With 2024 about to be consigned to the history books, it’s timely to look back on what I think was a very good year for Ashgrove Rangers.

Our club’s purpose is officially to promote the sport of athletics in our local area and hopefully we provided a wide range of opportunities for our members of all ages, disciplines and levels of abilities.

Certainly over the past 3.5 years our co-operation with The Gap Little Athletics and Arana Little Athletics clubs and local schools like Marist Ashgrove has benefited us a lot in terms of providing pathways towards Brisbane 2032.

Amazing discipline and focus by our athletes saw a total of 19 individual and teams National Medals which is a record achievement for our club so well done to those athletes and their coaches from both within and outside Ashgrove Rangers.

A continued focus on technical improvement and a growth mindset from our coaches along with hard work by our officials at lead-up meets along with energetic support from our parents helped our athletes achieve generally strong results across the board.

We ended the athletics year in September with a total of 200 members and currently sit on a total of 119 members for the 2024/25 season after the first 3 months.

Highlights included:

• Visit by Wally Lewis and Channel Nine in May as part of highlighting clubs doing Olympic sports in lead-up to Paris Olympics
• Continued promotion of recreational running opportunities through regular marshalling at Ashgrove parkrun and Des Connor junior parkrun plus joining with the Ernies at major events the Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast Marathons, GC50 and tomorrow’s Resolution Run at Carrara
• Conducted the annual 60k South Burnett Express Rail Trail Relay from Kingaroy to Wondai and back in May and competed in the Nundah Criterium Relay in April.
• Conducted club social Track events the Ashgrove Rangers Gift in July and Christmas Meet in December at The Gap High and competed against Toowong Harriers at Jack Cook Park in September in the annual local derby
• Conducted the Petfield Trophy event in March for local primary schools and attended Regional, State and All Schools Track and Field and Cross Country events
• Celebrated 35 years of Flying Fours with the Lincoln Winch Memorial Handicap in March and 49 years of Club Handicap in September
• Competed at National Track and Field Championships in April, Primary School Nationals in Sydney in November and Australian All Schools in December
• Competed at National Primary Schools Cross Country at Yarra Glen and the National Cross Country in Launceston both in August
• Finished 3rd in Brisbane Cross Country Series and equal 6th in State Track and Field Relays leaving us as one of six clubs to finish top ten in both along with Ignition, Ipswich, Mayne Harriers, Toowong and Thompson Estate
• Competed in State Cross Country Relays at Nudgee in June and conducted the Honeyeater Cross Country at Upper Kedron in June and were host club for the State Cross Country at Victoria Park in July
• Competed at every Track and Field Shield Meet
  

It’s been a huge team effort so well done to the committee and hopefully we all got the feeling of contributing to something bigger than ourselves via our community so congratulations on a job well done.