President's Report: March 2024

Simone Hayes • March 27, 2024

March, 2024

Hello to all our runners!

It’s been another busy month with a heap of events on the calendar that have kept runners and race directors (and your committee!) on their toes!

This month we have seen these great events take place – the Belair Marathon, kunyani Mountain Run and Washpool World Heritage Trails to name a few. The growth of backyard ultras continues with Wodonga BYU, Herdy’s Frontyard Ultra and I’m Still Standing Sydney (LOS) getting great numbers and results which continues to prove that the popularity for these events is growing.

Last week we also had our Australian Short Course Trail Championships hosted by the Noosa Ultra-Trail 50km which was another outstanding year for them. Unfortunately the weather gods hindered the race planning with weeks of rain prior causing the course to turn into a mud bath, but that didn’t stop some great results from our athletes. Congratulations to the male and female Australian Short Course Trail Champion winners, AURA Members Kellie Angel and John Dutton.

On the world scene I can’t not mention the amazing performance from Jasmin Paris at the Barkley Marathons. The first female in 38 years to complete the event and the world was watching, and we have not stopped talking about her achievement since! Outstanding!

Other news on the world stage is that next weekend we are hosting our own championships right here in Oz! The 24 Hour Asian Oceania Championships is only one week away and we are really excited here at AURA. This has been 4 years in the making and its so good to see it finally here. We hope you will all join us at the AIS in Canberra next week to watch it all unfold, support our Aussie 24 Hour reps as well as cheer on the runners that are taking part alongside them in the Open Race. It will be an amazing 24 hours.

Being a 24 Hour race and no doubt many of us will be having a sleepless night, I would like to briefly mention the tragic passing of Stephen Jackson after the 100km National Championships last month. This was a night event and like many ultra runners and volunteers do, we drove home tired after little to no sleep, and lost a great member of the running community. Please, take care of yourselves at any event that requires you to stay up all night, whether it be running, crewing, event directing or timing. There is nothing more important than getting home safely to your family. We again send our condolences to Jenn and Stephen’s family.

On the trail scene over the last 10 months we have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes building relationships with trail associations in Australia, and we are pleased to be forming an alignment which will bring trail and ultra running together. AURA has already built a strong foundation and legacy for ultra running, and by officially combining both we are recognising what AURA already does – 80% of our races listed are trail events. Having a unified body for trail and ultra running will strengthen what AURA has already built, and provide greater opportunities for athletes and members, as well as providing a consistent voice. Together, ultra and trail can achieve greater stakeholder engagement as a larger group, and AURA members will reap the benefits from a united and growing organisation. The formation of a unified ultra and trail organisation has the support of Athletics Australia, World Athletics, the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) and the International Trail Runners Association (ITRA). We are really excited about what’s to come so watch this space!

Also in the last 10 months, we have achieved some great milestones such as:

Unprecedented membership growth
The installation of a new, modern and more functional website
We have brought in more benefits to members through our AURA Partners initiative
We have introduced a new initiative by inviting applications for our great team of AURA Endorsed Coaches, who will take your running to the next level, no matter what level you are at now. This also supports businesses within the community.
We are busy updating and streamlining our policies so that they are consistent and relevant to current international policies that affect our athletes and the organisation
We have developed greater engagement with our states by creating individual state pages on social media to bring local communities together

So that is just some of the highlights, and we can’t forget that we have also sent four representative teams overseas to compete in the 100km Asian Champs (India), the 50k World Champs (India), the World Mountain Running Champs (Austria) and the 24 hour World Champs (Taipei). It’s been quite the year! These teams don’t just get there to compete with their exceptional running talents, its takes a combined effort from the committee, the selection committee, and the team managers to make sure all the ducks are in a row to get the teams safely and competently sent to these events – no small task I can assure you – and I thank my team for making it look seamless when in fact it is many hours of work and meetings.

Which brings me to the next item on our agenda after the Asian Champs – our next Annual General Meeting will be held on 28 May. It will be held on Zoom and links to the meeting will be sent out next month along with forms to vote and nominate on the committee positions for 2024.

So that’s a wrap for March – I wish you all a safe and happy Easter break and I hope to see many of you in Canberra next weekend!

Happy running!

Simone Hayes - President

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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.