Track and Field

Track and Field

Track and Field is held in Semester 2 (July to November) with over 250 students from Years 5 to 12 competing at different age levels. Many Churchie athletes also participate in the Queensland Athletics and Australian Athletics season, which begins in October and concludes in March with the Australian Junior Track and Field Championships.

The cornerstone of the Churchie Track and Field programme is its coaches. The Churchie coaching staff is made up of individuals with a tremendous amount of personal competition experience and/or coaching experience where they have taken athletes to state, national and international levels.

Although it might seem like a sport only for the fittest, fastest and strongest, any Churchie student who wishes to participate is welcome.

To be considered a member of the Track and Field team, it is expected that all athletes adopt our core behaviours of commitment, discipline and competitiveness. Emphasis is placed on athletes understanding what their potential is and working hard to achieve this, all while enjoying participating along the way. Goals are achieved by students participating in the regular, structured training which includes sessions at the School, the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre (QSAC) and The University of Queensland. While the training is difficult, the results achieved by the athletes have been impressive. Individually, Churchie athletes regularly compete at a regional, state, national and international level. This includes six Churchie athletes representing Australia over the past 10 years at the IAAF World Youth and World Junior Championships.

Churchie’s Track and Field training facilities are located on the school grounds and the GPS Championships are held at QSAC.

History

Churchie held its first sports day at the Toowong Sports Ground in 1916, while the first sports day at East Brisbane took place in October 1918 on the newly-laid Main Oval. Although only 157 boys attended the School in 1918, this first sports day, with its combination of races, jumps and novelty events, set the pattern for the future, and the annual sports day became, for many years, a major sporting and social event in the School Calendar.

After the annual sports day, a team was selected to train for the All-Schools Sports. Before the GPS Association was established in 1918, the Queensland Secondary School Association (often called the All-Schools Sports), conducted fixtures for Brisbane schools. Track and Field began in 1918 and in 1923 Churchie won its first GPS Track and Field Premiership.

In the 1940s Churchie took three more premierships before entering a golden age from 1952 to 1965 when the School won the premiership 13 times in 14 years, including 10 consecutive titles from 1956 to 1965, and again in 1973 and 1974, giving us a total of 20 premierships.