Club Newsletter April Edition 2013
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Western Athletics Inc. www.westernathletics.com.au Club Newsletter April Edition 2013 ` . My Trip of a Lifetime. Recently I was lucky enough to have been selected in the Australian team for for the World Cross-country Championships held in snowy Poland, in which I competed in the junior event! It was a massive surprise for me, qualifying 3rd place at the trials, which the selectors believed was good enough for me to go! The World Cross-country Championships are the only event in which the juniors and seniors travel together, train together and watch each other race. For me this was one of the major highlights of the trip as individuals I idolised were suddenly eating dinner with me and sitting next to me on the plane. We went to London first to acclimatise to the weather as we were heading from 37 degrees in Australia to a high of -2 in Poland, so London at 5 degrees was a good start. I was able to train at the famous Bushy Park, and touch the deer, which is an Aussie tradition. Poland itself was freezing, getting to a low of -17. I’m pretty sure most of us girls looked like we were there for the sumo wrestling championships with the amount of layers we had on! When we arrived in Poland, it was crazy as there were cameras everywhere, the local news station, and in the end a picture of Sam Prime and me ended up in the local newspaper of us at the airport, which was surreal. For many of us it was the first time seeing snow, so the experience of running in it was a new one. The course itself was challenging and many people actually said it was one of the toughest courses/weather they have had, and would be great at the Winter Olympics (Let’s hope it can become part of it). I was lucky enough to be able to talk to the likes of Collis Birmingham (2 time Olympian) Steve Kelly, Mitchell Brown, and most of the other seniors who had already represented Australia, about how to handle the race, as they shared tactics, and advice on how to best tackle it. Race day was incredible. It snowed during my race, I came 50th with a PB of 20:48 over the 6km, and my team was 8th. There was an enormous crowd, and I will never forget the feeling of running up the hill, hearing the Americans, Irish, Polish and just random people cheering us Aussies. We got asked for autographs and people wanted photos with us. Watching the other Aussies, was great, however the senior men’s race will be one I will always remember. It was a surreal experience watching Collis leading the race up the hill, and mixing with the Africans. Every single country was cheering him. At the end of the championships, all the athletes from all countries came together for a banquet and celebration. Over all it was the best lifetime experience I could have asked for, the team bonding, the healthy eating, the training, the snow, the travel, the condition during the race, and the life -long friends from not only Australia but other countries. Lastly, I want to say a huge thank you to my coach Burkie, my parents and family, my training partners and everyone from Western Athletics! You are like a second family, the support has been incredible and definitely helped me to get to where I am now! AMY CASHIN Stawell Gift is the pinnacle of professional athletics in Australia. The 120m gift worth $40,000 is the highlight of the competition. There are a variety of different events at the Stawell carnival, and everyone wants one of those prestigious Stawell sashes. Professional athletics is where athletes are handicapped in distance to run a race and to a specific time, in theory everyone should cross the line together making it close race and normally the person who beats their handicap as in running faster than expected is the winner. This allows all athletes a fair chance and an even race. Leading into Stawell this year I was running well, making many finals but unlucky not to win. When the marks came out for Stawell, I was unlucky with most of my marks which were very tight due to my recent good running and form. I competed on Saturday in the 70m heat where I came second but did not qualify to the semis. I ran in my heat of the 120m gift, where I ran 2nd to the eventual runner up in the gift, but ran a good time to qualify me to the semi finals. I also ran in the 400m backmarker heats. I was the furthest back runner in the field, off 5m. I knew I was too far back to win, but wanted a hard run due to my lead up to nationals in Sydney. I finished mid field but was happy with my time of 48.1 running on a soft grass track going around people. The Sunday is a quieter day where I only had the 200m heats on in the afternoon, My handicap off 10m saw me win my heat with a comfortable run and the 3rd fastest time. Monday is the main day of the carnival with all the finals being held. I had the 200m semi final first up in the day, which I was lucky to just win. My time was slow compared to the others but I made it through to the final. I now only had about 1 hour before I had to run my semi final of the 120m gift, I had a short massage then got the spikes back on to run down the track again. I was in the 6th semi final which was won by the eventual winner of the race, with myself finishing 4th in a time of 12.23 off my 7.75m handicap. This run gave me a lot of confidence going into the 200m final, which was only like 30 minutes after my gift semi final. No time for a rub, just a few run throughs and keep the body warm. I was off a 10m handicap in the 200m final which put me as the back marker in the race and in the inside lane, I was giving the front marker a start of 20m in front of me. The 200m at Stawell is a little different as well as being on grass it is mainly bend with only a 70m straight to finish on. In the final I ran a strong bend and kicked into the straight hard. I was in the lead coming into the finish but on the line the runner in blue caught me and dipped hard at the finish line. There was a short wait but I ended up winning by 0.006s! I was so happy and relieved that all the hard work and training we had been doing had paid off, and also winning the 200m as there are very few raced through out the season. I was now the owner of a Stawell sash. For many that is the end of the season, but for myself this was a great lead up to going to the National Championships in a week and a half's time. Over the 3 days I competed in 7 races and ran some great times and came home with a win. Now onto Nationals in the Men's 400m where I am hoping to lower my PB of 47.83s and see how fast I can go! MATT HARGREAVES Recent races On the weekend of 16th and 17th March 8 of us from Western Athletics made the journey to Burwood Athletics Track to compete in the 2013 Victorian Track and Field Masters Championships. The weather was not kind to us at all for the entire weekend we ran, jumped and threw in strong winds and heavy rain, despite this some of us still managed to produce PBs. The support and encouragement for each other whilst we were competing was nothing but the usual Western Athletics style. For all of us it was a great way to complete the track and field season and everyone said that we would all be back next year to do it over again. Despite the small representation of athletes we still managed to bring home 24 medals over the 2 days: Allan Cook 3 Gold Adam Knowles 1 Silver Carolyn Huell 2 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze Sue Rebesco 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze Stan Peska 2 Gold, 3 Silver John White 1 Silver Wayne Bingham 3 Silver Tony Bradford 1 Gold, 3 Silver 2013 Australian Masters Track and Field Championships. During the Easter long weekend seven mastersRecent athletes from races Wyndham competed at the 2013 Australian Masters Athletics Championships in Canberra. We were blessed with beautiful autumn weather that set the stage for some great performances. Tony Bradford M70 was the busiest of the group competing in 8 individual events, a Pentathlon and Relay – a total of 14 events! Tony had solid performances across all events: 60m 6th, 100m 6th, 200m 6th, 400m 4th, Discus 6th, Javelin 6th, High Jump 6th and Shot Put 8th. But his standout performance was the Pentathlon (200m, 1500m, Long Jump, Javelin and Discus) on the last day of the championships. Thirteen M70 athletes competed in this event and Tony went home with the Bronze medal. Wayne Bingham M55 competed in 5 events. On the Friday Bing won Bronze in the 60m and Silver in the 100m.