Our band of technical officials cannot be allowed to go unnoticed or unrecognised. The team of Neville Fenn, John Munro, Janet Munro and Jodie Sundstrom are to be applauded on their wonderful effort at the NSW Relay Championships held recently at Blacktown. Officiating over the weekend in very hot conditions, our team did not falter and helped ANSW run a very successful relay title event. Over the season technical officials take a lot of backlash and it is usually from people making smart remarks from the grandstand. I witnessed one last weekend, when two young men sat next to me in the front row of the grandstand. A smart remark was made by one, who stated “athletes should not have to take out their own starting blocks, they should have people to do this”. A long serving official heard this remark from the track and quickly turned and looked up at this guy and responded by saying: “well you can come out and help” - he was quick and he was honest, he could have gone out and helped. Too many people are quick to make remarks in the negative. I am proud of our technical officials (and all other officials for that matter) and as a smaller size club, we certainly “outplay” many of the larger clubs when it comes to putting technical officials on the track.
Well done Jodie, Janet, john and Neville - we from IBS appreciate what you do for not only our club but athletics in general.