ATHLETICS South West Turbines is hoping to cap off its first season in the Athletics Victoria Shield League with a playoff victory.
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The newly-created club, which competes in Geelong and Ballarat, will face Old Melburnians in its first AVSL Playoffs at Lakeside Stadium on Saturday.
The Turbines secured their spot in the division five playoffs and earned automatic promotion to the fourth tier after securing 88 out of a possible 90 points in the 10-round season.
President Jeremy Dixon, Grace Carter, Jesse Suter, Myles Sinnott, Craig Bramley, Ken Bruce, Emily Morden, Will Callaghan, Stevie Godber and Hillary Hannagan will represent the club at the final on Saturday.
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Dixon said it was exciting to cap off the club's inaugural season in the competition with the minor premiership and the automatic promotion would be a big boost.
"It shows progress and shows that it was worthwhile and a great reward for a club just coming into existence," he said.
"It is exciting to be able to continue to strive and increase participation and to compete in a higher division."
The former New Zealand national sprinter said the club's members were eager to jump into the weekend.
"To compete at the playoff finals where all the top clubs will be competing and to be amongst that as a first year club it's great to be part of it," he said.
We are feeling pretty confident. Old Melburians have some strong athletes so it will be interesting to see who attends on the day.
- Jeremy Dixon
"We have 10 athletes going to Lakeside on Saturday for full day of competition. It is a difficult time of year with other sports occurring as well.
"We do have 20-odd regular competitors so we are going in relativity light but we have got a strong team that can bring home the shield.
"What has been a big part of our success is the participation and the fact our athletes have basically competed in a variety of disciplines.
"We have had long distance runners doing sprints and sprinters doing javelin and shot put and that has certainly been key to the success so far."
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The 2000m walk, hurdles, steeplechase, 100 metres, 1500 metres 4x200m relay, discus, javelin, long jump and pole vault are the events for the final.
"It's an interesting program," Dixon said of what his club faces in its quest for a maiden shield victory.
"Athletics Victoria split the full program over two years and the program doesn't cater for all events and from our perspective it's not the best suited to us but there's enough in it we should perform pretty well in."
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