Image from theage.com.au of Slater competing on floor at the 2003 Australian National Champions
Congratulations to Allana! She has been selected to be immortalised in WA's Hall of Champions. It's a very prestigious honour and couldn't have recognised a better gymnast!
Members of the selection committee are: Chairman David Hatt, Ken Casellas, Liz Chetkovich, Alan East, Ray Wilson, Glenn Mitchell and Pam O'Connell. These individuals are responsible for assessing a number of criteria, including the following three major criteria:
- Outstanding sporting achievement at the highest level
- The athlete must be accepted as a product of the WA sporting system or have established their reputation whilst resident in WA
- The athlete must have retired from the highest level of competition for five years.
A full list of previous inductees can be found here. A large framed photograph of each athlete in action honours new inductees, with a commemorative plaque under the photo detailing their achievements. Since 1987 the photos have been shown in a long walkway gallery which forms the main artery of Challenge Stadium, running straight down the centre of the building to the Champions Club a social and function room in the stadium.
Thanks to my mum and Shayanna for sending me a copy of the article below which is by Dale Miller of The West Australian Newspaper, features in today's edition of the paper - 12/11/2011.
HONOUR FOR TRENDSETTER.
The recent achievements of world champion gymnast Lauren Mitchell may have led her to somewhat overshadow predecessor Allana Slater but not in the minds of selectors for WA's prestigious Hall of Champions.
Slater, a dual Olympian and three-times all-around national champion, will become one of three new inductees elevated into rarefied company at tonight's annual WA Institute of Sport dinner at Challenge Stadium.
Selection panel chairman David Hatt revealed Slater had been at the forefront of discussions for several years.
Guidelines dictate an athlete must be retired from top-level sport for at least five years before being considered by the Hall of Champions committee.
Slater retired from gymnastics in August 2005, less than two years before Mitchell stepped into senior ranks.
"Allana is a very worthy member given her long and consistent career at the top of gymnastics, including being the first West Australian to place in the top three in a world championship," Hatt said.
"She's been consistently good over a long period of time during the late 90s and early 2000s. She was a trendsetter in terms of success at the international level and sustained success at national level."
Slater lifted Australia to prominence on the world gymnastics scene in 1999 as the first Australian to achieve a top-10 finish at a world championships.
Her career included nine medals won at World Cup events and three gold among her eight medals won at Commonwealth Games level.
Slater will share tonight's honour with footballer and Geelong team of the century member Denis Marshall and leading WA reinsman Chris Lewis as fellow Hall of Champions inductees.
Marshall has been voted in Geelong's best three players of the 20th century behind only Gary Ablett and Graham Farmer.
The four-time Claremont best and fairest also was runner-up in the 1968 Brownlow Medal. His decorated interstate record included 16 matches for WA.
Lewis moved to WA from South Australia at the age of 20 and has since driven more than 4000 winners to hold claim to the mantle of this State's greatest reinsman. He represented Australia at this year's world drivers; championship in the US.