Cyclone Ului sends sportstars packing
THE threat posed by Cyclone Ului has forced the cancellation of this weekend's North Queensland Sportstar Awards.
The Sportstar Awards were to be held at the Burdekin Memorial Hall in Home Hill on Saturday night.
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Burdekin Shire Council chief executive officer Ken Holt said the latest predictions for the category 3 cyclone indicated the Burdekin would experience 100km/hour winds by Saturday, and the cyclone would cross the coast in the area around lunchtime Sunday.
“With all of the models predicting that the cyclone will cross the coast somewhere near the Burdekin, the risk of proceeding with the Sportstar awards is too high,” he said.
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“Ului is such a large system that, even if it crosses the coast 100km from here, we will still get rain, flooding and gale force winds.
“We would not ask people to fly or drive into this area while the risks are this high.”
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Mr Holt said 220 people had tickets to attend the event, about half of whom were from other parts of North Queensland.
Cairns nominees included water ski racer Wayne Mawer in the senior category, BMX rider Aislynn Weber in the junior category and Heather McLaren from netball in the Services to Sport category.
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Racing identity Dick Johnson was to attend the V8 Supercar themed event as special guest.
Mr Holt said council was now contacting sponsors and ticket holders to advise of the cancellation.
He said the awards would be postponed until Saturday, July 3.
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On the radar: Cyclone Ului's predicted path. Source: Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu
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