Athletics Australia – News – Six inducted as Athletics Australia Life Members

Athletics Australia have inducted six new names into the Life Members list, including Peter Fortune, the former coach of Cathy Freeman, double medallist from the 1962 Commonwealth Games, Betty Moore and Brent Kirkbride, who was the chief physiotherapist of the Flame team at this year’s IAAF World Championships. 

Diane Lowden, a member of the IAAF Area Race Walk Judges Pane and Efim Shuravetsky, a long time coach of club, state, national and international athletes also join the inaugural group, as does Phil O’Hara.

Peter FORTUNE has coached many Australian athletes in sprints, middle and long distance, hurdles and jumps and provided dedicated service to the sport as a coach in both voluntary and professional capacities.

‘Fort’ as he is affectionately called, is perhaps best known for his successful athletic partnership with Catherine Freeman, but he has been coaching for over forty years and has previously worked with athletes like national representatives Phil Wood, Gary Minihan, Susan Andrews, Lee Naylor, Kris McCarthy, Lauren Hewitt and Tamsyn Lewis.

Having worked initially and mainly in Melbourne, Fort was the VIS sprints coach for around ten years but is now based in Tasmania. In both cases his professional contributions, in addition to his ongoing voluntary work now and over the years, has been above and beyond the call of duty.

Fort’s initial coaching until the mid 1990s was undertaken in his spare time as he worked in a senior public servant role and at all times he has been available 24 hours a day and seven days a week to an athlete or fellow coach requiring assistance.

As well as working with and developing many of Australia’s top athletes, Fort has mentored other coaches. As well as his personal coaching, he has supervised other training groups and worked with athletes and teams at training camps and championships.

Upon taking up his role in 2006 with the Tasmanian Institute of Sport and Athletics Tasmania as State Performance Manager, “Fort” re-invented himself most successfully – going from a high profile personal coach to a program manager, mentor to other coaches and key association roles including as a selector and state team head coach.

It has been a most successful partnership, with the development of the Tasmanian State Development Squad (Team ATIS), in particular, delivering good levels of success for the state and the nation particularly, perhaps surprisingly given Fort’s background – in throwing events. But in reality this should be no surprise because it grew out of his special qualities in providing mentoring and support for other coaches and the ability to detect exactly what support will best assist coaches and their talent athletes.

His formal positions with AA began in 1994 as coach to the World Junior Championships Team but since then these have encompassed not only further team roles at both junior and senior level, including two Olympic Games, but also as a National Event Coach and most recently as co-ordinator and coach of the 2010 – 2012 National Target Talent Relays Program.

He was the 1997 Individual Male Coach of the Year in the Australian Coach Awards and received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000.

Brent KIRKBRIDE is an outstanding and dedicated physiotherapist, who has worked tirelessly with Australian athletes and teams over a long period of time – having been a physiotherapist with the Australian athletics teams since 1996, and head physiotherapist and AA’s medical coordinator since 2001.

He has been a partner at Sydney Sports Medicine Centre, Olympic Park since 1998 and has been the NSW Institute of Sport Physiotherapy Consultant for the past six years, working with the state’s top 750 elite athletes, coaches and managers.

Despite travelling extensively with other national teams, the sport of athletics and the athletes remain his favorite. For much of the early years of his involvement in athletics, Brent took weeks away from his profession – mostly without any realistic compensation.

Brent began his service of national teams with a junior tour to Europe in 1995, and has since tirelessly served Australia’s elite athletes and Athletics Australia at six World Championships, three Olympics Games and four Commonwealth Games as physiotherapist to the track and field team, including many as chief. He is also a regular face at local events and national competitions.

On many occasions Brent has worked long hours behind the scenes to enable many of our athletes, and indeed medalists, to get to the line. His genial nature and caring approach have made him a vital member of Australian teams for more than 16 years – not only as a sports medicine practitioner but as a key member of team staff in many other ways.

Brent is highly regarded and has lectured extensively to sports physicians, physiotherapists, coaches and athletes. He has been involved in internationally published studies and is the student supervisor for physiotherapy clinical placements at Sydney Sports Medicine Centre from a variety of universities both in Australia and overseas.

Through this he has passed on his experience and knowledge to many other physiotherapists and sports practitioners working in athletics and undertaking team and other roles for AA. He has been a significant factor in Australian successes achieved during his period on national teams.

Diane (Di) LOWDEN is most widely recognised within the athletics family for her contribution to race walking – mostly prominently as a member of the IAAF Area Race Walk Judges Panel, of which she has been a member since the Oceania Panel was established.

She is a first choice appointment as a race walk judge for any national competition for which she is available and over her more than three decades of her involvement in the sport, there have been many of those.  An example of Di’s commitment is demonstrated by the 19 national competitions at which she has officiated from 2009 to 2011.

Her skills and competence both as a walk judge and as a national technical official in other areas such as field events and the call room, are amply recognised by the list of major international competitions to which she has been appointed – from the World Junior Championships in 1996 through to the 2006 Commonwealth Games and including in between the Sydney Olympics and Paralympics, the Goodwill Games and the IAAF Grand Prix Final.

Di’s attention to detail is widely respected – a quality that has been particularly valuable to the sport, not only in her role as a judge but also as a highly regarded lecturer and co-ordinator of officials education.

Di has served for more than 15 years as an educator, including as AA Officials Education Liaison Officer for walk judges. She has been particularly diligent in ensuring courses, seminars and examinations were held regularly both to encourage newcomers to become interested and qualified in walk judging and to ensure that those already in the system are constantly updated and upgraded. Her work has ensured that there is a steady flow of well qualified walk judges each year coming into local, state and national officiating ranks.

Like so many of her colleagues, Diane gives countless hours of her time on a voluntary basis in the interests of athletics. She has been a member of Athletics Victoria for 33 years as a technical official and walks administrator and has regularly officiated at interclub, schools program meets, special competitions, state and national championships as a field event official, call room and walk judge as well as the extensive programs conducted by the VRWC.

Di is the Walks Coordinator for Athletics Victoria and was bestowed with the AV merit award in 2011.

Betty MOORE was initially an athlete of renown becoming world record holder for the 80m hurdles in Germany and then given she was based in the United Kingdom at the time and therefore ineligible for Australian selection, was chosen for England in the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, where she won two silver medals.

At the earliest opportunity upon her return, Betty began to support athletics in Australia as an administrator, coach, commentator, team manager and competition official. She continues to be a most effective contributor today.

Today, Betty is as happy working at grass roots level with her club as she is announcing at national events. The Ride Club, in particular, has been the beneficiary of much fine service from Betty both in administration and coaching.

As a Level II coach, and team manager of state and national teams she has been involved in the personal development of countless athletes. As a coach she has supported other coaches as an assistant whilst also teaching skills at the basic level and then guiding athletes through their careers to higher levels.

She has been involved in initiatives to encourage young athletes to gain public speaking and media skills and in mentoring young announcers.

At state level in New South Wales, Betty has been a continuous member of the governing executive since 1990, including periods as Vice President. She was a regular manager of state teams.

Nationally she has served as a team official and on the AA women’s committee but is perhaps most widely known, and regarded, for her work as a technical official – as an announcer at national championships and other major meetings on the national circuit for more than three decades.

For the World Juniors in 1996 and the Olympic Games in 2000, Betty was appointed as a technical official, serving principally as a call room judge – where her linguistic skills were particularly valuable. She was also the protocol officer to Great Britain’s Chef de Mission during the 2000 Paralympics Games.

Betty was awarded the Centenary Medal by the Australian Government in 2001 for services to youth and is a Life Member of Athletics NSW.

Phil O’HARA was a champion 800m runner as a schoolboy in the 1970s, but made an immediate impact on athletics administration upon attending Sydney University.  He was appointed as Secretary of SUAC and administered the club through a period of great success leading up to the Club Centenary in 1978.  Since that time, Phil has been a Vice President and ardent supporter of the club on various committees, contributing to the great success of SUAC.

Subsequently, his contribution to not only his club, but to state, national and international athletics has been both considerable and of the highest quality – always being preparing to donate his considerable skills and professional expertise to his sport.

Phil first used his civil engineering knowledge for the benefit of athletics, giving advice on the design of the athletics facility at Bruce, the warm-up track for the World Cup in 1985, and subsequently the principal venue for athletics in Canberra.

In the early 1990s he provided important advice on the design of the two-track Olympic athletic facility at Sydney Olympic Park which was opened in 1994 and has been the principal venue for athletics in Sydney since then. Phil’s involvement ensured that venue was tailored for its principal use – as an athletics competition venue. He was also a key player in the inclusion of the “champions walk” plaques which remain a wonderful added touch to SOPAC.

Phil held for many years the role of both member and chair of Athletics Australia’s Facilities & Equipment Commission but it was in his role as an event organizer that the sport is most greatly in his debt.

Phil was Chairman of the Organising Committee for AA events in Sydney from 1994 to 2003, including the opening of new track and the 1998 Commonwealth and 2000 Olympic Games Trials. He had a key role, almost always as a volunteer, for Athletics Australia in the planning and conduct of international athletics events including the World Cup in Canberra in 1985, World Junior Championships in Sydney in 1996 and Sydney Olympics in 2000.

His hands-on role as Chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the World Junior Athletics Championships 1996 was, in particular a mammoth effort, delivering an event of which the sport could be most proud. Phil tirelessly and professionally led the team, totally in a voluntary capacity for the entire period of the organisation and delivery of the event.

As Manager, Training and Warm up for Olympic Games 2000, he was part of the team that ensured that the Sydney Olympics athletics competition remains today as one of the most highly regarded yet presented.

As a national technical official, Phil has served in a range of roles beginning at the 1985 World Cup in Canberra where he was Athlete Control Manager and often as a member of the Jury of Appeal at National Championships.

Phil has also served at state level, having been on the Board of Athletics NSW since 2002 and is a keen athletics historian.

Efim SHURAVETSKY was a former national Ukrainian head coach for 16 years, but has been a long time coach of club, state, national and international athletes since his migration to Australia.

His contribution, influence and commitment as a coach and supporter has been and remains outstanding. Since his retirement as a professional coach, Efim has continued to coach both in the school system and as a personal mentor to developing and senior athletes.

In particular, a renowned combined events coach, Efim has coached and mentored over a broad range of events and was an Australian team coach in jumps and combined events.

But it as an identifier of talent that has most probably been Efim’s greatest contribution to Australian athletics. One of the most familiar figures at school, youth and junior competitions around the country, his eye for talent is one of Australia’s most revered.

Efim was head coach at the VIS from 1997-2000 and prior to that was employed as a coach by the AIS. To further his involvement in the sport, after he retired from the VIS in 2001, he also established the E & J Athletics Academy in 2001, to deliver professional coaching service to the general public, schools, universities, sport clubs and communities.

Efim also worked for many years as a masseur to several of our top athletes.

In recognition of his expertise and the faith which athletes displayed in him, Efim’s national team appointments were many – eleven in all, covering both junior and senior levels and including two Commonwealth Games, an Olympics and World Championships.

He served as a National Event Coach in several areas, including steeplechase and combined events. He was the driving force behind the regular inclusion of the Malinowski Steeple on the Zatopek program, instigating the trophy for it.

Efim is amazingly experienced and technically knowledgeable in all disciplines of track and field though perhaps his best quality as a coach is his reliability and punctuality to all training sessions, for all athletes.

Whether as a personal coach, team coach or in support of a fellow coach, Efim has advised, assisted, nurtured and developed many Olympic representatives, Commonwealth Games medallists and national champions including Tim Forsyth, Alison Inverarity, Peter Winter, Scott Ferrier, Andrew Murphy, Stephen Cain, Michael Hazel, Paul Scott, Peta Kennedy, Kylie Coombe, Sheryl Morrow and Mariklud Viduka.

Proud to be one of Australia’s national coaching consultants, Efim is always happy and willing to mentor other developing coaches, and whilst he has proven his ability to produce elite athletes, he has always valued the importance of junior development and ensuring Athletics is challenging and fun.

 

 Athletics Australia – News