State Championships Cancelled

Copied from LAQ facebook.

Little Athletics Queensland has been closely monitoring and evaluating developments regarding the coronavirus (COVID-19).
News has just been received that the Federal and State Governments have agreed to cancel ALL public gatherings of over 500 people from Monday. However, in the best interests of the health and well-being of the athletes and families we have decided to cancel this weekend’s State Championships.
We will issue further advice as decisions are made regarding any other relevant matters as soon as possible.
This decision has not been made lightly and has been made in the best interest of our athletes and families.

Our second message

I just wanted to quickly cover off on the unfortunate cancellation of the McDonald’s State Championships and the impact on City North Little Athletics.

Firstly it is with great sadness that the news of the cancellation was received. I feel deflated myself. Thanks to Kent and Matt for keeping me informed through the day.

I feel so disappointed for our 48 athletes and also for those athletes that knew that this would be their final instalment in their Little Athletics journey. All I can say is to look forward and set your goals and I encourage you to continue your athletics journey overall and most importantly focus on being fit and healthy young adults.

Our disappointment and inconvenience must also be put in perspective. Many other athletes and their families and supporters would have travelled hours and hours from around the State and at great expense. My thoughts are with them as well.

LAQ have said they will deal with any subsidiary issues in due course. I have no idea if that means postponement or proper cancellation. At this stage they have not mentioned rescheduling. I doubt events can be rescheduled in the current environment.

Unfortunately LAQ were put in a position where there was only one real outcome. Whilst through this morning there was no advice to cancel events like this the LAQ decision makers could be comfortable taking precautions and proceeding. However once the Chief Medical Officer made their recommendation to cancel large gatherings the organisers had no other choice to make. I understand the PM announced the advice at 2pm and LAQ cancelled by 2:40pm. Even if the advice was not to enact it on until Monday I imagine the responsible officers at LAQ made the bravest of calls. To continue the event, or cancel after tonight, would have opened them up to far more criticism.

After the multiple cancellations due to wet weather since the new year I feel we have had hardly any time together this year. Unfortunately I think we are in for more trying times as a broader community as we try to delay and spread over time the impacts of the virus.

Looking forward we have one more event for our season which is our presentation night, scheduled for Tuesday 17th March. I plan to revisit the scheduling of this event and the catering and format of the event with the committee over the weekend to put in place measures to make it a low risk event. Remember having any event has it’s risks. That said any person/family that feels uncomfortable attending this event or anyone who is unwell should not attend.

When we have presentation night athletes should where their uniform. In addition we will distribute State Championship shirts that night as well.

City North Little Athletics

Centre Manager