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Tuggie Athlete - it's paper!
OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2004      Number 68   
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The 20th World Mountain Running Trophy
by John Winsbury

SCT's John Winsbury once again represented Australia on 5 September 2004 in the World Mountain Running Trophy held in Italy. John is hoping to be selected in the team for this year's Trophy which will be held on 25 September in Wellington, New Zealand.
On a crisp clear winters morning in mid August I boarded a plane bound for Turin, Italy. My destination was home of the 20th World Mountain Running Trophy. The course markings were out and there were a handful of athletes getting familiar with the course even though the race was still 3 weeks away. I began my training on the afternoon of arrival.

It was going to be tough event but I had the Stellina Challenge to race in a week's time, in a town 30min down the valley in Susa, so I took training relatively easy. The Stellina Challenge is an annual race on the Grand Prix circuit, 15km long with 1500m of elevation gain. I caught up with Ben Du Bois, another Australian Mountain running representative, down in Susa a few days before the race. On the eve of the race we were involved in a march though the town streets equipped with the Australian flag and a big marching band. We ended up in the town square where we listened to speeches from race organisers and IAAF officials and we were presented with our race numbers. It was all a bit unexpected and although I didn't understand much of what was being spoken I felt privileged to be part of the great family that is mountain running.

After such an inspiring opening ceremony I began to think about the task ahead. I had no idea about the course other than the race description and that I could see the end way above me, just below the summit of the highest peak in the valley. I was also a bit worried about my lack of acclimatisation since the daytime temps were in the high 20's and it was very humid. Fortunately, on the day of the race a cooler airstream provided the relief I wanted.

The race brought about half of the athletes that were going to compete at the Worlds, along with a big contingent from the surrounding region. The race started in the town's square, surrounded by beautiful buildings and sculptures. There was an air of nervousness rather than excitement, probably because we all knew what was in store. The starting gun fired and we were off - Ben and I agreed that it was better to start out conservatively and try and finish strong so we stuck to the plan. We watched many people fly past us through the town's streets only to pass them after a few kilometres as the gradient increased.

The course meandered its way up the hillside through the narrow streets lined with spectators. At about the 5km mark the path took us through beautiful forest with glimpses of the towns below. I began to settle into a rhythm and kept pushing upwards and focused on catching and passing each runner ahead. Around the 7k mark I took a gel and grabbed a drink from the aid station. Just up ahead I came across several runners that were reduced to walking and it inspired me to keep pushing harder.

With my legs burning and the path continuing to ascend I managed to still focus my mind on passing more runners. At the 13k mark the gradient decreased and I found myself struggling to stride out for a hundred meters or so because my legs had not been able to stretch out for so long. Once I did get moving I spotted what I thought was the finish and began to push as hard as I could. Managed to catch two more guys on the way to what turned out to be spectators viewing area and I still had 400m to go! Rounding the corner, I saw two more unsuspecting runners that I thought I could catch, as it was a downhill finish. I managed to pass one guy from Germany and had a sprint to the line with a guy from Italy, only to be beaten by less than a second to come 40th overall in a time of 1:31.20. Ben came in 28th and we finished 2nd overall in the teams. There was a medal presentation and closing ceremony on the mountain that gave us time to comprehend what we had all done, take in the awesome views and catch up with friends.

I was fortunate enough to have my brother fly over from London to meet me in Susa before the race and he was soon to be my travelling companion. My intention for the following two weeks was to train and sleep up at altitude and the best area seemed to be further north in the Italian Alps, near the border with France.

After a long 8 hour train ride we came to a town called Aosta. Surrounded by big glacial peaks it was a Mountain runner's wonderland. A big thunderstorm was brewing and the sky was getting darker with each passing minute so we had to high tail to get to our initial campsite 5km away in the Grand Paradiso National Park. The plan was to climb some big mountains and basically explore the area. The next night we had to seek the shelter of a refugio (mountain huts) as the storm was still going strong.

This is where I came up with the perfect plan to hike back to Susa through the Alps; little did I know how much effort was going to be required. I have done many long distance walks around the world and none were as hard or rewarding as this one. So began an epic ten day hike back to the mountain I had ran up in the Stellina Challenge race, the details of which will be saved for another time. Arrived safely in Susa and headed back to prepare for the Worlds.

I had five days to get my legs in shape and with each passing day they were not feeling any better and I was beginning to come down with the flu which was getting passed around the Australian team. On the eve of the event, the remainder of my family joined me in the village after flying half way around the globe. This was a big boost to my moral and I marched in the Opening ceremony with confidence. Saturday's race program included the junior men's and senior women's events. Our juniors showed that they are made of the tough stuff and placed 27th Stephen Brown, 53rd Scott Tomlinson, 58th Toby Rayner, and 69th Iain Reitman.

The senior women ran well to place 54th Louise Fairfax, Marnie Ponton 59th, and Lisa Barry 66th. Sunday morning arrived and it was our turn to tackle the mountain course. It was a warm and sunny morning and we were all getting a bit anxious to get started. We jogged as a group down to the start area 2k below the town. Did some warm up strides and felt pretty good. Registered for the race and entered the starting coral. About 5 minutes before the start we were told that the race start was going to be delayed 15 minutes due to media coverage issues. The delay turned into half an hour and we were all a bit annoyed to say the least.

Finally we were under way and 170 competitors were merging into a lane-way 3 meters wide so you can imagine the bottleneck effect. Finally we were getting into a rhythm racing through the narrow cobble stone streets. The course meandered its way through the town, passing the many spectators that lined the streets, and then began ascending the mountains ski slopes. Up until now I was in the middle of the pack trying to settle into the race and soon I wanted to start putting on the power as we started up the slope but noticed I did not have access to the reserves I knew I had.

My legs began to go to jelly as I try to push harder and by the top of the first of three long steep pitches I had nothing left. I had no option but to back off and try again in a few minutes time. By the time I reached the top of the second pitch I began to feel better and after a 400m downhill I began to push again and my body responded. I started aiming for people to pass and was able to pass about 20 runners on the final climb.

The finish line was about 500m ahead on relatively flat ground. I put on a final surge and managed to pass two more guys and sprint to the line with a guy from Belarus and this time I won the sprint thanks to my brother screaming at me to push it to the end. Finally caught my breath and sat down with my family and fellow Aussies to take it all in. The first thoughts were about my legs and the lack of power to surge the hills. I guess the hike took more out of me than I thought it would. Snow in Alaska stopped me pushing harder up the mountain and now in Italy a hike stopped me from showing my potential.

Well I guess I learned some valuable lessons along the way and fortunately my calves have become stronger than ever from so much hill walking. I am looking forward to the challenges that are in the years ahead. Breaking the record in the 2 peak challenge has provided proof that my legs have gotten stronger and will continue to if I put the effort in that is required to become a world class mountain runner. The final results for the Aussie men were Ben Du Bois 55, Steven Page 89, David Osmond 89 and John Winsbury 116. Thankyou again SCT for your support and I hope there are more mountain runners in the pipe-line that we can develop.



From the Top

SCT runners reach new heights!
SCT member John Winsbury knows how to perform when racing, watching him and trying to keep up on a training run (racing for me) I can tell he focuses and prepares very well for all his races.

An SCT member for 3 years, John is always in the top five in most of his cross country races and occasionally notches up a win! In the recent 2 Peaks Classic he totally dominated, not only winning, but also creating a new race record! John has also represented Australia twice in the World Mountain Running Trophy.

If we look at the results of many races over the last 3 years SCT runners are regularly racing to the top position and winning. Nick Walshe, just back from America immediately comes up with a great win in the Spring Series Number 4 race. In the Carillon cross country race earlier this year both Mark Shepherd and Michael Hosking dominated the short and long race winning by a country mile.

It's great to see SCT runners regularly doing so well. I remember when I joined up during the summer of 1990-91 it was because everyone seemed so friendly. That was my reason for joining SCT! At the time the club did not always perform so well but it had a great history and it was just a matter of time before we once again revived those glory days.

Continuing to build the club through friendships not just by having the club as the best performed in the ACT is the secret. We will always do this and have SCT known as 'the friendly club' - in this way the depth of our performances will improve and we will reach even greater heights. See you at the top!


Geoff Monro
President - December 2004


SCT success at the Queanbeyan Gift:
The 2004 Queanbeyan Gift held on Saturday 27 November received blanket publicity in The Canberra Times so the results of SCT athletes didn't go unnoticed. Wade McMahon picked up a cool $120 when off 12.00m he placed third in the Paralympic 120m Handicap. Anthony Sexton unfortunately didn't make the final of the $7000 Queanbeyan Gift but won $40 running off 7.00m to place third in the Pat's Massage 120m Novice Handicap. Brett Robinson from Cobar running off 8.25m won $4000 for his first place in the Queanbeyan Gift while Ramona Casey from Narrabeen (7.25m) won $2000 for first in the Les McIntyre Women's Gift.

A letter from Nick Walshe - 'Run and the City':
I recently returned from a most excellent trip overseas, which included the world championship of the JP Morgan race of an event known as the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge. A team from my firm (PricewaterhouseCoopers) qualified for this event back in November 2003, when we won the 'mixed' teams category of the Sydney JP Morgan race, held in Centennial Park. The number of competitors in this event was around 4,500, and included Commonwealth games 1500m bronze medallist Youcef Abdi. A team consists of 4 runners - in our case two male and two female. Our victory in this particular category (which is derived by adding up all four times and having the lowest 'team time') earned us an all expenses paid trip to the Big Apple for the JP Morgan World Championship on October 2, 2004.

The race was all in all, quite an event. Around 600-700 participants ran the 5.6km (3.5 miles) which started and finished outside the JP Morgan building on the corner of 46th Street and Madison Avenue, New York. Runners from South Africa, Australia, England, Germany, Singapore and the US graced the streets of Manhattan, while roads were blocked off and traffic brought to a standstill.

The presence of TV cameras, along with runners being interviewed and photographed left, right and centre was a quite a spin-out. Fox even commissioned a half hour documentary to be filmed on the Australian teams - the two Pricewaterhousecoopers teams (women's and mixed) and also the Australian men's team from Focus International Freight. I was asked to give a post race interview, and was also filmed running, stretching and even changing my shoes.

Being in a world championship for the first (and most probably only) time, I felt that I needed to treat myself to the experience of being 'up there' with the leaders. After some aggressive 'hustling and bustling' on the start line, I was able to get a good start, and after half a kilometre or so was with the front pack of runners. The exception to this was the defending champion from Royal Mail Letters in London (the London postal service), who repeated his tactics of 12 months ago and blitzed the field early on in the race. As the frantic pace began to settle, the pack began to disperse itself into smaller groups. I found myself in the second or third pack 'sub-pack' and after a brief stocktake decided that I was in around 15th or 16th place.

Unfortunately, after a very quick first mile, reality started to set in, and I was unable to maintain my position in the field. Most the damage came in the second mile, wherein I dropped off the back of the runners that I'd been with up until that stage, and was then overtaken by another bunch just prior to reaching the halfway mark. From here on in, I was able to consolidate and then had a decent last one and a half miles or so, including a solid run to the finish line. I finished in a time of 18.34, which was a slight improvement (5 seconds) on my effort in the Sydney race. This was good enough for 30th place, which meant that I'd managed to achieve my goal (just) of a top 30 finish.

The result was not so pleasing for our team, however. This was due to the absence of one of the PwC runners from Sydney, who, after arranging her trip to include a pre-race visit to her home country of the Netherlands, never showed in New York. This lead to the disqualification of the PwC mixed team - a disappointing result for the runners, the firm, and for the race organisers both in Sydney as well as New York. Thankfully, the PwC women's team turned in an admirable performance, finishing in 8th place, and earning themselves some more crystalware, courtesy of Tiffanys.

And so the post race celebrations began, commencing with brunch and presentations to the winning teams, as well as to the winning male and female runners overall. Incidentally, the pace-setting Brit was eventually caught in the last mile by two wily South Africans, who relegated the fleet-footed postie to third place. It wasn't the only win for the South Africans, who, with individual placings of 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th, gave Transwerk in Johannesburg the men's team title. The women's crown went to the Royal Mail Letters in London, with Roche Diagnostics in Frankfurt winning the mixed. The names of the winning teams, and their respective corporation and country were put on display in bright lights, on the JP Morgan billboard in Times Square.

All in all, the trip was a memorable experience, and a wonderful way to see one of the world's icon cities.

Regards to all
Nick Walshe


Miliadelle's record finally broken:
Miliadelle Murray's ancient Under-16 club 1500m record has finally been broken by Emily Brichacek. Running at ACT Interclub on 20 November, Emily ran 4:33.63. This was 6 seconds under Miliadelle's time which had stood for 15 years as an SCT record. Miliadelle is the daughter of ex-SCT runner Tony Murray. Tony holds many SCT veteran records including the mile at 4:12.56 which was once the world record for an over 40 runner.

Modrak's blast from the past #3:
'Club President - rusticated?' [from TA Nov-Dec 1991]
A flurry of awards in the last month or so has been followed by a rumoured demise of our Club President. Originally it was thought that Brian had a stress fracture. A stress fracture as recently as the 1990 winter season put Brian out for 3 months. Before that we heard about the 'original' groin (apologies to Ricky Stewart) problem which had Brian out for many months. So, when the recent rumours started about stress fractures we knew it was nothing new in Brian's quota of injuries.

However, further examination showed the stress fracture was only tendonitis from carrying trophies home! It reached a stage where any set of results included the name Brian Wenn. For instance, who won the Vets category in the Black Mountain Fun Run? Who owned and ran in the team that won the Vets sprint marathon relay? Who came second in the SCT Club pointscore? Who came 3rd in the Milton Fun Run and took out the Vets category?

A strong believer in handing out advice, especially to other runners, I asked Brian how can runners avoid injuries. "Don't compete so often" was his short reply. So now we know how he won so many awards - his opposition took his advice and didn't compete! Is there a moral here somewhere?


SCT Club Records for Veterans 50+:
On a recent visit to Sydney I was impressed to see that Girraween Athletics Club actively caters for members aged 12 to 77. They keep club records for athletes in the 50+ and 60+ age-groups. In order to encourage SCT's 'slightly older' veterans I'll begin maintaining club records in the 50+ age-group. If there's a demand for 60+ records that could also be introduced.

Important message about Track & Field Officials:

Hi to all,

This is a quick message to inform you of the situation regarding track and field officials, at this stage of the season.

As many of you will know, each club is required to provide a minimum number of officials to assist with the smooth and safe running of Interclub competition each week of the season. This number will generally be proportional to the size of the club, and in our case the minimum requirement is for 10 SCT officials to be present for 'programme 1' and 9 officials for programme '2.'

In terms of meeting this requirement we are fortunate to have as part of SCT a number of experienced officials such as Dorothy Mills, Greg Gilbert and Alan Bishop, many of whom are long-time servants of both the club and the sport of athletics. However, as at week 3 of this season, our total number of registered officials is not quite enough to meet our club requirements. The implications of this include the following:
  » We will be at least one official short, every time Interclub programme 1 is held.
  » Any absences / injuries / illnesses incurred by our regular officials will result in further shortages.

To address the above issues, ACT Athletics have sought to undertake a co-operative approach with the respective clubs, whereby clubs are called upon to provide volunteers, both to cover any shortages in our required numbers of officials, as well as to help ensure that there are sufficient 'back-ups' or emergencies in place, if needed.

What South Canberra Tuggeranong requires is as follows:
  » In the first instance, we are looking for a willing person from our club to undertake the role of 'officials co-ordinator.' This person will be responsible for liaising each week, with the chairman of officials, Ian Colquhoun. Ian will provide the officials co-ordinator with a spreadsheet, indicating the minimum number of volunteers required by the club at that week's Interclub meet. The officials co-ordinator will then advise Ian of the names and numbers of available persons to serve as volunteers for that particular week.
  » In the second instance, we are looking for persons who are willing to assist as a volunteer, for a particular week or weeks or the track and field season. Please note that even offering to assist as an official for a week will go a long way towards ensuring that we fulfil our requirement as a club. No prior experience is required to be a volunteer, and clear instructions will be provided to volunteers regarding any task undertaken by them. Note also that a volunteer will not usually be required for the entire meet, and will generally be able to work around any events in which they intend to compete.

Willing persons should, for the time being, reply to myself, either by email or by coming to see me at the track, and notifying me of your availability. The remaining competition dates for this season are as follows: Interclub program no.1: 20/11, 4/12, 18/12, 12/2, 26/2; Interclub program no.2: 13/11, 27/11, 11/12, 19/2,; twilight program no.1: 11/1, 25,1; twilight program no.2: 4/1, 18/1, 1/2.

Regards to all, and thanks in advance for your consideration
Nick Walshe
Membership Manager


Emily Brichacek breaks ACT U16 3000m record:
SCT's Emily Brichacek broke two long-standing ACT records on Saturday 13 November. Running in the mixed 3000m Interclub race, Emily recorded a time of 9:46.76. This bettered Penny Grant's 9:50.12 run at Melbourne in 1996. Emily's time was also under the ACT All-comer's record which had been held since 1988 by Queensland's P. White at 9:51.97.
Other recent record-breakers are Anthony Sexton, Peter Hosking and Anastacia Havlat. Anthony improved his SCT U18 60 metre record while Peter broke brother Michael's U14 3000m record. Anastacia improved her U16 High Jump club record to 1.66m which is close to the ACT record of 1.72m.


Spring Series Race #1:
Here are the SCT results for the first event of the ACT Cross Country Club's Graeme Small Spring Series - a flat bike path course, the Kingston 5k held on 2 November.
1 Nick Walshe 16:55, 11 Hugh Jorgensen 19:06, 14 Colin Bridge 19:31, 27 Charlie Modrak 20:58, 30 Jim White 21:13, 31 Brian Wenn 21:18, 44 Don Roach 22:49, 86 Ted Harrison 34:04!


Spring Series Race #2:
Here are the SCT results for the second event of the Spring Series - the 'up and down' cross country Dunrossil Drive 5k held on 9 November.
8 Stuart Doyle 18:53, 27 Charlie Modrak 21:06, 32 Jim White 21:37, 37 Brian Wenn 22:00, 47 Don Roach 23:11.


Spring Series Race #3:
Here are the SCT results for the third event of the Spring Series - the flat and windy Reconciliation Place 5k bike path course on 16 November.
5 Nick Walshe 17:00, 19 Hugh Jorgensen 19:19, 28 Colin Bridge 20:08, 39 Charlie Modrak 20:59, 41 Jim White 21:06, 43 Brian Wenn 21:21, 46 Ewen Thompson 22:02, 61 Don Roach 23:22.


Spring Series Race #4:
Here are the SCT results for the fourth event of the Spring Series - the out-and-back 5k lakeside run from the Boathouse on 23 November. It was back to the top postition on the podium for Nick Walshe and a welcome return for SCT's most famous weather-man Blair Trewin.
1 Nick Walshe 17:03, 9 Blair Trewin 18:46, 19 Hugh Jorgensen, 19:35, 25 Colin Bridge 20:00, 34 Jim White 21:25, 35 Heath Pearce 21:30, 41 Charlie Modrak 21:47, 50 Brian Wenn 22:35.


Spring Series Race #5:
Here are the SCT results for the fifth event of the Spring Series - the 'women and girl's 5k fun run' course from Stage 88 on 30 November. Wins to Noni Clarke and Nick Walshe (who had a touch of the 'Fiona Jorgensen's', taking the lead pack the wrong way) on a slightly warm and windy day.
1 Nick Walshe 17:27, 6 Noni Clarke 19:34, 13 Tony Murray 20:25, 18 Colin Bridge 20:49, 23 Jessamy Hosking 21:09, 24 Hugh Jorgensen 21:16, 31 Jim White 22:04, 32 Charlie Modrak 22:12, 37 Greg Hosking 23:23, 52 Kerrie Bremner 26:07, 53 Brian Wenn 26:08.


Little news is good news?
This is an official 'warning' that the amount of news on this page will be somewhat less than normal until the second half of the track season in January 2005. The reason being that I'll be working on 'Better Homes and Gardens' and 'Backyard (slow) Blitz' projects. I won't be attending every single Interclub day and will be racing at Vets on Thursday nights.
Results will still be announced on this page but they won't be embellished with the usual stuff about your brilliant performances! Of course, if you email me your reports and Hello magazine articles they will be published.


Winsbury smashes Two Peaks record:
SCT's John Winsbury has broken the NCG Two Peaks Classic record. Quoting from John Harding's official race report... "Current Australian mountain running representative John Winsbury, of South Canberra-Tuggeranong Athletics Club, was also in superb form, running 1:40:49, to slice a minute off the former course record held by international orienteering star Grant Bluett."
The race was held on 7 November starting at the Australian Heritage Village and covered a 26km course which included ascents of Mt Majura and Mt Ainslie. John's amazing pace for the event was 3:53 per kilometre. The female winner was Theodore runner Emma Murray who "stamped herself as a future mountain running international after she became the first woman to break the two hour barrier with 1:59:06. Murray slashed one and a half minutes off the long-standing course record held by former three-time Australian representative Fiona Jorgensen."
Here are the results for SCT runners: 1 John Winsbury 1:40:49, 16 Hugh Jorgensen 2:08:12, 31 Jim White 2:25:50, 34 Ewen Thompson 2:43:54, F10 Maria White 2:59:41.


The JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge:
SCT's Nick Walshe has just returned from New York after representing PricewaterhouseCoopers in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge. Winning corporation teams in selection events around the world are flown to New York for the Championship final of 'The Challenge'. Nick's PWC team won the Sydney event in November 2003.

The JPMorgan website reported on the Sydney race - "Even getting this far was a bit of a stretch for Walshe, who had to fly 300 kilometres to Sydney from Canberra especially for the Corporate Challenge last November. But once on the scenic Sydney course, Walshe motored home in 18:39, anchoring a PricewaterhouseCoopers mixed team that finished more than two minutes ahead of runner-up BT Financial Group. Walshe will be joined in New York by team-mates Rod Simpson, Lana Edmonds and Patricia Oswald.
It's worked out so well for Walshe that he now is dreaming about some unique 'firsts' on his trip to New York in October. A priority is to watch his first live gridiron game at Giants Stadium. He also has a unique item that he wants to purchase in the world's shopping mecca - an authentic Washington Redskins NFL shirt. But, he adds, he isn't planning on risking life and limb by wearing it to the Giants game!"

Unfortunately in New York, one female member of Nick's team missed a connection so Nick just competed as an individual. He was the 30th fastest male from 337 runners recording a time of 18:34 for the 5.63km course. The winner was Kays Kototsa from Johannesburg in 16:27 while the fastest female was Beverly Jenkins from London in 19:14. The winning mixed team was Roche Diagnostics from Frankfurt.


The Bulls Head Challenge & Brindabella Classic:
Were held on a very wet Sunday October 23. In the 'Bulls Head' Hugh Jorgensen placed 4th outright and 2nd M35 in a time of 2:01:15 for the 27km course. Jim White was 7th and 1st M55 in 2:10:28.
We didn't have any runners in the Brindy which was won by Sydney's Jonathan Blake in 3hrs 57mins from Weston Creek's Trevor Jacobs in 4:07:21. Ex-SCT runner Steve Appleby placed 12th in 5:12:25. The first female was amazing 26 year-old Emma Murray 5th outright in 4:37:14.


Heat defeats our Melbourne Marathoners:
An unseasonably hot morning with temperatures reaching 29 degrees badly affected the performances of SCT's two representatives in the Asics Melbourne Marathon on Sunday 10 October. Nick Mesher stuck to his 2hr 55min schedule until well into the race but eventually ran 3:18:24 placing 154th out of 1,481 finishers. David Wilson's 4:06 kilometre pace was halted by cramping hamstrings. He avoided becoming one of the many marathoners 'sitting in the gutter' and eventually finished in a PW of 3:57:20, buried down the results in 642nd place.
The cruel conditions were shown by other results in the marathon. The race was won by Magnus Michelsson in 2:26:51 which was one of the slowest winning times and well outside his 2:13 PB. The female winner was Billinda Schipp who placed 20th overall in 2:54:01. Only 47 runners in the field managed to break 3 hours. Nick will be working on his track speed over summer and will once again attempt a 'sub-3' at Canberra in April 2005.


Stu's stunning second at Orroral Valley:
The Orroral Valley Classic mountain races were held on Saturday 9 October. The three events were over distances of 8, 20 and 30km with most entrants (29) running the 20km classic. John Harding's race report said "Male runner up Stuart Doyle continued his great form of 2004 in clocking 1:22:09". Stu was less than 2 minutes behind race winner David Hosking. The female winner was Emma Murray who ran 1:30:14 to break the course record (two weeks later she ran a brilliant 4:37:14 to place 5th outright in the 55km Brindabella Classic). Jim White was just outside his PB in 1:40:50 and convincingly thrashed Ewen Thompson (1:43:32). Kerrie Wright who runs with Maria White's Saturday group placed fourth female in 1:47:42.

Heath's High Jump PB at Vets Track:
Heath Pearce has been competing at the ACT Veterans T&F Thursday night meetings and recently tried the High Jump. This was Heath's first high jump since primary school and he managed a PB of 1.30m. He may have jumped higher but had to withdraw from the competition in order to run the 3000m track race.
Other SCT athletes have also been competing on Thursday nights. Jim White is a regular in many events including his favourite, the spiral handicap. Nick Mesher and Dale Moore are two of the leading 3000 and 5000m runners. Jenny Brichacek placed third outright in a recent 800m race recording 2:17.5 in windy conditions.


The Weston Creek Family Fun Run:
Weston Creek Athletics Club conducted their annual 6km fun run on Sunday 17 October. The course was the usual bike path loop from the Canberra Irish Club.
North Canberra Gunghalin's Scott McTaggart broke the course record winning in 17:53 while the Creek's Angela Bateup was the first female (4th outright) in 21:24.

There were 182 finishers and here are the SCT Results: 7 Robert Torley 22:23, 13 Hugh Jorgensen 23:18, 15 Colin Bridge 23:23, 21 Peter Hosking 24:22, 25 Jim White 25:26, 28 Greg Hosking 25:43, 33 Garry Hosking 26:25, 45 Don Roach 27:42, 54 Kayler Torley 28:22, 73 Nicola Torley 29:57, 105 Maria White 32:45, 130 Michael Torley 36:18, 133 Jane Torley 36:27.


Clarke and Hosking are fun run winners:
Noni Clarke and Michael Hosking were the female and male winners of the ACT Mental Health Week 5km Fun Run on Sunday 10 October. Last year there were many PB's but this year the course was longer but accurate with my Forerunner GPS saying 4.985km. Here is part of Ken Eynon's report for the Canberra Times...

"The 5k Run/Walk to celebrate Mental Health Week attracted just over 300 runners and walkers and about 10 dogs. The run/walk started from the lawns near the National Library on the foreshores of Lake Burley Griffin in beautiful spring weather. First home was talented local junior runner Michael Hosking who ran the excellent time of 15 minutes 42 seconds. Following Michael were Mark Shepherd 15.57 and Keith Cassiles-Southgate 17.21. The first female finisher and fourth placegetter outright was Noni Clarke in a time of 17 minutes 38 seconds. Noni has been in excellent form during 2004 and is gradually working her way up the ladder of elite women athletes in Australia. Local veteran Elaine Cooper returning to running after a long absence due to injury was second in 19.07 following by junior woman Jillian Hosking 19.22."

SCT Female Results: 1st Noni Clarke 17.38, 3rd Jillian Hosking 19.22, 4th Hannah Flannery 19.55, 6th Kayler Torley 21.42, 13th Nicola Torley 24.29.
SCT Male Results: 1st Michael Hosking 15.43, 2nd Mark Shepherd 15.57, 3rd Keith Casssilles-Southgate 17.21, 6th Robert Torley 18.08, 7th Hugh Jorgensen 18.55, 8th Peter Hosking 19.03, 9th Colin Bridge 19.13, 14th Jim White 20.31, 16th Garry Hosking 21.07, 17th Greg Hosking 21.10.


Jim White's 1,401st Fun Run:
This year's Canberra Times Family Fun Run was the 1,401st 'fun run' for SCT's Jim White! The 'Canberra Times' was also Jim's first fun run way back in 1978. In those days Jim used to train for a few weeks prior to the event and never used to run during the rest of the year. He was then introduced to the ACT Vets by Jim Tucker and has 'never looked back' (except in races which he does quite frequently when rivals such as Garry Hosking or Charlie Modrak are catching him). Jim has run a total of 27 Canberra Times Fun Runs, 24 Sri Chinmoy's, 16 Weston Creek's, 15 Canberra Half's, 14 Terry Fox's, 13 Black Mountain Challenge's, 11 Belconnen's and 10 Marathon Eve's.

Jim is SCT's (and perhaps Canberra's) 'fun run legend' and has run in events such as Goulburn, Burra, Weston Creek, Braidwood, Rye Park, Young, Gundaroo, Womboin, Belconnen, Sri Chinmoy, Marathon Eve, MS, Runny Red Nose, Black Mountain Challenge, Canberra Street Mile, Vets, Mental Health Week, Wagga City to Lake and the Sydney City to Surf. He also holds the record for the most number of Interclub Fun Runs finished at 104! Jim's one and only victory (so far) came in the Lanyon Fun Run. If you want to take Jim's record the term 'fun run' includes cross country club races, fun runs, Vets handicaps but not track races. Jim has also won 99 trophies but not all are for running - some are for bowling and motorcycle racing!


The 2004 Canberra Times 10k Fun Run:
Was held on a beautiful Spring Sunday morning 18 September. Jillian Hosking was the first female 15-19 years while Noni Clarke placed 3rd outright and first female 20-29 years. The 10k was won by Erwin McRae (30:25) and Sarah Salmon (35:21). Here are the results for SCT members and 'friends':
8 John Winsbury 32:56, 9 Mark Shepherd 33:15, 12 Michael Hosking 33:38, 14 Nick Walshe 33:53, 20 Keith Cassilles-Southgate 35:33, 24 Allan McGlew 36:06, 29 Noni Clarke 36:23, 40 Nick Mesher 37:06, 57 Glenda Regan 38:26, 61 Hugh Jorgensen 38:36, 77 Colin Bridge 39:35, 88 Jillian Hosking 39:59, 89 Fiona Jorgensen 40:02, 105 Hannah Flannery 40:50, 113 Charlie Modrak 41:20, 135 Dave McInnes 41:50, 141 Ewen Thompson 42:20, 147 Garry Hosking 42:35, 149 Jim White 42:39, 164 Tanja Gautschi 43:01, 174 Brian Wenn 43:10, 201 Jessamy Hosking 43:50, 219 Peter Hosking 44:20, 221 Andrew Reghenzani 44:25, 222 Gordon Nightingale 44:26, 271 Greg Hosking 45:40, 285 Maris Ozolins 45:58, 330 Don Roach 47:00, 419 David Holmes 48:50, 452 Eliza McGowan 49:25, 648 Doug Fry 53:25, 666 Karen Daniels 53:44, 683 Gareth Candy 53:50, 724 Maria White 54:43, 726 Christina Ivansson 54:50, 733 Jennifer Ivansson 55:02, 1079 Megan Haylock 62:19, 1158 Ian Warden 65:10, 1202 Mick Horan 67:20, 1209 Katherine Ivansson 67:30, 1238 Wee-Sian Woon 68:23, 1343 Dianne Shepherd 73:20, 1344 Conrad Shepherd 73:20.


Team gold for Kerrie Bremner:
SCT's Kerrie Bremner has won a gold medal as a member of the ACT team in the Australian Marathon Championships held in Sydney on 12 September. Kerrie also ran a PB of 3 hours 22 mins 44 seconds which was very pleasing for coach Brian Wenn: "It was an excellent run and more PB's will follow. It was a great effort considering Kerrie lost some time having her bothersome knee strapped after 20k's of the marathon." The other members of the ACT team were Harriers runners Keri Vaughan (3:17:28) and Pam Muston (3:37:15). Runners crossed the Harbour Bridge and followed parts of the Sydney Olympic blue line course but ran back into the city to finish at the Opera House. The winners of the Sydney Marathon were Tanzanian Oswald Revelian (2:21:13) and triathlete Rina Hill (2:39:46). Daniel Green was the first Australian home placing second in 2:23:06.
The Sydney Half Marathon was won by Martin Dent in 64:49. Nick Walshe was just outside his PB finishing 12th in 74:57. Nick Mesher placed 39th in 80:05, Stuart Doyle 49th in 80:47 and Hugh Jorgensen 119th in 86:22. There were 2,280 finishers in the half and 1,161 in the marathon.


Excellent runs in the ACT Vets Half Marathon:
The 23rd annual ACT Veterans Half Marathon was held around Lake Burley Griffin on Sunday 29 August. Nick Mesher finally broke the '80-minute barrier' running 79:55 to be 3rd M40 home. Other SCT results were Dale Moore 93:07, Charlie Modrak 94:20, Jim White 96:09 and Don Roach 99:14. The race was won by Roy Daniell (75:46) and Amanda Murtagh (93:17).

Sonja second in MS Fun Run:
Sonja Taylor placed second in the Multiple Sclerosis Fun Run held around Lake Tuggeranong on 12 September. The only runner ahead of Sonja was Olympic walking legend Kerry Saxby-Junna who ran the 6.5km course in 24:46. Sonja's time was an excellent 28:41 which also won the 12-18 category.
Colin Bridge placed 3rd in the M50 category in 25:36 to be 12th overall. Glen McCarthy was the first 'stroller pusher' placing 8th in 25:03. The male winner was ACT Veteran and Riverina Marathon bronze medallist Michael Corlis in 22:58.


Sauze d'Oulx sojourn for John Winsbury:
SCT's John Winsbury donned the green and gold to represent Australia for the second time at the 20th World Mountain Running Trophy on 5 September. John was a member of the four man Australian team running the 'uphill' 12km race. Uphill races are conducted in even numbered years and Up/down races in odd years.
160 competitors representing 27 countries were in the Italian mountain town of Sauze d'Oulx for the senior men's race . John placed 4th Aussie in 116th place taking 60:05 for the ascent. Although it was an 'uphill' race fellow Aussie Dave Osmond reported there were a number of flat and downhill sections on the course.
The course consisted entirely of road firetrails so overtaking competitors was not the problem that it was last year in Alaska. The race was won yet again by NZ Athens Olympic marathon runner Jonathan Wyatt. He backed up incredibly well from the Olympic race in which he placed 21st. He ran an amazing 48:47 to finish over a minute clear of Eritrea's Tesfayouhanis Mesfin.


New winter pointscore system proposed:
The committee is looking at modifying SCT's winter pointscore system for 2005. The idea is to reflect the importance of ACT Cross Country Club pointscore races. A minimum number of CCC pointscore races may need to be run in order to be eligible for SCT awards. This could be 5 for seniors and 4 for juniors or something similar. If anyone has any suggestions please give them to a committee member.


Just Read It. (The editor's diary)

Roger, Over and Out...
There's a player who is not only the best in the world but also seems to be a bloody nice guy. I'm talking about Roger Federer from Switzerland. What is it about the Swiss? Are they all that good... that nice? I say to myself 'yes' - not because of Roger but because of a young lady who has been living in Australia on a 12-month Rotary Student Exchange Program. That young lady is Tanja Gautschi.

One of Tanja's passions is running and shortly after arriving in Canberra in January she sort out a training group. I will be forever grateful that she chose Mike's Calwell group. There were many times when Mike and I would be chatting about how various runners in the group were going. The conversation would usually include something about how good was Tanja. We talked not about her potential as an athlete, which was more than obvious, but about how good she was for the group.

Tanja was such an inspiration by how she approached every training session. Even the ones when it was 10 degrees with a freezing wind blowing down from the Brindabellas. She would do everything that was asked with a smiling face and amazing enthusiasm that demonstrated a true love of running. There were some sessions Mike would set that I thought, in my natural softness, 'they won't be able to complete that', but they did, with Tanja leading by example.

During a poignant farewell party I recorded an 'interview' with Tanja which will be published in the next Tuggie Athlete. She is now safely home feasting on a Swiss-Breaky with nice homemade bread and Zopf, yoghurts, cheese, birchermuesli and more (but no vegemite on toast). She is also back with her 'training club' and enjoying snowboarding - we never did get quite enough snow on the Calwell track hill!

See ya round like a rissole Tanja! You have given the Swiss such a good name - if anyone has to beat Lleyton, I want it to be Roger.


Ewen W Thompson ... December 2004

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