FAQs

When does the season start/end? 

Manly Warringah club competitions for Little and Junior athletes (Category A) commence in September. A full draft calendar is available on the website so you can prepare the next six months of your life. Check it out here.

For Opens and Juniors (Category B), inter-club competitions and specialists series meets are availabe from August with the bulk of competitions commencing in October.

Don't forget that as a registered athlete, the season doesn't have to end in March; you can attend the Winter track series, walks, and cross country meets like heaps of our Manly athletes have attended this year! 

What ages can register with Manly Warringah this season? 

For the first time ever, we are accepting athletes from Tiny Tots right through to Masters! That means anyone born from 2021 onwards can wear the maroon and white and get involved! You can read more about the Tiny Tots (ie 5s), Pocket Rockets (i.e. 6s), Little Athletes (i.e. 7-12s), Junior Athletes (13-20s), Open athletes (20-34s) and Masters athletes (35+) below. 

How much is registration and what is included?

The table below shows the summary, but read on for all the details! 

What do I need to know about parent duties (for Little Athletes and Junior- Category A athletes)? 

Any families registering an athlete in a littles (7s-12s) or juniors A (13s-U20) category is required to pay a refundable $150 parent duty bond once per family. Please select this add on for one of your athletes only. Registration is not complete without payment of the bond.
Each family is required to complete 2 duties before Christmas and 2 in the new year. Please sign up for your 2 pre Christmas duties here to complete your registration.

Little Athletes

Little Athletes (born 2019-2014) are from the 7s-12s age groups. Athletes in these age groups will be offered weekly competitions on Saturday mornings (and some Friday nights in January) across track and field disciplines. All families with a Little Athlete must pay a parent duty bond of $150 per family at registration. This is refunded at the end of the season if the family has completed four parent duties at regular competitions across the season. 

Junior Athletes

Junior athletes are in the 13-U20s age groups (born 2013-2007). Junior athletes are the ones that have multiple options for registration. You can either register as a Junior - Category A (which gives you full Manly club comp and training), or as a Junior - Category B (with no Manly club comp or training access). 

Either way, you will be registered with Manly Warringah Athletics. Here are the notable differences:

Tiny Tots

Tiny Tots (born 2021) will be hosted on Monday afternoons at Narrabeen from 4:30-5:30pm from October 13 until March (with a break for Christmas holidays in Dec/Jan). There will be skill based games and untimed races run by our Tiny Tots coordinator with the help of parents. This will not be a drop and go session; parents are expected to be actively involved. Parent duty bonds will not be charged to families who are only registering a Tiny Tot as there are no parent duty requirements (aside to help your Tiny Tot out and have fun!).

Pocket Rockets

Pocket Rockets (born 2020) will be held on Monday afternoons 4:30-5:30pm at Narrabeen from from October 13 until March (with a break for Christmas holidays in Dec/Jan). This will be run by age managers much like Saturday mornings, but with some coaching through field events, and running of untimed races. This will not be a drop and go session; parents are expected to be actively involved. Parent duty bonds will not be charged to families who are only registering a Pocket Rocket, as no parent duties are required (aside to help your Pocket Rocket out and have fun!).

Opens and Masters

Following the consolidation of Sydney Pacific and MWLAC, open and masters athletes can now register with Manly Warringah Athletics. There will be groups within the WhatsApp community for these specific registrations. Athletes this season can wear their historical Sydney Pacific uniform or the Manly Warringah uniform. 

What representative options are available? 

Athletes in the 7s and older can qualify for the Zone Championships in November. Athletes in the 8s and older can qualify for Zone, Region and State Relays. Athletes in the 9-12s are eligible to qualify for the Zone, Region, State and State Relay champs, and athletes in the 13-U20s (and opens +) can also qualify for Nationals. There are a range of additional events athletes can represent Manly in just by self-nominating. These are all detailed on the NSWA website. You can read more about qualifying requirements for Little Athletics and Junior championship events here.  

What about the track closure/refurb? 

The government has allocated funding for the damaged synthetic track to be fixed, and for drainage remediation to future proof it. Hooray! While we don't have a current timeline for these works to commence, we expect that at some stage throughout our summer season, we will lose access to our current jumps and throws facilities. We are working with the Office of Sport to identify different spaces throughout the Narrabeen Academy of Sport to hold these events, however it is important that you are aware that the facilities will not be the same standard we are used to (i.e. they may be on grass, less spacious, etc). While this is not ideal, we are focussed on the future with the NSW Government commitment to deliver a new, World Athletics compliant synthetic athletics track, complete with with a new asphalt subbase, a moisture resilient track surface, improved stormwater drainage and supporting infrastructure. Make sure you also check the calendar for all the NSWA and extra events that Manly athletes are welcome to attend if they need more of a synthetic fix than we are able to offer weekly! 

Will any Manly competitions be held at SOPAC (Homebush) again? 

We will again hold events at other locations across Sydney so our athletes can compete on the surfaces they are used to. Please review the calendar so you are aware of the locations our competitions will be held each week. Manly meets that are held on synthetic tracks will be the only meets across the season that athletes are eligible to break Manly records. Please note that Junior athletes who register for no club or comp training (i.e. category B) will not be eligible to attend our SOPAC/ES Marks meets nor to break Manly Little Athletics records. 

Now that there are no suburb-based clubs, what do we wear on Saturdays? 

One main reason that we consolidated the clubs was to alleviate some of the financial pressures on families. There is now one single Manly uniform (i.e. the same uniform that anyone who has attended a zone/region/state/state relay competition already has). If you are new this year, you'll just be buying the Manly uniform. If you already have a club uniform (i.e. Wakehurst, Seaforth, Peninsula, Cromer or Manly) at home from a prior season, you are still very welcome to wear that this season rather than buying a Manly uniform (but if you represent Manly at a Championship meet you will need the Manly uniform). Any coloured shorts are acceptable to wear to Manly comps, but maroon is needed for rep carnivals. Anyone running for their school (e.g. St Augustines) must wear their school athletics singlet at weekly Manly comps as a requirement of their school enrolment. A Manly uniform will still be required for Champs representation and NSWA competitions. You can read more about uniforms here, and buy uniforms through our online shop here, or at rego pickup day. 

Training times and locations 

Training will be held on the same traditional nights of Mondays and Wednesdays, with times varying from 5:15, 6pm and 6:30pm starts depending on the day and discipline. All training will be at Narrabeen (i.e. there will be NO training at Seaforth Oval or Lionel Watts). Training will be open to all athletes registered for either Little Athletics (7-12) or Junior Athletics (Category A) only. Training is completely optional, however we do recommend that to get the most out of your season of athletics, you attend training where possible to build skills, technique, speed and fitness.

You will need to log in as your athlete (separately if you have multiple athletes) to book training sessions. Bookings for training sessions open 1 week prior to the session, so set your alarm and grab the spot your athlete is most keen on as spots are limited. You will only be able to book into sessions that your athlete is eligible for (e.g. 7s and 8s cannot book into specific event training, and are only offered generalised training each week). For more info on training please click here. 

Will Manly training tees be available again? 

Yes! There are training tees available to purchase as part of the registration process for $32. These are completely OPTIONAL and are not the uniform. They are used as sun protection to throw over the competition singlet, or to wear to training (or out and about in the world!). These will only be available to purchase up until the season starts, so if you want one, add it into your rego! The cut off to purchase shirts is Sept 6th, and shirts will be available to collect in October. See sizing below. If you forget to add the shirt to your registration and would like one, you can head to our Online Shop to grab one before the cutoff date.

Will you be offering trial weeks?

There will be no regular trial weeks this season. If you want to try athletics out, it is recommended that you either attend the Kumon Primary School carnival in August (register through NSWA), or our Come and Try Gala in conjunction with our registration pickup on Sept 6th. 

What awards are offered to keep my athlete engaged and interested? 

We have an end of season presentation after the summer season wraps up (date and location TBA). All athletes receive a medal based on their point score from their participation and achievement across the summer athletics season. There are also age-group awards and perpetual centre awards presented here. This year, we are also bringing in a new recognition program that awards athletes periodically throughout the season. The AWARD (Achievement, Work, Attitude, Results, Dedication) program will see athletes earn pins to accumulate on their hat, bag, jacket or pinboard based on their achievements, efforts and personal bests across the season. 

Where can I get more info? 

Hopefully this has answered all those burning questions you had and you're ready to register, but if you have other questions, you can check the website for more details. Once you have registered you'll be added to your correct age group in our Manly WhatsApp community. There are additional groups within the community that you can join based on your interests, one of which is Questions For MW where you are welcome to ask whatever you need to know. Please be mindful that other Manly Warringah Athletics members and their families will view your posts so please be respectful and mindful of posting photographs or personal informatiion, especially of other people. 

I want to be involved - what can I do? 

Athletics is a largely volutneer-run organisation. We are always looking for parents and friends who want to be involved, particularly on Saturdays helping with track timing, equipment management and starting races. Please email officials@manlyathletics.org.au if you want more information. Parents are also welcome to assist their age managers each week by raking pits, wrangling children or fetching discuses. Each age manager will seek the number of parents required each week. Please be helpful as it makes the morning run much more smoothly!