Congratulations to Andrew Barralet who competed in the Brisbane Track Classic last night recording a time of 1.51.50 in finishing 10th in the 800 metres. This followed on from a club record performance of 1.50.05 at UQ last week.

Andrew’s main goal for the season is the National Titles in Perth in mid-April, along with Daryl Crook who also ran well in the All-Comers 3000m at QE2 yesterday.

I am proud to announce that our Coaching Director John Purcell received an Australia Day Award from the Department of Transport and Main Roads. John received this award not only because of his outstanding services to the Department, but also because of his role in and contributions to the community, which in John’s case is the Athletics community; Qld Athletics and the Ashgrove Rangers Athletic Club.

John was one of the 29 out of many thousands of departmental employees receiving this award, so this is truly remarkable. The awards were presented by the Minister for Main Roads, the Honourable Craig Wallace, and the Director General for Transport and Main Roads, Dave Stewart.

To celebrate, the recipients and their guests were treated to a true Aussie lunch including salads, roasts, drinks out of an esky and pavlova for dessert.

Congratulations John!

November is still classified as ‘spring’, but the hot conditions this year definitely did justice to the name ‘Summer’ Challenge. At times gravel was sticking to running shoes and in places the tar was melted. The mid day criterion in Warwick was particularly hot, with a few runners having the wobbles at the finish line.

The clear winner this year was the Victory Sports’ team, with no close rival to challenge them this year. It was still an exciting competition, with the mixed team trophy (minimum of 6 women) up for grabs.  It  was won by the Bushies the last two years, but Intraining  got a good team together and beat us this year, giving the Bushies an extra challenge for next year.

Neil Labinsky kept the Bushies honours high by having a fantastic run down the range from Toowoomba and recapturing the Robin Hood trophy, which is awarded to the fastest male runner down the range; this is about the 6th time Neil won this trophy, so the team is very proud of him!

The strength of the Bushies team is that it consists of a core of runners from the Ashgrove Rangers and friends, who come back every year. This is great for the team spirit and experience, so new people fit into the team easily.

This year, Russell had handed over the management of the team to his son in law Grant Coleman, who did an excellent job in organising the event for the team, ensuring for a smoothly run weekend with a minimum of last minute panic.

Though, a good relay never goes without a last minute shuffle of a runner into the water vehicle and to get him/her to the change over point. This year Kelly made it with only 20 seconds to spare to tag Neil.

Another highlight of the weekend was the American team called the ‘Yankee Pilots’ who won the team spirit trophy. It consisted of 10 service men and women from Florida who are temporarily stationed in Guam. They were over here for a couple of weeks for training and decided that the summer challenge was a good way to spend their spare weekend. Everyone was in awe to see how they worked through the weekend, in great spirit, running the criterions as a team and taking it relatively easy, (good strategy when you only have 10 runners) while many other teams had twice the number of runners. The best thing was that they did not come last!

We’ve already started training for next year! And while current members of the team have priority to be on next year’s team, if you are interested to run for the Bushies, we can take your name and contact details. Just contact Hubertien (0404 922 577)

Thanks to all enthusiastic competitors, officials and cooks for the great night at The University of Queensland Athletics Centre this Monday. We had a great turnout and because of the numbers we had to split up a few events, which made it a bit of a late night. The shot put and the long jump were a great start to the night as many competitors tested their muscle strength and technique by seeing how far they could throw themselves and the shot put (not at the same time though). I for one surprised myself by jumping 3.42m, which was a huge pb. I am sure it helped that I did not shuffle to an almost stand still before jumping, which I usually do.

Cherina’s Junior Training Squad turned out in numbers, and a few pbs were set on the night. Parents, siblings and friends were welcome to join in with the competition and the food, which made it a true family evening. The O’Donovan – Adams family were out in numbers, with grand dad Russell pacing his grand daughter Kirri during the 3000m, only to be outsprinted at the finish line.

For this 3000m race we invited a few runners from other clubs to make the competition even more exciting. However, the event was won by our own Wayne Heath, followed by Don Wallace, Gerard Goossens and Bruce Jones respectively.

As you may feel from the writing above, the Ashgrove Rangers club champs have some seriously contested events, but are otherwise all about trying events you normally do not enter into and doing your best at your favourite events. It is not always easy to back up from the previous events and competitors boast about the number of events they have entered. However, this year it was Vivienne Buss who competing in all events!

With the tent, registration table and food set up on the oval along side the track, competitors and families made themselves comfortable on their picnic blankets on the grass. This created a great atmosphere, and spectators could have a bite to eat while cheering on the competitors on the track. And yes, there was plenty of food to go around for those who competed in the later events. The catering was all home cooked with ham, eggs, different salads, bread and a drink for everyone.

The results were posted yesterday!

Female

Male

Monday 7 December 2009, UQ track St Lucia. Registrations open at 5:10pm.

The annual Ashgrove Rangers Club Championships are open to all comers. However, only registered Ashgrove Rangers can qualify for club awards[1].

Registration fee is $5 pp and allows you to compete in as many events as you like. A light dinner is served of ham, eggs, salads and bread rolls at the cost of $5pp

Registrations are taken and food is served in the Ashgrove Rangers tent on the oval inside the track. Please take a picnic blanket to view the different events from the grass oval.

Program of events
5-30 pm Shot Put (W&M)
6-00 pm 1500 metres (W&M)
6-15 pm Long Jump (W&M)
6-50 pm 100 metres (W&M)
7-15 pm 800 metres (W&M)
7-35 pm 200 metres (W&M)
7-55 pm 3000 metres (W&M)
8-15 pm 400 metres (W&M)
8-30 pm 4 x 100 metres (mixed all comers)

If you are not a member yet, you may become a member on the night ($45 out of stadia, $35 dual membership and $80 for full membership)

By Russell Adams

My first experience with the Endeavour Foundation 500km Summer Challenge was in 1999 when I was lucky enough to run with the “Bushrangers” team. This team consisted of runners who were far quicker than I was, so I was limited to the minimum number of runs allowed per runner. I was currently averaging 4:30min/km in my races but during the event this suddenly decreased to 4:15min/km. due to the “can’t let the team down” attitude.

Having experienced 3 days of the most incredible racing and experience of a lifetime I thought that I should share this experience with other members of Ashgrove Rangers Athletics Club who were quite young and not yet at the level expected of the top “Bushrangers” team. So in August 2000 I formed a second “Bushrangers” team consisting of the younger athletes and supplemented by friends and work mates with a mixture of recreational runners and ex-footballers. As there were now two “Bushrangers” teams, my team was given the name of “Russell’s Bushies” to differentiate between the two. We came seventh out of fourteen teams and you would have thought we came first as everyone cheered so loudly when we found out where we had come.

I have now been team manager of “Russell’s Bushies” for 8 years and have found it a most rewarding experience. Young athletes have matured and I have seen them grow and develop over the years. The composition of the team has changed and is mainly young athletes now with only a few older runners. Just watching them as the 500 approaches is a real experience. They get extremely excited and talk of nothing else. What I have done is set up the framework for them to have fun and compete within an excellent team environment. I emphasise participation and team members are encouraged to compete to the best of their ability. I don’t care what pace they run at as long as they are prepared to give their best. I don’t deliberately try to recruit faster runners and team composition only changes due to unavailability of current members (which does occur each year).

So what is the 500 all about? All teams are competing and doing their best. The top teams are obviously competing to win, but all teams are there to enjoy their running in one of the greatest events of the running calendar. Looking around over the 3 days you see runners of all ages and abilities but the common denominator is that we all like to compete and run. The event is also a learning experience. You learn a lot about yourself and your interaction within a team. You suddenly find your performance increases as the “team” spirit invades you. Over the years I have seen incredible performances from people who were not prepared to give in and fought hard and tough to the very end.

I would recommend the 500 to any runner who wants to experience one of the most incredible running events of their life.

By Alastair Wallace

In late October, Andrew and Graham Barralet, Hubertien Wichers and Alastair Wallace participated in the Lamington Classic, an annual run in the Lamington National Park in Queensland.

The two-day run is the oldest trail race in Australia and this year marked the 40th anniversary.

Andrew, Graham, Hubertien, and Alastair set out with 61 others, along the track which winds down from O’Reilly’s to the QLD/NSW border and back up to Binna Burra.

‘On day one you run up hill and down dale for 22km. You camp out at Binna Burra overnight then turn around and go back the next day,’

‘Binna Burra is 100m lower then the starting point, and there are a lot of hills and valleys between them. The scenery is fantastic as it’s the largest remaining stand of sub-tropical rainforest left in the world, although it is safe to say that none of us saw much of it. We were too busy looking for exposed tree roots and rocks as well as snakes and cobwebs.’

‘Saturday saw many icepacks produced to ease swelling of twisted ankles among competitors who stumbled on one of the hazards,’

Andrew came in second on day 1. Graham came in fifth overall, missing out on third spot by a mere 48 seconds!

Alastair’s summation was more pragmatic. ‘In many ways, the fact of finishing the two days was a worthy achievement in itself’.

Congratulations to members who competed in the 10 000m which was held at the University Qld on Saturday 17th October.

Darryl Crook u23years 31.42mins

Paul Tierney 35.02.18

Brooke Condon 39.21.44

Well done to all competitors!

Hi everyone
Is there anyone out there who has a lockable 4 drawer filing cabinet in which we can store club uniforms? If so, please contact Hubertien on 0404 922 577!