MELBOURNE TO HOST THE WORLD’S BEST ATHLETES AT THE MAURIE PLANT MEET, OCEANIA’S FIRST WORLD ATHLETICS GOLD LEVEL MEET

For many years, Maurie Plant was some of the essential driving forces in Australian Athletics. A fantastic good friend 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 improbable 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 house soil, with World Athletics and the Victorian Authorities at the moment asserting their help of a World Continental Tour Gold Degree meet in Melbourne in February.

The Melbourne Observe Basic shall 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 develop into 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 slightly below the Diamond League in standing. Every assembly attracts one of the best athletes throughout the globe, with 13 present meets supplied 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 time Sequence 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 shall 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 provide over $200,000 in prize cash plus larger 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 greatest names in international athletics, with not less than three athletes from the highest 50 of the World Athletics world rankings in not less than 12 occasions. Will probably be broadcast in over 150 international locations and accessible on the dwell stream to the remainder of the world.

The meet may also additional Melbourne’s quest to develop into 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 lot of initiatives may also be held by Athletics Australia according to the Maurie Plant Meet to complement the game.  This may embody 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 means of a resurgence with our stars shining on the world stage, and we imagine there is no such thing as a higher time than now to deliver a Gold stage meet to Australia, with the announcement of the Maurie Plant Meet along with the Victorian Authorities,” Athletics Australia Chief Govt Officer Peter Bromley mentioned.

“The Maurie Plant Meet will deliver pleasure, ardour and pure expertise to Melbourne and better of all, we can showcase all that Australian athletics has to supply.  If in case you have been touched by athletics in a technique or one other – whether or not it’s by means of college athletics, watching the Olympics or Paralympics at house, otherwise you’re a weekend warrior like many people – there shall 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 a lot 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 grew to become a central determine within the sport internationally, and the meet will develop into 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 good friend, mentioned, “It will be a pure selection to call the gold stage meet after the person, Maurie Plant, who means a lot to not solely the group of observe and discipline however who was a significant 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 document holder Stewart McSweyn, who was additionally managed by Plant till his loss of life in 2020 mentioned, “Will probably be an absolute privilege to compete in a meet named in Maurie’s honour. He was a constructive, influential individual 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,” mentioned McSweyn.

The Plant household had been equally as thrilled by the information, with Maurie’s son Toby Plant saying, “Nothing excited Maurie greater than one of the best athletes on the earth coming to his hometown to compete with one of the best Australia has to supply.”

“The household is delighted and humbled that his identify can as soon as once more be related to showcasing high quality worldwide observe and discipline in Melbourne.”

The Maurie Plant Meet – Melbourne shall be a part of the 2023 Chemist Warehouse Australian Summer time of Athletics.

Tickets and extra data might be discovered here.