For many years, Maurie Plant was one of the necessary driving forces in Australian Athletics. An excellent buddy and supporter to many within the sport, Maurie can be honoured by this meet. He would even have a joke, maybe off-colour, to inform us, to make us smile. It’s unbelievable that Athletics Australia has renamed this meet in honor of this wonderful man.
Superstars of Australian athletics will tackle the world’s finest in a high-profile observe and discipline meet on residence soil, with World Athletics and the Victorian Authorities right this moment asserting their help of a World Continental Tour Gold Degree meet in Melbourne in February.
The Melbourne Monitor Traditional can be upgraded and reimagined because the Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne, held in reminiscence of the athletics stalwart on Thursday, February 23, with plans in place for it to turn out to be the highest-profile annual observe and discipline occasion within the southern hemisphere.
The Continental Tour Gold collection is the uppermost stage on the World Athletics Continental Tour calendar, sitting just below the Diamond League in standing. Every assembly attracts the very best athletes throughout the globe, with 13 present meets provided in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas, together with New York and Los Angeles and, for the subsequent three years, in Oceania.
The Maurie Plant Meet is a part of the Chemist Warehouse Australian Summer season Collection and can happen at Lakeside Stadium, Albert Park within the coronary heart of Australia’s sporting capital, the week after the World Athletics Cross Nation Championships in Bathurst. Australian and worldwide athletes can be introduced within the coming weeks because the golden decade ramps as much as take our Aussie athletes to the beginning line and the rostrum in Victoria 2026 and Brisbane 2032.
As part of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold collection, the Maurie Plant Meet will supply over $200,000 in prize cash plus increased world rating factors which assists athletes of their quest for World Championships and Olympic Video games qualification. The meet will assist elevate the game in Australia by that includes a number of the largest names in international athletics, with at the least three athletes from the highest 50 of the World Athletics world rankings in at the least 12 occasions. It is going to be broadcast in over 150 international locations and obtainable on the dwell stream to the remainder of the world.
The meet will even additional Melbourne’s quest to turn out to be a summer time coaching and competitors venue for the world’s finest athletes main as much as the 2026 Victoria Commonwealth Video games and the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Video games.
A variety of initiatives will even be held by Athletics Australia in step with the Maurie Plant Meet to complement the game. This can embrace coaching camps for senior athletes alongside worldwide athletes, essential competitors alternatives for the subsequent wave of expertise, in addition to pathway alternatives for officers and volunteers, and coach training boards.
“Australian athletics has been going by a resurgence with our stars shining on the world stage, and we imagine there isn’t a higher time than now to carry a Gold stage meet to Australia, with the announcement of the Maurie Plant Meet along side the Victorian Authorities,” Athletics Australia Chief Government Officer Peter Bromley stated.
“The Maurie Plant Meet will carry pleasure, ardour and pure expertise to Melbourne and better of all, we will showcase all that Australian athletics has to supply. You probably have been touched by athletics in a method or one other – whether or not it’s by faculty athletics, watching the Olympics or Paralympics at residence, otherwise you’re a weekend warrior like many people – there can be one thing for you on the Maurie Plant Meet.”
The meet has been named after the late Maurie Plant, a doyen of Australian athletics, who contributed considerably to the game’s golden period forward of the Sydney 2000 Video games. Plant developed enduring relationships with worldwide stars, bringing them down beneath and was instrumental to the success of lots of Australia’s best-ever observe and discipline athletes, together with Olympic gold medallists and family names Catherine Freeman, Steve Hooker and Sally Pearson.
Bigger-than-life, Plant turned a central determine within the sport internationally, and the meet will turn out to be an annual occasion in his honour, celebrating his legacy of bringing the world’s finest expertise to Melbourne to coach and compete towards our home-grown heroes.
Freeman, who thought-about Plant as a mentor, ally, supervisor and buddy, stated, “It might be a pure alternative to call the gold stage meet after the person, Maurie Plant, who means a lot to not solely the neighborhood of observe and discipline however who was a serious participant within the success of many champions of the world. I used to be so happy to listen to that Maurie can be honoured on this manner, as he was a person who additionally meant a lot to my success.”
Olympic 1500m finalist and Australian report holder Stewart McSweyn, who was additionally managed by Plant till his demise in 2020 stated, “It is going to be an absolute privilege to compete in a meet named in Maurie’s honour. He was a constructive, influential particular person for a lot of Australian athletes, significantly when travelling in Europe.”
“I’ll always remember the occasions we shared, and I’ll all the time need to run in his meet,” stated McSweyn.
The Plant household had been equally as thrilled by the information, with Maurie’s son Toby Plant saying, “Nothing excited Maurie greater than the very best athletes on the earth coming to his hometown to compete with the very best Australia has to supply.”
“The household is delighted and humbled that his title can as soon as once more be related to showcasing high quality worldwide observe and discipline in Melbourne.”
The Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne can be a part of the 2023 Chemist Warehouse Australian Summer season of Athletics.
Tickets and extra info could be discovered right here.
What:
Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne
A World Athletics Continental Tour Gold Degree meet and a part of the Chemist Warehouse Australian Summer season of Athletics
When:
7.00pm – 9.00pm, Thursday, 23 February 2023
The place:
Lakeside Stadium, Albert Park, Victoria
Who:
The celebrities of Australian athletics are up towards a number of the best athletes on the earth – keep tuned for athlete bulletins.
Why:
The world’s finest athletes visiting, coaching and competing within the sporting capital of the world, Melbourne, is nice for the game, sports activities followers and our Australian athletes. World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meets supply important prize cash plus increased World Rating factors, which assists in qualification for World Championships and Olympic Video games.
How:
For extra info and to buy tickets, click on right here.
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