify for the Zone 3 Championships in all of their events.
Indy said she spent time practising for the shot put and discus events and that she enjoyed learning all of the new skills that she has picked up this year.
For ten-year-old Laine Jackson, taking part in all of the sports and competing with and against his friends are some of the main reasons why he competes in little athletics.
Laine, who qualified for four events in the Zone 3 Championships, said he attends little athletics every Tuesday to train and keep fit.
The Zone 3 Championships are expected to take place at Barden Park on February 1 and February 2.
Among the Forbes Little Athletics competitors who qualified for the Zone 3 Championships are:
- Peta Allen
- Jackson Beaudin
- Beth Cannon
- Ella Cannon
- Laura Chudleigh
- Jackson Dukes
- Laine Jackson
- 10 Jordan Lewin-Howard
- Brock Maynard
- Indy Maynard
- Alice Paul
- Jessica Tudgey
- William Watson
- Beau Wheeldon
- Jai Wheeldon
The athletes competed in a variety of different events at the Western Zone Championships including shot put, discus, long jump, javelin throw, and a variety of different distance sprints.
