Bernie McLoughlan and a contingent from East Burwood Masters Athletics will join Echuca-Moama’s regular masters event on Monday, October 27 as a show of unity between clubs and the broader Victorian Masters Athletics community.
With Echuca-Moama being a new venue for masters athletics, McLoughlan, as a recently appointed committee member for the Victorian Masters Association, figured it would be a great opportunity to spread the word about the benefits of masters athletics regionally.
He and 12 other masters athletes from East Burwood will travel to the twin towns for the weekend, knocking over two birds with one stone: getting to know the local masters athletes and seeing a different part of Victoria.
“We have about 1200 members currently and looking to grow that, and my reason for getting on the committee in the first place was to try and boost membership,” McLoughlan said.
“It's great for people to see the benefits of physical activity for maturing age people and gives you the great chance to travel, whether it's around Australia, worldwide, or other venues around Melbourne or across Victoria.
“So, that's the reason I recently contacted Echuca-Moama to see if we could help in any way in boosting their new membership while also giving our East Burwood members, who are quite socially active, a social weekend away.”
Not only will the East Burwood masters participate in Monday night’s meeting, they’re also hosting a come-and-try day on Sunday, October 26 for anyone interested in seeing what masters athletics is all about.
Local marathon superstar Brady Threlfall will be on-hand to give out pointers and advice to the masters.
McLoughlan hopes that the visit can spark further collaboration between Echuca-Moama and other masters clubs around Victoria, with clubs in Melbourne intersecting regularly.
“There’s quite a lot of interaction between venues around Melbourne, there's roughly eight or 10 different venues across the metropolitan area,” he said.
“Quite a few people like myself compete at more than one venue, and we have Victoria-wide events largely held in Melbourne and that's open to all venues across the state.
“The next one coming up is later in November. It's the Victorian Pentathlon Championship and that will attract not just metropolitan, but country masters groups as well from Geelong, Bendigo and Albury, so, that's another way of interacting with other venues.
“We’ve got a few group activities scheduled outside the athletics meets over the weekend, so that’ll be good, and we are all looking forward to it.”
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