Dear All,

By now you should have received notification from either SSATIS or one of the delegates from the organising schools that this year’s SSATIS Cross Country Event at Rokeby has been cancelled. The event was due to be held tomorrow 7th June 2016, but will no longer be held at all.

This decision has been made after careful consideration and consultation. The SSATIS co-ordinator and delegates from organising schools met at the Police Academy this morning to undertake an assessment of the condition of the course. Whilst much of the course was in reasonable condition there was a significant portion of it already under water. Given the forecast of more significant rain in the next 24 hours the decision was made to call it off.

As you may be aware, there are no covered structures available at the academy to seek shelter and it would have been a case of setting up in the wet and trying to ensure competitors were kept warm and dry in school tents.

We also had advice from Athletics Tasmania that the timing chips and computer generated results system would be more likely to be adversely affected under adverse conditions. There was a higher likelihood of chips being lost and/or water and mud affected.

So, for this year the only inter-school cross country event available to our students will be the All Schools event at Symmons Plains at the end of this month.

It’s disappointing to have to cancel especially after all the work that has gone into preparing for this year’s event. However, at the end of the day it is meant to be enjoyable and we need to put the health and safety of the students at the forefront of any decision making process.

Thanks to you all for your understanding.

– Ruth Tyson
SATIS Co-ordinator (Southern)