Relays are inclusive events that welcome all registered Chelsea Little Athletics Club (CLAC) athletes of all abilities. We encourage everyone to participate and enjoy the atmosphere.

Our season comprises of three relay events hosted outside the club; the Mentone relay day, LAVIC Regional relays, and the subsequent State relays for the teams who progress based on the qualifying performance.

Expressions of interest (EOI) are currently being sought for this season’s relay events (Mentone Sunday 10 November 2024) and Regional Relay Carnival (Southern Metropolitan Region) Saturday 16 November 2024.

EOI can be sent via this link https://forms.office.com/r/3ggMz1KBjK.

EOI close at 5pm on Thursday 24 October 2024.

Mentone Relay Day

Mentone Little Athletics club hosts an annual relay day which is open from U8 toU17. For more information on Mentone Relay day, click on Mentone Relay Day.

The Mentone Relay Day provides a great opportunity to start the season, have fun, and prepare our teams before the Regional competition. Athletes should ensure their availability for all events they have committed to. The presence of every team member is crucial for competition, as absences can impact the entire team and potentially cause missed races.

LAVIC Regional and State Relay

All CLAC athletes have the opportunity to compete in the LAVIC Regional Relays competition, as well as State Relays for the teams which successfully qualify. CLAC will support all athletes’ participation and our pursuit to achieve competitive results.

The Regional and State Relays are conducted and governed by LAVIC as well as governing the qualification standards for relay team progression. Further information can be found in the documents on the LAVIC website. This covers the appropriate individual uniform and shoes. Team Manager protests, athlete substitutions on the day, and others.

Any families whose athletes competes in the Regional and State competitions will be required to fulfil a duty on the day. This will be provided to families prior to the event and we encourage you to speak with the Team Manager if you’re unable to complete your duty.

Relay training will be provided by CLAC and held at our home ground, usually every week prior to the Mentone relay race and continues through Regional and State. Training dates and times will be published on our social media accounts and website. All athletes are encouraged to attend and no shows to training may change team selection.

Entry fees to the Mentone, Regional, and State relay competitions are paid for by the club. We strongly advise all team members to commit to the team as any withdrawals will affect the whole team and their families. The club is not provided refunds for withdrawals.

The relay committee will endeavour to make sure that any athlete who wishes to compete in the Mentone or Regional relay competition is provided all opportunities to do so.

If you’re interested in relays, teams will include athletes from any gender/age group who commit to training and competition days. A relay team has 4 members. Please speak to the CLAC committee members or email chelsea@lavic.com.au prior to the deadline so that your Expression of Interest and registration can be actioned.

The CLAC relay committee will attempt to give all registrants a run, however, cannot guarantee this in times where suitable teams or sufficient team numbers are not available. Please note that all Expressions of Interest can only be received for the athletes’ age group, i.e. an U11 athlete can only be registered in an U11 relay team.

Team selection is based on the criteria below. There may be occasions where individual feedback is not possible.

Team Selection

The Chelsea Little Athletics club will apply the following criteria to team selection.

1. The times recorded by athletes at CLAC competitions prior to Mentone Relay Day. These include the times run and placing of each athlete during Saturday competition days in the 100m, 200, and 400m events. In most cases, the times recorded for any athlete at least 2 weeks prior to any competition will be used to determine teams and placings.
2. For the Swedish Medley, where the event consists of a 100m, 200m, 300m, and 400m leg. The times run and placing for the 400m will be used as the criteria.
3. In the absence of athletes recorded time and placing. The Relay committee reserves the right to use the previous season’s results or other means to determine athlete suitability.
4. Mentone Relay results and performances will be used to evaluate athlete placings and team selections. This is based on times run, and further team changes will be determined by the relay committee and published to parents as soon as possible.
5. The athlete’s attitude and participation in relay training and competitions.
6. Recommendations from the age group manager on areas such as teamwork, attendance, and proficiencies in relay techniques.
7. There may be instances where athletes are asked to ‘run up’ – where they are included in a different age group relay team. This exemption is part of the relay committee’s best endeavours to field a team, however, the athlete’s own age group takes precedence where possible.
8. On seldom occasion, the relays committee will look to field a competitive team for the Regional and/or States Relay Championship. The relays committee reserves the right to make changes to the teams.
9. All decisions made by the relays team are final.