@Normal:Brendan Dixon can’t want to coach the next crop of the valley’s best sprinters at Athletics Victoria’s new showpiece in Mount Evelyn. 75179 Picture: Russell Bennett
By Russell Bennett
MOUNT Evelyn will soon be the home of one of Victoria’s best athletics facilities, in the hope of breeding the state’s Olympic champs of tomorrow.
And when the first stage of Morrison Reserve’s upgrade is revealed early in the new year, athletes from schools throughout the Yarra Ranges Shire will have a top class running track at their doorstep.
Athletics will be able to keep some of the hills and valley’s brightest young track and field talent, rather than watching it sprint to the clutches of Aussie Rules, cricket or basketball.
Some $2 million of Yarra Ranges Council funding will be spent on upgrades for the Mount Evelyn facility by the end of next year.
The facility will have a camera on the athletics track to capture nail-biting photo-finishes at the finish line and a range of new features that will all meet Athletics Victoria standards.
A new synthetic running track will replace the tired grass running track, more than a quarter of a million dollars will be pumped into turning the infield into a high-class soccer pitch, and about $380,000 will be spent on lighting which will allow athletes to use the facility in rain or sunshine, day or night.
“We haven’t even realised the full potential of our young people to get involved in track and field and that’s what this is all about,” said Billanook Ward councillor Tim Heenan.
“There are so many variations of sport at state, commonwealth and Olympic level that young people can get involved in but never had the facilities to even try in the hills.
“Soon they will.”
Hills high school students who previously had to travel to Knoxfield or Croydon for their athletics carnivals are now just a short bus ride away from the new Mount Evelyn facility.
Cr Heenan said it was important to provide gifted youngsters with the chance to reach for the stars.
“We’ve got groups like the Yarra Ranges/Lilydale Athletic Club, who have seen the athletic potential and spark in our young people,” he said.
“You need to see this in young people at the age of eight or 10 when they’re first deciding which sports they want to play.
“We don’t want mums and dads to have to travel out of the region if their children are showing great athletic potential.”
Yarra Ranges/Lilydale Athletic Club vice president and sprint coach Brendan Dixon played a key role in the formation of the new facility. He said it would be a “huge drawcard” to get local students, athletes, disabled people and the elderly up and active.
And Mr Dixon said he was also pushing for a senior athletics club for the hills.
“Athletics Victoria are 100 per cent behind me on that,” he said. “Outside Albert Park, this will be one of the best tracks in the state.”
Stage one of the improvements, involving lighting, and track and field upgrades will be complete in the first half of 2012, before stage two begins – the construction of a new pavilion with new clubrooms and catering facilities.
