Committee News Update

Kate Dzienis • October 23, 2017

Below you’ll find the latest news and updates from the AURA Committee, including the call out for a new webmaster, changes to the AURA site, online race results and rankings, and merchandise news.

AURA Website Volunteer Role

For the past two years, WA member Jeff Gray has been looking after the website and during his tenure, he performed a major site refresh (early 2016) and was responsible for regular updates ever since. Sadly for AURA, Jeff has advised that he no longer has the time to continue in this role. On behalf of the AURA committee, we extend our thanks for all the time and skill that he brought to the role.

We’re looking for someone new to take on the role of ‘AURA Webmaster’ with responsibility for maintaining and managing AURA’s website. Ideally you’ll have experience with maintaining a Wordpress site, but if you don’t have that, it’s no matter – we can teach you: an enthusiasm for ultra running and keeping our members informed is the key! You’ll need to devote 2 to 3 hours per week, and will work side-by-side on keeping content up-to-date with our Marketing Coordinator Kate Dzienis.

AURA Website Changes

On the weekend of October 13, the AURA website was given a major overhaul. This included a new look and feel to prepare for the online magazine launch, with the site now being much more mobile-device friendly. The event calendar has also been given a major overhaul with new search capabilities including an interactive map feature.

You may have already noticed that since the appointment of our Marketing Coordinator, news and feature articles are already being published to the website on a more regular basis. With the launch of this online magazine, we will be restricting a lot of our content to ‘members only’, which will require a login – if you’ve forgotten your login details, follow the prompts to retrieve your password (and use your membership number as the login).

Online Race Results & Rankings

AURA Treasurer Alexis Oosterhoff has entered into an agreement with the German Ultra Marathon Association (DUV) to act as the Australian representative to DUV and will be responsible for the entry of Australian ultra marathon event results into the DUV Ultra Marathon Statistics database.

The DUV database was first established in 2004 and stores results for more than 4,000 international events every year with more than 700,000 individual runner profiles. As part of this collaboration, the DUV team has provided AURA with direct access to its database, which AURA will use for automating the national ranking and points comp details.

This data-entry service will be provided to all ultra marathon events in Australia, regardless of their affiliation with AURA. Over the next few months, you can expect to see improved integration between DUV and the AURA website along with more regular updates to national rankings. We will also be looking at adding extensively to DUV’s database, using our own records that go back as far as the 1980s. As of writing, we have more than 1700 event results online! To access these results visit https://www.aura.asn.au/event-results/

As part of this initiative interim 2017 rankings can now be generated on-demand at the AURA Rankings Page https://www.aura.asn.au/records/rankings/. Note: rankings will be reviewed at the end of each calendar year.

Merchandise

Bling! It’s coming soon! For the past two years or so we’ve had a large stock of AURA-branded merchandise sitting in boxes just waiting to be sold. AURA Treasurer Alexis Oosterhoff has put his hand up to manage the merchandise for the time being. All the existing stock is on its way to WA where Alexis will conduct an inventory what we have and then make it available through an online store. The number of sales and interest from members will determine whether we replenish stocks and continue to offer merchandise in the future.

Rankings

Recent rankings were updated on 18 October and are accessible on the page here.

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AUTRA News Report 19-02-2025

By Kate Dzienis • February 19, 2025

The latest in race results, covering Cradle Mountain Run, City Run, Oscars 100 Hut 2 Hut and Yaberoo Trail Ultra.

Final 2024 Points Competition Results

By Alexis Oosterhoff • January 30, 2025

Results for the 2024 AUTRA Points Competition have been finalised, and are available on our Points Competition page. Full details of the top 10 (as shared on Facebook during January) are detailed below, and results for all participating AUTRA members can be found in the documents at the above link. It was a real battle throughout the year between our top two finishers, Phil Gore & Kevin "BK" Matthews, with both giving it their it their all at events, and through contributions to the community - volunteering at multiple events, and submitting articles to our monthly newsletter, Ultramag. They finished within 2km of total distance for the year (Phil on 1203.087km, and Kevin on 1205.510km), and it was only Phil's final volunteering effort on 6 Inch Trail Marathon in December that gave him the that very narrow victory. As you'd be aware from previous communications, this marks the end of the Points Competition. With trail running (of all distances) now incorporated into AU T RA's constitution, and after careful consideration of the costs of the competition payouts in it's current form, the committee felt it was time for it's retirement. This marks my seventh and final year of delivering the points competition to membership (2018-2024), after taking on the role from Cheryl Symons. It has brought me great joy in doing so, and I feel like I've had an opportunity to get to know so many of our members through seeing their race (and volunteering) performances over the years! I'm continuing in my role as the AUS/NZL statistician for DUV (from whom we shared the data for the points comp), and you can expect to continue to find your ultra-race result on their site. 1st Place - Phil Gore (WA) - 86 points Phil's achievements this year have included a massive 265.653km (and 2nd place) at the IAU 24h Asia & Oceania Championships, wins at the Red Dirt Backyard Ultra (33 laps), the Australian leg of Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship (96 laps), and the Soochow/Taipei 24h Ultramarathon (270.826km). He also knocked out an easy (!) 72km at the Light Horse Ultra 24h in between supporting his amazing wife Gemma. Those two 24h wins netted Phil new Oceania 24h Open Male records, IAU Level 1 qualifiers, and pushed him to the top of Australia's 24h trophy board (with only the great Yiannis Kouros having run further). Phil topped-up his points by contributing one article to Ultramag, worked as an Event Director at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, and volunteered at a further five events through the year. He finished on 86 points. 2nd Place - Kevin Matthews (WA) - 84 points Finishing in 2nd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Kevin Matthews. He monstered his way through the year with finishes at Australia Day Ultra 100km, Delirious WEST 200mi, 24 laps at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, 190km at Light Horse Ultra 24h, 23 laps at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, and also completed Feral Pig 100 miler, Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km. And to top things off, he contributed five articles to Ultramag, and volunteered at five events. BK ran 1205km in Ultramarathon races this year, all of them AUTRA-listed, and surpassed 100 marathon finishes (including 51 Ultramarathons!) Kevin finished the year on 84 points, a massive 34 points ahead of our 3rd place finisher Sue Robertson. 3rd Place - Sue Robertson (WA) - 50 points Finishing in 3rd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Sue Robertson. Sue completed the Ultra Series 100 miler trilogy of Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST, and rounded out her year with the Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km races. She received 30 points from the racing at AUTRA-listed events, and was awarded a further 20 points by volunteering across eight events and contributing two articles to Ultramag, for a total of 50 points for the year. Thank you Sue! 4th Place - Margie Hadley (WA) - 47 points Finishing in 4th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Margie Hadley . She was the top-female finisher at both the No Time to Die Frontyard Ultra & Wild Dog Backyard Ultra, 2nd at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, ran 182km at the Australian 24h Track Invitational and placed 3rd at Coast to Kosci. Margie received 47 points in the competition 5th Place - Melissa Robertson (NSW) - 44 points Finishing in 5th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Melissa Robertson. Melissa took out 1st place at Irrational SOUTH 200 miler, 2nd place at Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place at Hume & Hovell 100 miler, 3rd place at Rumble in the Jungle and 6th place at Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 100 miler! She also volunteered at the GNW 50km event, receiving 44 points in the competition! 6th Place - Aaron Young (WA) - 42 points Finishing in 6th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Aaron Young . Aaron finished in 1st place at each of the Ultra Series "Triple Crown" of 200 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), 55 laps at Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship, and rounded his year out with Feral Pig 100 miler. Aaron receives 42 points, just nudging ahead of Maree Connor (who also finished on 42 points) on a count-back 7th Place - Maree Connor (NSW) - 42 points Finishing in 7th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Maree Connor. Maree had an outstanding year, achieving 2nd place with 221km (and an IAU Level 1 qualifier) at the IAU 24th Asian and Oceania Championships, 1st place at the Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place with 67km at the Southern Sydney 6h race, and 1st place with 116km at the Narrabeen Allnighter 12h. Maree also competed at Spartathlon race this year (for which she contributed an article to the September Ultramag on her experience), receiving 42 points in the competition. 8th Place - Darren Linney (SA) - 41 points Finishing in 8th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is SA's Darren Linney . Darren completed 34 laps at No Time to Die BYU, 199km at the Adelaide 24h race, and 814km at the Australian 6 Day race, for a total of 1241km raced and 41 points . 9th Place - Tristan Cameron (WA) - 40 points Finishing in 9th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Tristan Cameron. Tristan completed the Ultra Series Triple Crown of 200 mile races (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), along with Feral Pig 100 miler, for a total of 1154km raced and 40 points. 10th Place - Jen Millum (WA) - 39 points Finishing in 10th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Jen Millum . Jen finished 1st at all three of the Ultra Series Trilogy of 100 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), and was 2nd female with 35 laps at the Wild Dog Backyard Ultra. With a volunteer stint at the Yaberoo Trail Ultra, Jen finished the year with 39 points in the competition. To view the complete list of members who secured points in 2024 click here and then follow through to Points Summary under the 2024 tab. All winners have already been contacted, with cash prizes distributed for 1st - 7th places, and AUTRA Store vouchers sent for 8th, 9th & 10th.