WEEKLY RACE REPORT (08/01/2020)

Kate Dzienis • January 8, 2020

6 Inch Trail Ultra, WA
Narrabeen Allighter, NSW
Internationals, Memberships, and National Championship News

What a finish to 2019, and a start to 2020. Here is all the latest, including race reports, some international race reporting, who won the December 2019 membership competition and some important news about National Championships moving forward.

6 Inch Trail Ultra

Due to severe heat and extremely high fire risks in WA, the December 15-planned 6 Inch Trail Ultra Marathon was cancelled – always a tough call to make by a race director, but a necessary one for the safety of runners.

However in amazing Aussie spirit, a large number of registered participants have been travelling from Perth down to the south west of WA throughout the last few weeks to complete either of the two courses (47km and 23km) in their own time.

Each individual has then collected their finisher’s medal and worn their shirts with pride.

Narrabeen Allnighter

The Narrabeen Allnighter kicked off the 2020 running year on Saturday (January 4), held in Narrabeen, NSW.

The main event was the multi-lap trail race with the winner the person to complete the furthest distance in 12 hours (there is also a marathon which starts at midnight).

Held on a 5.275km out-and-back trail loop adjacent to Narrabeen Lake just 20km north of Sydney, the trail is full of bush that heads west from the start line.

Top three finishers for the men in the 12hr were Grant Brisbin who came in 1st Male (129.22km), along with AURA member Philip Balnave from Kensington, NSW who completed 118.67km in 22.5 laps to take 2nd Male, and Geoff Millar who took 3rd Male (110.76km).

For the women it was Joasia Zakrzewski who took 1st Female (129.22km) and AURA’s very own Renae Brock from Shortland, NSW who claimed 2nd Female after completing 19 laps and totalling a distance of 100.21km. Long-time AURA member Pam Muston from Wamboin, NSW held on to take the title of 3rd Female after racing a total of 18 laps to complete 94.93km.

Congratulations to all our members who raced at Narrabeen including Akira Suzuki (79.11km), Leah Weeden (79.11), Cheryl Symons (73.84km) and Samantha Post (68.56km).

International Events

Annabel Hepworth has been hitting the ground hard over in the US with her outstanding racing in the Across The Years multi-day ultra. Held in and around Phoenix, Arizona the event provides a number of options for participants, including a 10-day, six-day, 72-hour, 48-hour and 24-hour event.

This year, the ATY 10-day event started on December 28, 2019 and ran all the way through to January 7, 2020.

Hepworth really showed the Americans what the Aussies are made of in the 10-day, with her incredible endurance to secure 1st Female with her total distance of 740.78mi (1192.169km), landing the top spot overall out of 61 competitors.

For an overview of the top three overall finishers, it was Hepworth 1st, followed by American Philip Eberts with 660.10mi (1062km) in 2nd and Leanid Anatska from Belarus with 628.67mi (1011.74km) for 3rd.

Hepworth said she hoped women racing in events like ATY inspired younger girls to pursue their own adventures.

2020 Membership Competition

Congratulations to Gayle Cowling from Elsternwick, Vic who won this year’s AURA membership competition. She will receive free entry to any AURA-listed event in 2020 up to the value of $500, and a further $500 towards travel and accommodation associated with attending her chosen event.

Thank you to everyone who renewed or joined AURA during the month of December – there were a total of 199 individual and nine family memberships that were eligible for the draw.

While the competition is over, it’s not too late to renew your membership or join as a new member in 2020. Click here for renewals and here for new memberships.

National Championship News

A big change has been made with regards to AURA-listed National Championship events for 2020 with AURA president Rob Donkersloot explaining they were now open to all Australians, and not just members.

“Late last year, the AURA Committee made a significant change to its policy regarding qualifications for Australian Championship events,” he said.

“To qualify for Australian Championship awards, runners are now not required to be an AURA member, however Australian citizenship requirements will still need to be met.

“In recent years, Australian Championships were awarded to runners who had not necessarily won the event, which made the award feel somewhat hollow.

“Now, the best runner in Australia on the day will rightly be recognised.”

In other changes to Australian Championship policies, AURA has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Athletics Australia, which sees the 100km and 50km championships of both organisations aligned.

AURA will select the events to host the 100km and 50km championships each year after consultation with Athletics Australia.

Coming Up

This weekend will see the Sandman V: Atlas Rise held on Saturday (January 11) in Dunsborough, WA with a 50km beach run, whilst on Sunday (January 12) the Two Bays Trail Run will take place in the Mornington Peninsula, Vic for a 56km trail event.

Send in your race reports to ultramag@aura.asn.au along with high resolution photos and captions for inclusion in the monthly Ultramag digital magazine.

Pictured: AURA member Pam Muston in the 12-hour Narrabeen Allnighter. Photograph – Supplied.

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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.