General News
22 November, 2024
Energy Breakthrough gets underway with warm weather to mark this year’s annual event
After a wet and wild Energy Breakthrough (EB) last year, this weekend’s event is set to be a scorcher — as schools from across the state compete against not only their peers, but also the weather.
Almost 100 schools from across the state, as well as New South Wales and South Australia have descended on Maryborough for this year’s EB event, which is expected to draw crowds of around 15,000 people.
With three new schools taking part in this year’s event, Country Education Partnership education team leader Nigel Preston described the event’s atmosphere as “buzzing”.
“We’re 10 percent up on last year which is great and we want to see that continue into the future,” he said.
“We’re seeing a great mix of people who are brand new to EB and others who have been coming for a long time — there’s a good balance of energy and for me, it feels like the EB of old, pre-COVID.
“We’ve got schools here like Great Western who have less than 30 students and we’ve got other schools with over 1800 kids and they all come to Maryborough and tackle the event together which I think is brilliant.”
All eyes are on the weather forecast for this weekend, with the Bureau of Meteorology expecting temperatures to reach a high of 36 degrees both today and Saturday.
While at this stage there are no plans to postpone or reschedule any elements of the event, Mr Preston said organisers are prepared to intervene if conditions worsen.
“At this stage, we are planning to run as normal but our extreme weather policy suggests that if the weather exceeds 36 degrees, there are some staged strategies we can bring in,” he said.
“That could be as simple as introducing compulsory rider breaks or it could be rescheduling the design and presentation elements of the event, or even suspending or modifying how long the on-track trials are taking place for.
“There are a few things up our sleeve at this stage and we are keeping an eye on the weather forecast leading into the weekend.
“If we feel as a team that it’s getting too hot, we won’t hesitate to implement strategies before the temperature reaches that threshold and we’re communicating with schools on this regularly.”
Weather-wise, this year’s event will mark the polar opposite of the conditions seen last year — where participants and event-goers alike were lashed by heavy rain across the weekend.
In light of the warm conditions ahead, Mr Preston encouraged spectators to take care and be sun smart.
“From a heat point of view, we certainly encourage spectators to bring their own water bottles, we have plenty of bubble taps and water access points throughout the event site,” he said.
“We also encourage people to use sunscreen and wear a hat, especially at those warmer times during the day.
“The events are happening right across the weekend, so I’d encourage people to come and check things out early in the morning or in the evening when it’s not too hot.
“If people do see anyone who’s unwell of affected by the heat, just look for someone in a blue EB shirt and let us know, we have first aid here throughout the weekend.”
To facilitate this year’s EB event, numerous roads surrounding Lake Victoria will be closed until Sunday, with the exception of Christian Street (between Burns and Napier Street), Napier Street and Lake Road from Christian Street which reopen on November 29.
Other road closures include:
• Park Road (between Holyrood Street and Gladstone Street)
• Park Road (between Holyrood Street and Nightingale Street)
• Holyrood Street (between Park Road and Burns Street)
• Burns Street (between Christian Street and Lake Road)
• Burns Street (between Lake Road and Holyrood Street)