PRESIDENT’S WELCOME LETTER 2020

Ewan Horsburgh • May 28, 2020

Hello AURA Members,

I am pleased to be writing to you as the newly appointed AURA President, to announce the new Committee, our State Representatives and to also thank the hard work of our out-going Committee. For me personally, I am honoured to have been given the opportunity to represent AURA and the running community who have given me so much encouragement and support throughout my running career. I am excited as President to help shape the way ultra running is presented, supported and developed in Australia.

Firstly, I would like to congratulate and welcome our new Committee Members – Mathew Eckford as Vice President, Simone Hayes as Treasurer and Julia Mackay as Secretary. Together we cover a range of experience with committee involvement, international representation, race direction and as a part of our running community. As a new Committee, we plan to have a fresh take on what part AURA can play to support and promote the wide range of ultra running in Australia and our Members. We love and respect the history and heritage of the association and know it has an important role to play for many more years to come.

We each spoke to our star writer and editor Kate Dzienis who has put together a short bio of the new Committee:

Simone Hayes, Treasurer
With decades of experience behind her, Simone Hayes lives and breathes the sport of ultra running, having represented Australia at previous World Championships and being a podium finisher in numerous events. Living in NSW, Simone has put her hand up to represent AURA as its Treasurer and has expressed great enthusiasm to help promote ultra running and our community.

Julia Mackay, Secretary
Julia has a special place in her heart for ultra running, always putting in the extra effort to make participants smile or laugh with her creative costumes at almost every event she attends. Hailing from WA, Julia started in long distance in 2018 and since then has gone on to race in nine ultras. As AURA’s new Secretary, she is excited about the year ahead and contributing her time to the sport as part of the Committee.

Matthew Eckford, Vice President
Matt from Queensland has an abundance of experience when it comes to ultra running. He has represented Australia not just once, but three times at the World Championships and twice at the Asian Championships. Now wanting to play a larger role in the growth and promotion of the sport, Matthew will apply his strategic skills, passion and knowledge as the new Vice President of AURA.

Ewan Horsburgh, President
As an ultra runner who has represented Australia countless times in long distance events across the globe, Ewan Horsburgh from NSW has now taken it one step further and will guide AURA into the future as its new President. His resume is unmatched, having led the Aussies as Team Captain in last year’s 24-hour World Championships in Albi, France following participation in World Championships in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2017 as well as captaining the Aussie team at the 2018 Asian/Oceania 24-hour Championships in Taiwan. Ewan is truly looking forward to promoting AURA and the sport of ultra running and looking after our community.

AURA State Representatives also play a big part in promoting our association and communicating the achievements of runners and events in their individual state. I would like to congratulate and welcome our new State Reps – Susannah Harvey-Jamieson and Dan Symonds for Qld, Chris Glacken for SA, Martin Fryer for ACT, Stephen Redfern for NSW, Karen Mickle for VIC and Doug Bartlett for WA. We look forward to collaborating with them on some important initiatives which focus on their unique events.

AURA also comprises of invaluable Volunteers who find time in their busy lives and training schedules to support and advance ultra running in Australia. Our tasks and activities are done by Committee, State Reps and Volunteers, so we are always on the lookout for passionate people to help. It could be writing articles for our online AURA Magazine, sharing race updates or continuing the development of our website.

Even more so now that I have an understanding of what goes on behind the scenes, I would like to offer a massive thanks to our previous Committee. Rob Donkersloot, Alexis Oosterhoff, Pam Muston and Ness Hartge. They have done a fantastic job, leaving AURA in a great place financially and introducing a range of strong policies and new strategic initiatives. As our new Committee have not held previous positions within AURA, a smooth handover has been essential. After discussions with Rob and Alexis on the direction of AURA – its wins and challenges, it became clear that we had a good rapport and a smooth hand-over has been made possible.

Australian ultra running finds itself in a similar position to other countries around the world in that we have been cancelling races for the last 2 months. We are now looking ahead to the second half of the year, easing of restrictions and what that means for future races. Entrant limits, how events are run and interstate travel are still unknown at this time. With overseas travel restrictions in place, we look to a strong second half of the year with a lot of rescheduled races and plenty of great domestic options.

Our Committee would love to hear from you, our Members. Feel free to contact us on our Facebook group or please email me directly at president@aura.asn.au

Cheers,
Ewan Horsburgh
🇦🇺 AURA 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.