Balmoral Little Athletics is a member of Little Athletics Queensland (LAQ). Each season, which runs from Aug/Sept to March, we have approximately 250+ children register at the club.
In Queensland little athletics is divided into 11 regions and we have 105 centres across the state.
Balmoral is part of the South East Region, which includes nine other clubs. These clubs come together to compete at the regional carnivals, with the clubs from the other regions coming together for the statewide carnivals (winter, spring and summer) and championships (state relay, combined event and state championships). For more information, visit Little Athletics Queensland website.
Children of all skill and ability levels are welcome at Balmoral. We offer plenty of encouragement to achieve their personal best! Our emphasis is on fun, fitness and friendships – and a ‘have a go’ attitude. We encourage children to discover new skills and learn to be their best while making friends and having fun.
At Balmoral we welcome children from 5 to 17 years. For the new season, 2022-23, this means children born in 2017 (U6) to 2006 (U17) can register for little athletics at Balmoral.
When you complete the online registration, the age group for your child will be automatically allocated according to their date of birth. For more information, see the official Little Athletics Queensland Registration Ages Table.
Please note, your child must participate in his/her appropriate age group as listed on the table regardless of their abilities or friendship groups.
The season runs from Aug/Sept to March. The 2022/23 season runs for 20 weeks (excluding school holidays) and begins on Tuesday 6 September for weekly training and Wednesday 7 September for weekly competition. The season runs until Wednesday 15 March 2023, with an end-of-season centre break-up presentation evening held in April, after the State Championships.
A discount is available for families who register two or more children.
Yes! If your child is interested in trialling little athletics before committing for a full season, we offer a two-week trial period. The fee for the trial is $40 per child, which is deducted from the full season fee if you wish to continue. Trials are available from the start of a season (Aug/Sept) until the end of November. If you have previously registered for Little Athletics, competing a trial period is not an option.
Unlike many other sports, we need the support from parents to help manage the athletes and run the track and field events on competition nights, each Wednesday.
It’s not difficult, as there is lots of support from Committee members and returning families – we just need many hands to ensure the evenings run smoothly and efficiently by helping the age groups get through all the programmed events as efficiently as possible.
The help involves marshalling (each week a parent volunteers to be age marshal), measuring and recording the field events (long jump, high jump, shot put, discus, and javelin). At the start of the we provided a series of Parent Induction Sessions to introduce new families to little athletics, this includes how measure and record events. (see FAQ below).
In addition, we also need help each Wednesday with setting up the equipment for the field events, and running the BBQ. For the BBQ, we prepare a roster for the season and allocate an age group to help each week.
If you are available to help anytime, regardless of the allocated age group, you’d be most welcome any Wednesday.
At the start of the season we run Parent Induction Sessions for new parents or any parent wanting a refresher on what to do on competition nights – which involves mostly measuring and recording the field events.
For the 2022/23 season, we are running these sessions on the following Tuesdays while athletes are training: 6 and 13 September and 4 and 11 October.
During these sessions we’ll take you through the ‘how to’ for athletics – e.g. how to measure and record long jump, high jump, shot put, discus and javelin.
Free training by qualified coaches is available every Tuesday for Balmoral Athletes from 6.00pm to 7.00pm (arrive at 5.50pm for sign-in) – except during school holidays. There are three or four disciplines to choose from each week.
The weekly training schedule is posted on the BLAC Facebook page. It’s not compulsory to attend, but a great opportunity to learn/improve skills and technique.
If you come along, please sign-in your child/ren on the sheets provided.
Are you a coach? If you are a Level 1 or higher coach and would like to be involved in training please let us know. All our coaches are remunerated.
Club competition is on every Wednesday from 5.30pm, except during school holidays.
To ease into a new season and help everyone become familiar with how the weeks work, we run three events for the first three weeks of competition. In the fourth week, this is expanded to four events, with a fifth optional event added later in the season, i.e. middle distance and walking events. The weekly competition program will be published on the Balmoral Facebook page.
For Athletes: At the start of each comp, each age group will complete a warm-up session with the senior athletes. Afterwards, they’ll then move to their first allocated event.
For Parents: While the athletes warm up, our Centre Manager provides an update to parents.
To help each age group run smoothly through their events, parents are needed to:
Your athlete’s weekly results are loaded onto an online portal called Results HQ.
This is the same portal you used to create a family account and register your athlete. To access the portal simply sign-in with your email and the password you created.
Please allow a few days for all results to appear as sometimes there is a lag in uploading results information.
For Tuesday’s training nights no uniform is required. Just wear comfortable active clothes and appropriate footwear.
For Wednesday’s competition nights:
At the sign-on session you will receive the ‘Coles’ badge, Age badge and competition number, these must be attached onto your child’s uniform for the start of the season.
For more information about uniform requirements and placement of patches, please visit here and see these pics.
For Wednesday’s competition nights it is recommended athletes wear appropriate footwear, such as:
Note: The only spikes permitted on the long jumprun-ups at Balmoral Little Athletics and the track at QSAC/SAF (Nathan) are the Christmas Tree and Pyramid shape (see image).
Yes, this site map shows the location of the field events and starting line for the track events. The weekly event program will list the location for each age group’s events.
Each Wednesday evening a BBQ is available to families to refuel. The BBQ is organised by one or two parents who volunteer to be the BBQ Convener for the season, with the cooking and serving managed with the support of a parent roster.
The BBQ menu generally includes: sausages, onions, burgers, zooper doopers, drinks and free bananas from Coles (major sponsor of Little Athletics Queensland).
Each age group has a Committee member allocated to support your group and answer any questions.
However, if you have any questions at any time, please approach any volunteer Committee member – you’ll find us wearing BLAC blue polo tops – and we’ll do our best to help you.
No, there is no training or competitions at Balmoral during school holidays. However, there maybe carnivals or competitions happening, which are promoted on the LAQ website and /or via our Facebook page . These events are also listed under ‘Nominations’ in Results HQ.
In addition to our website, BLAC has a Facebook page that posts regular updates about training and competition nights. To access the latest information quickly we recommend following our FB page.
Important information will also be emailed to you.
Balmoral Little Athletics Centre is a member of the South East Region. Our region runs two major championships during the season:
In addition, other centres (in or outside our region) also host carnivals. Plus, Little Athletics Queensland runs a number of carnivals as well as the State Relay Championships (Dec), Combined Event Championships (Feb/Mar) and State Championships (Mar).
We encourage all our athletes to participate in the carnivals and regional events – they’re great fun and offer great experience.
Advice about upcoming events, how to nominate and closing dates for nominations is promoted through our club (Facebook, email, Wed’s parent announcements).
As COVID 19 continues to circulate, we remind families to please:
If you have any further questions or queries, please: