The Little Athletics centre in Mudgee is one of over 160 centres across Australia to receive funding from Coles to replace or expand its sports equipment.

Funds for the grants are raised through the sale of specially-marked chiller bags designed by eight-year-old Lachie Macdonald from Victoria and 11 year-old Charlie De Bruyn from Western Australia.

For every bag sold, 25 cents is directed to the Coles Little Athletics Community Fund to provide sport equipment grants.

Coles State General Manager Emma Bridges said Coles was delighted to provide grants to help the Little Athletics centres in locations such as Mudgee.

"Thanks to our customers who have bought our range of chiller bags at Coles stores, we are able to provide around $565,000 in grants for Little Athletics centres around Australia to help them purchase equipment to support activities such as High Jump, Discus, Hurdles and the various running events.

"The Mudgee Little Athletics Centre told us they would

like to receive a grant to buy timing gates and we were

delighted to help because we know these are an essential part of Little Athletics to support young budding athletes and parent volunteers," she said.

Mudgee Little Athletics' President Keiran Bennetts said the grant was important to their centre which needed new equipment to continually provide a high quality and safe weekly experience.

"The Coles grant will have a huge impact on our centre.

We are currently using outdated starting guns which are no longer used in most centres and pose a safety risk to our volunteers as the caps are an explosive.

Thanks to the Coles grant, we can now upgrade to electronic timers and a wireless starting system which will make the role of volunteers much safer and easier.

The equipment will not only provide our athletes with more accurate results for their track events but also benefit the children from local school groups that use our facilities and equipment throughout the year," he said.

In addition to the chiller bags, Coles sells Community Bags which help to raise funds for SecondBite, Guide Dogs Australia and Clean Up Australia.

All Community Bags were designed by school children as part of a bag design competition.

For more information about Mudgee Little Athletics Club visit www.facebook.com/mudgeelittleathletics/.