No more so than for the Tasmanian High Schools State Athletics Carnival that was revived at St Leonards on Friday after a 40-year hiatus.

If the reaction of the athletes is any indicator, then it's correct for sure.

Despite unhelpful southerly winds, they rose to the occasion delivering a swag of records in both individual and relay events.

For many, as odd as it may seem to older generations of Tasmanians, it was an innovation to be able to compete in a regional team.

North versus South versus North West encounters that used to be contested in just about any sporting or competitive event are apparently quite a novelty to the current school cohort.

And they loved it.

Despite this being a bit of an experiment, it was very respectful to the participants that the three regional school sports associations went to the trouble of providing representative singlets and tops for the occasion.

It clearly meant something to the athletes.

Another aspect of the day which fell into a similar category were the questions that were asked about the record holders - and how handy they must have been in their day.

It would have been easy to discuss this with at least one of them as Sandra Speers who set the Grade Nine 400 metres record of 57.5 in 1978 was playing a key role in the delivery of the competition as the on-field meeting manager.

And she was not the lone representative of that era as Jamie Howard who competed prominently for Team North in the original carnival series from 1978 to 1981 was in charge of one of the long and triple jumps pits.

It's quite an interesting discussion as to the relevance of listing records from four decades ago, but the reality is that only a small percentage of them were challenged and broken.

For sure that era was one of the best for school-aged athletes in Tasmania.

It was the time of the emergence of the Australian All Schools Championships and Apple Islanders, starved of opportunities until then to test their talents against their mainland counterparts, were keen to be a part of it.

In pursuit of selection in the then-state team, their performances rose dramatically in a short space of time - many winning national titles and medals.

So even after such an effluxion of time the achievements they registered in local competitions such as the state high schools were bound to stand up pretty well.

It was of course a time when teenage Tasmanians were fully engaged in physical education and school sport every week of the year.

They were almost certainly fitter and less distracted than their counterparts of today.

Which in turn provides all the more reason for the presentation of more events and competitions like Friday's.

The 40-year gap has left the statewide interschool athletics competition space solely to the independent schools, but there seems to be some genuine enthusiasm to make this and other events a real goer in the future.

One key element in this is the transfer of the majority of school athletics to term one or early term two.

This fits better with the athletic year for those already doing the sport and presents more reliable weather conditions for the progression of school house carnivals through regionals to statewide competition.

It also fits better with other commitments in the school year and avoids the complexities of examinations, leavers dinners and awards nights.

But perhaps most importantly it provides an achievable step in the sporting pyramid for many more athletes than would normally be the case - to be part of a team in what is otherwise an individual sport.

It's timely that the state government is engaging in discussions of the future of sport and physical activity in Tasmania, because there is certainly a role for competitions like this.

Yet there are currently barriers to making them as beneficial and accessible as they might be, including provisions of skill development opportunities and the major impost of bus transport costs to access training and competition facilities.