It was mercifully a bit cloudy on Sunday morning for the first day of autumn when the Dannevirke Athletics Club ran its annual Ribbon Meet. In age groups athletes compete in all the field and track events, (the vortex replaces the javelin for juniors) the four top place-getters getting a ribbon for their efforts.
Organiser Kelly Gillard worried that the drought and nine teams playing league could decimate the fields but over 80 athletes, half from Hawkes Bay and Manawatu, came to join a good-sized local contingent – twice that of another ribbon meet elsewhere recently.
The day ran like clockwork, so much so that several teams said it was the best ribbon meet of the season.
Dannevirke Athletics had its last Wednesday session for the season on March 4 with some seniors still trying to break track records but a ribbon meet is different as athletes have real opponents who are generally very good and so the locals are pushed.
For the seniors quite a few were going to the Hawke's Bay Secondary Schools Athletics in Hastings on March 13 so it was a good practice. For the tiny tots who only started practising in term four of last year it was the first time to actually compete and win a ribbon.
