President's Report: January 2025

Simone Hayes • January 30, 2025

january, 2025

Happy New Year to all of our members! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and break with your families, and managed to get in some good running in the middle of all the celebrations.

Here we are at the start of 2025 and the beginning of what will be another year of progress for AUTRA as well as a few changes, all of which the committee see as positive! Without change, we don’t grow.

You will have received in your inbox (for members) or seen on our socials that we launched the AUTRA Survey for 2025 which will assist us in shaping AUTRA’s future for the next five years and help inform our strategic planning which is taking place this year for 2025-2029. If you are yet to complete the survey, we urge you to do so and have your say. The survey will be open for responses until 7 February, 2025. AUTRA SURVEY 2025

This month we also asked our members for their annual votes on the Performance of the Year Award. This is the members’ opportunity to vote for members who they feel have had an outstanding single or collective performance in 2025. Thank you to all the members who took the time to vote and recognise these achievements. The announcements will be made over the coming days.

Our 2025 list of events is growing rapidly and I want to once again thank all of the race directors who choose to list with us. There are many long-standing, much-loved events listed and also many new ones, so if you haven’t had a look at the calendar recently pop over to the Events Page and have a look, and take advantage of some great race discounts.

Finding new events to try introduces us to new areas and communities, it lets us explore places we haven’t been and make new like-minded friends, not to mentions it gets us out of our comfort zones. It also supports our race directors who work hard to put these events on for us and the communities that host them – aren’t these some of the reasons we all run? I encourage you all to try at least one new event that you haven’t run this year!

This month sees the first of our Monthly Members Draw where we will be giving away some fantastic prizes every month. The first prize this month will be allowing the winner to get their hands on some new AUTRA merch! And on the subject on our new merchandise it is all in stock and available now! Be the first to don the new shirts and Fractel hats! There are also still some bargains left to pick up on the old stock. Visit the AUTRA Shop here.

Our Coaches Corner has some excellent articles for our members this month (and every month!) from our Endorsed Coaches team. Make sure you log into your member account and have a read over the weekend. This month the topics are Training Load, Downhill Running, the benefits of RPE (Rating of perceived exertion), and the running demands on stability and balance.

Finally, we have an announcement from the committee that there will be multiple positions made vacant at the next AGM and we would like to invite our members who feel they have the time, the passion and the commitment to apply and help take AUTRA into its next phase. This is a fantastic opportunity for people looking to be more involved, bring fresh ideas and help make meaningful impacts for the future. I have already announced I will stepping down due to family and work commitments, and some of the amazing people I have worked alongside for the past five years also feel it’s their time to move on. The positions that will be up for nomination at the AGM in May are President, Secretary, Treasurer and Governance Officer as these positions will become vacant. Please note that all positions are up for nomination on the night of the AGM and are subject to member vote.

Details on the specific positions and responsibilities will be shared soon. If you’re interested or have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out or email me at president@autra.asn.au. Please rest assured that anyone taking on these roles will have full support from the current committee for a successful handover process.

That’s all from us for January, we have at least 7 events on the calendar for February and that also includes the Australian 100km Road Championships in Canberra, which also doubles as the newly named Australian Athletics 100km Championships.

Simone Hayes
President

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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.