Western Athletics Club

CELEBRATE SEASON 25/26!💛🖤💙
At the Athletics SA Awards night last night our club had a lot to celebrate!

Club of the year - WESTERN ATHLETICS CLUB!!
Coach of the Year - Development- Matt Clarke
Junior Female Athlete of the year - Tessa Ebert
Open Female Premiership - Lillee Wakefield
U14 Male Premiership- Josh Day
Life members - Kym Symonds/ Adam Dydik
(Oh and Hugo Taheny won the raffle 🥰)
Thank you to our AWESOME athletes, officials, coaches and parents!

VALE - MICHAEL BUTLER
17/12/1940 - 05/2026

Western members will be saddened to hear of the recent death of Life Member Mike Butler. He joined the club in 1964 upon arriving in Adelaide after immigrating from Yorkshire, England. He was part of a British contingent that bolstered WD in that era.
Mike was a very accomplished athlete at that time after a long and successful involvement in junior, senior track and cross-country athletics. At 16yo., he was placed 4th in the English Youth Cross Country Championships over 3 mile and had involvement in international junior representations.
Mike bought a new level of determination to Westerns with his intense training and he soon became considered to be the backbone of Western’s winter supremacy when he captained the team to win 13 Winter Pennants undefeated. He anchored many of the hugely popular relay events of that time and was also deemed a Legend of the Western-Glenhuntly Challenge after competing in the event for a span of 23 years with a break while he returned to England for several seasons from 1973.

On the track Mike was also successful in winning 6 South Australian State titles:
10,000m State Title in 1966 and 1969
​ 3,000m Steeplechase State Title in 1966 and 1967
​3 Mile Cross Country State Championship in 1968
5 Mile Cross Country State Championship in 1973

Mike was a member of the 1966 Pt Pirie Relay Team, where twelve Western District runners set out to smash the club’s 1959 time for a relay event from Adelaide to Port Pirie. The group, running 2 mile change overs, finished the distance in 12hours 37 minutes and 28 seconds with an average mile rate of 5 minutes 20 seconds slashing the previous time set by the 1959 team. Mike recorded the fastest 2 mile leg time for the relay.

Mike, with his wife Pauline, were both huge supporters of club events, and assisted the club both socially and organisationally He served on the club committee for many years in the 60’s and 70’s, and in the position of both Summer and Winter Captain over those years. He served as club delegate to ASA for various years through to the 90’s.

He was awarded Life Membership of Western’s in 1970.

Mike’s son Paul ran with Western’s in 1998 as an under16 and still holds the club record for U16 3000m and U16 2000m Steeple Chase

Thank you Garry Goodwin for putting this info together

Congratulations Aiden Fantastic run!

WORTH THE WAIT 🫡🔥

Aidan Murphy has headlined an Australian sweep in the Men’s 400m at the Oceania Athletics Championships, rising to second on the Australian all-time list in 44.44-seconds!

Finishing just shy of Darren Clark’s 44.38-second national record, Murphy beat home Thomas Reynolds in 44.69 and Luke van Ratingen in 45.04 😳

📸 - Casey Sims / Oceania Athletics

Well done to all the athletes who competed in last nights winter event!
Shout out to Matthew Clarke who won the open men’s!

🏆 A Huge Night for Westerns at the Little Athletics South Australia Association Awards! 💙💛🖤

Last Friday night’s SALAA Awards Night was a fantastic celebration of the incredible talent, dedication and spirit within Little Athletics — and Westerns was proudly represented throughout the night!

A massive congratulations to our athletes on these outstanding achievements:

🥇 State Championship Age Group Award Winners
U12 – Millie Lokan
U13 – Joshua Day
U14 – Paul Gluszkowski

🌟 State Championship Age Group Award Finalists
A huge shoutout to these athletes on their nominations in their respective age groups:
U9 – Leo Renshaw
U11 – Rori Porplyzia
U11 – Easton Mahaffey
U12 – Angelina Nyamrunda

🇦🇺 State Team Awards:
Special recognition to our state team representatives:
U13 - Joshua Day - Achievement Award
U13 - Oliver Renshaw - Team Spirit Award

We are incredibly proud of all our athletes and everything they have achieved throughout an amazing 2025/26 season. The future is looking bright at Westerns and we can’t wait to see what 2026/27 brings! 🔥👏

For the full list of award winners and finalists visit: - https://salaa.org.au/2025-26-salaa-awards/

Dr Dylan Hicks 👏👏👏

Australian sprinter Gout Gout is breaking records, including one set by Usain Bolt.

As part of a feature on the young sprinter, Dr Dylan Hicks, was interviewed by Jon Wertheim from CBS News 60 Minutes on Gout Gout’s unique explosive energy in his Achilles tendons.

Dr Hicks is a sports biomechanics and a movement scientist at Flinders University who recently published an academic paper on sprinting in Sports Medicine Journal.

In the 60 Minutes interview Dr Hicks told Jon Wertheim that what sets Gout apart from other athletes is his "phenomenal elastic qualities and speed endurance," which allows him to maintain peak velocity, during the last 50 meters of the race.

See the full 60 Minutes story here 🎥 https://cbsn.ws/4wmQeeO
Learn more about Dr Dylan Hicks’ research here 🔗 https://bit.ly/42vB6hs

Vote for our very own HUGO ROCKSTAR!

Hugo is a finalist in the 7 Young Achiever Awards - would love you to vote for our special boy!

POLL: 2026 7NEWS YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARDS - SA - FRESH 92.7 PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD The Fresh 92.7 People’s Choice Award has launched!The Fresh 92.7 People’s Choice Award celebrates and raises awareness of our incredible Finalists and their achievements.The Finalist who receives the most votes will be announced as the People’s Choice Award Winner at the Gala Presentation Dinn...

Congratulations to Adam Didyk Finalist in the Sport SA Coach of the Year Awards!

What a fantastic turnout at last night’s Little A’s End of Season Presentation Night! 🎉

A great evening celebrating the achievements of our athletes and our amazing club.

Congratulations to all of our award winners 🏆

Thank you to everyone who came along and made it so special. 💙💛🖤