A big thank you to Woolworths for providing Western Athletics with $1,000 of Woolworths Gift Cards under their sports grant program to boost Australia's grassroot clubs and thank you to Amy Cashin for nominating Western Athletics as her club to receive the grant.

What an opening day to our summer T&F season. It was stereotypical Melbourne weather, which, in reality, doesn’t occur that often. We had a mixed bag of wind, deluge, calmness, pleasant warmth and spitting rain. There were some stoic performances, especially by the ladies 800m and the Club Helpers.

This year we seem to have been hit by more rain than other years and the Tan was in keeping with the theme, as well as being surprisingly cold.
There were as usual many great individual results and team results and highlight for the day included the 6th win for the season for Premier Men, a fourth place result for the Premier Women and of course the presentation at the end of the race for the Open Men’s Premiership. Thanks to all those who ran, especially to those who backed up from the half marathon just 6 days earlier! Thanks to the help on the Day from Janice, Brenda, Ben Mudie, Stu and Burkie. Special thanks to Alistair McDonald who filled in as our AV Helper.

For the penultimate race of the season the conditions were pleasant to start then the north wind kicked in but at least there was no rain. There were so many highlights from the 3rd place by Ben Chamberlain in the half, another win for the Premier team and in the juniors five club records were broken, four second place results, a win in the men’s U18 and second in the women U14. Thanks to all those who put their bodies on the line to run the half Marathon, we had great numbers in our open men and women. Thanks also to our two AV helpers Peter Cashin and Colin Drake.

Today, we honour the memory of Stan Coxhill, a pillar of the Sunshine Athletic Club and Western Athletics.
Stan's dedication to athletics was unparalleled; he was president of the Albion/Sunshine Athletic Club for 16 years and is a life member of the Sunshine Athletic Club and Western Athletics.
He was also the foundation of the Albion Football Club in 1961 and also the president of this club for 3 years.
Stan's character was the embodiment of the 'salt of the earth' - polite, respectful, dedicated, passionate, loyal and hard working. He worried intensely about the decision to form Western Suburbs and then Western Athletics, but once he decided it was the right decision he backed it fully and always supported us to the hilt. He became one of our best supporters.
Even as age and illness presented challenges, he graced our celebrations with his presence. His interest in the club's welfare never waned, and his humble declines to attend presentations in favour of donating to the club spoke volumes of his character.
A truly decent, generous and delightful man to have known. Rest in peace, Stan.

For the third occasion this season we were treated to real XC weather, cool with showers and a big dump of rain in the hours before making the course muddy and slippery. Although the numbers were down we had good teams and some really solid results. Congratulations to our Premier Men for winning again and their fourth round in a row which now puts them firmly on top of the ladder. Our Premier women had their best result of the season with a fourth place, a second place for the women Div 3 and in the juniors a second place for U18 Men and third for the U14 women. Thanks again for all the help on the day, Ben Mudie for collecting the subs, Stu and Burkie ensuring athletes were present and correct, the Muscats for bring the tents and of course our three AV helpers, Mal Hodgart, Jodie Dunstan and Peter Cashin.