The Old Melburnians Athletics Club is a track and field

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

 club based in Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

History

The precursor to the O.M.A.C. was the "Hare & Hounds" club, which organized various runs and competitions.Started in 1892, it was one of the four founding clubs of the Victorian Amateur Athletic Association(now Athletics Victoria) in 1894. One of its members, E.H.Flack, was in Europe at the time of the 1st modern Olympiad and won both the 800m and 1500m events(making him the first Australian to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 and allowing Australia to be one of less than a handful of nations to have competed at every Summer Olympics).

When the Hare & Hounds club folded, Jack Newman (a 1924 Olympian) proposed the setting up of the O.M.A.C. As he was a member of St.Stephens Harriers and could not obtain a transfer, he had to stand out of athletic competition for a year in order to become a member of the Club. In 1978 the Old Wesley athletic club amalgamated with the O.M.A.C. for the purposes of V.A.A.A. competition. They continue to conduct a separate cross-country

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

 team in the APSOB competition, but in all other respects their members are normal O.M.A.C. members.

In 1979 the Powerhouse club also amalgamated with the O.M.A.C. Originally their members were only second-claim members of the O.M.A.C., but they are now full members.

Over the years the club has had many Olympians. Scott Ferrier

Scott Ferrier

Scott Ferrier is a former decathlete from Australia, who represented his native country at two consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 1996...

, Michael Hazel and Peter Winter

Peter Winter (athlete)

Peter John Winter is a retired male decathlete from Australia. He first represented Australia at the World Junior Championships in 1990. He further represented at the World Student Games in 1993...

 are the most recent Olympians the club has produced.

Today the club has Australia's finest young talent. Australian record holders, Sam Baines and Henry Frayne compete for the club. Sam Baines holds the u18 110m hurdles record of 13.28 and Henry Frayne hold the u20 triple jump

Triple jump

The triple jump is a track and field sport, similar to the long jump, but involving a “hop, bound and jump” routine, whereby the competitor runs down the track and performs a hop, a bound and then a jump into the sand pit.The triple jump has its origins in the Ancient Olympics and has been a...

record with a leap of 16.58m.