WEEKLY NEWS REPORT 15-3-2021

Kate Dzienis • March 15, 2021

Trail of Kings and Queens, WA
Six Foot Track Marathon, NSW
Upcoming Events

Trail of Kings and Queens
We are still awaiting results for Trail of Kings and Queens, which was held the weekend of 5-7 March (2021).

Six Foot Track Marathon
The Six Foot Track Marathon is a 45km trail stretching across the Blue Mountains from the Explorer’s Marked Tree near Katoomba to the Jenolan Caves, and what makes this event incredibly unique is that all profits are donated to the Blue Mountains Rural Fire Service who man the aid stations on race day – this year, it was on Saturday, 13 March (2021).

The Six Foot Track started in 1984, and this year a barrage of special awards were handed out to those who this year completed 30 Six Foots (a plate handed to Bob Fickel, only the 3rd person to have achieved this) and 18 Six Foots (a jacket).

There were 811 finishes out of 848 starters this year.

AURA’s very own Benjamin Duffus from Indooroopilly, Qld claimed victory in the 45km ultra marathon, crossing the finish line in a time of 3:20:56 to take 1st Male.

It was a stellar effort, considering the course record for the men is held by Stu Gibson (3:14:14) in 2015 whilst 2nd for the record is Ben Artup (3:15:25) in 2009. Duffus’ race means he has earnt himself 3rd Place in the course record books, taking over Barry Keem (3:23:13) in 2008.

Duffus said he had been wanting to run the Six Foot Track Marathon for a number of years and it was finally great to do it.

“It was a real privilege to run alongside such accomplished runners like Ben St Lawrence (2nd Male) and I feel like we brought the best out of each other on the day. The conditions weren’t favourable for fast times so we were able to just really focus on the raw spirit of competition.

“I was feeling quite strong the whole way, though the quick pace certainly took its toll on my legs and I was on the verge of cramping over the last several kilometres so I was really happy to hold it together, especially when I knew that any small error would see Ben pass me.”

Continuing in the weekend’s results, 2nd Male went to Ben St Lawrence (3:21:25) as mentioned whilst 3rd was claimed by Mike Lichtwark (3:34:55).

For the women’s placings, it was Joasia Zakrzewski (4:20:58) in 1st, Julie Quinn 2nd (4:26:37) and Amy Daniel 3rd(4:29:16).

Congratulations to all our AURA members who raced at Six Foot including Brendan Davies (3:37:31), Mike Carroll(3:41:10), Andrew Lee (3:58:41), Michael Daly (4:10:41), Michel Haenggi (4:16:48), Paul Hadfield (4:31:37), Anna Pillinger (4:32:47), Andrew Bainbridge (4:36:28), Jessica Schluter (4:43:20), Gill Fowler (4:48:05), Martin Fryer(4:52:07), Melissa Robertson (4:52:34), Maree Connor (5:04:12), Alan Wheat (5:09:27), Scott Heckmann (5:14:18), Masanori Chiba (5:16:22), Chris Murphy (5:18:08), Rosario Delis (5:20:07), Ben Berriman (5:21:08), Jeremy Rankin (5:25:02), Greg Wallace (5:25:55), Shiree Yap (5:27:41), Kristen Brace (5:29:54), Pam Muston (5:30:47), Amanda Spackman (5:31:53), David Campbell (5:34:32), Greg Thomson (5:40:58), Chloe Skewes-Weir (5:44:07), Adam Darwin (5:45:06), Simone Harvey (5:49:00), Lisa Krummer (5:49:28), Shaun Whitehouse (5:50:10), Lisa Sherman (5:52:09), Peter Fitzpatrick (5:53:13), Simon Ford (5:54:15), Isabella Basaglia (5:54:48), Jenny Morris(5:57:42), Barry Carter (5:57:44), Andrew Duffus (6:01:18), David Bennie (6:03:39), Lonneke Kefalas (6:05:45), Rob Lloyd (6:08:31), Akira Suzuki (6:09:45), Kelvin Marshall (6:15:02), Michael Thompson (6:15:40), Julie Steele(6:16:41), Faye Lehane (6:17:42), Tim Yendell (6:21:23), Nicole Kruse (6:22:57), Kevin Heaton (6:32:32) and Jane Trumper (7:05:15).

For a full list of results, click here.

Upcoming Events
This weekend will see the 2021 IAU 6hr Virtual Global Solidarity race (20-21 March). A great number of participants will be running, including 350 runners from 32 teams. Our Australian men’s team consists of Kay Bretz, Steve Robertson, Darren Linney, Anthony Boyle and Stephen Lomax whilst the women’s team stars Julia Mackay, Tash Fraser and Corrina Black.

Duncan’s Run will be held across that same weekend (20-21 March) at Tarra-Bulga National Park in South Gippsland, Vic. Participants are offered to enter ultra distances of 100km and 50km this year.

The Sri Chinmoy 48hr Track Festival will be held 26-28 March and doubles up as AURA’s 48hr Australian Track Championships. The event will see runners do laps of the Australian Institute of Sport track in Canberra racing in either a 48hr, 24hr, 12hr and 6hr event. Click here for a preview of the event.

The inaugural Herdy’s Frontyard Ultra in WA will see it continue the busy weekend in March (26-28), placing itself as a sister-event to Birdy’s Backyard later in the year. Held at Herdsman Lake, the race is a Last One Standing format where runners will tackle a 6.71km loop until only one man or woman is left.

To finish off the month, Trails and Tails is also an inaugural event this year, to be held at Charlie Watts Reserve and Cairncross State Forest in Telegraph Point, NSW. Offering a distance of 7km, 14km or 21km the course welcome your pet dog to run with you.

Reminder
A reminder for all AURA members we would love to have more race reports contributed to our digital Ultramag magazine. It doesn’t matter what event you ran in, it can be AURA-listed or not, we love reading your reports and sharing them with the AURA community. Email your reports in a Word document (single spaced and include your name, event name and dates you ran) along with high resolution photographs (not in the Word document but attached to the email) to ultramag@aura.asn.au

Pictured: Ben Duffus finishing in 1st Place at the 2021 Six Foot Track Marathon. Photograph – Maria Yiasemides.

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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.