ON THE eve of the Commonwealth Games, little athletes from the Tweed and Gold Coast have been encouraged to dream of representing their country at a clinic held at Kingscliff last weekend.

Olympian, indoor world champion and Commonwealth Games medallist Melinda Gainsford-Taylor was on the Tweed Coast to conduct a clinic as a guest of Tweed Little Athletics Club and provided a squad of juniors with advice and tips on how to improve their performances.

Tweed Little Athletics Club secretary Sheree Scott said Ms Gainsford-Taylor took the children through warm-ups and drills to do prior to competition, showed some strength and agility exercises, guided some of the youngsters in how to use starting blocks and talked about her experience competing at the top level.

"Melinda was very good with the children (and some starry-eyed adults). She also brought also some memorabilia such as outfits and training gear and the real highlight was her producing the Olympic torch which was used in the torch relay in Sydney in 2000,” Ms Scott said.

"It was great for the kids to hold the torch and get a sense of what it was like to be involved in the Olympics - it was very inspirational.”

Ms Scott said the Tweed branch of Little Athletics drew juniors from the southern Gold Coast, the Tweed and as far south as Byron Bay, with training sessions on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at the

Walter Peate Oval at Kingscliff.

"We currently have about 260 registered with us and we now compete every Saturday,” she said.

"The club will be hosting the South Coast Regional Championships next month, with competitors coming from tall over the Gold Coast and as far as Beaudesert.”

She said a lot of the juniors were very excited about the Commonwealth Games and the opportunity to see world-class athletes in action so close to home.

"I know a lot of members have tickets to the Games and will also be attending many of the free sports events leading up to competition,” Ms Scott said.

"We saw a real boost in numbers after the Sydney Olympics and we expect something similar, if not more, following the Games on the Gold Coast but hopefully it will be far more sustained with the Olympics to follow in just two years' time.”

For more information about Tweed Little Athletics, visit the website www.tweedlac.org.au.