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’.

Club President Hubertien Wichers finished 50th in the World Mountain Running Championships held at an Italian Ski Resort called Madessine on the 6th September.   Hubertien was the 3rd Australian competitor to finish and will now head to England for the Commonwealth Championships later in September.

Hubertien Wichers

We are very proud of our Ashgrove Rangers club president, Hubertien Wichers, who is currently in Italy competing in the World Mountain Running Champs on the 6th September.  After competing in the world champs, Hube will spend time with her parents and family in Holland before heading to England for the Commonwealth Mountain Running Championships on the 18th and 20th September.  The world champs open women categoy will be a tough one with approximately 80 runners in the field.  Hube is the second oldest competitor, so lets hope she can show the young ones how its done on the 550m up and down and 8.5km in length!  The commonwealth race in  England is about 900m up over about 8km, also a very tough one!

Hubertien has had a few injury setbacks this year and only just got the ‘all clear’ from her physio a few days before the King of the Mountain in Pomona.  After competing at Pomona she tested her short burst capacity at the Sydney Tower run up.  That went well, doing a PB, and coming fourth in a better quality field than what you find at the Empire State Building run up!  

For more information on the World Mountain Running Champs in Italy:

www.wmrc2009.org

and for the Commonwealth champs in England

www.cumbriacommonwealthchampionships.org

Tim Gibson at the Queensland Mt Running Champs

For the second year in a row the Ashgrove Rangers organised the Queensland Mountain Running Championships on behalf of Queensland Athletics. The course lead straight from Bellbird Grove to the top of Camp Mountain at about 300m and back down again, measuring 7km in length. The junior women’s course turned around ½ way.

With a week of heavy rainfall and floods leading up to the race, Bellbird Grove was still inaccessible two days before the event. Therefore it was touch and go whether the race would go ahead. However, apart from a few showers, the weather cooperated on the day and provided for nice cool temperatures and good conditions for racing.

Patrick Nispel from the University of Queensland (UQ) won the race in record time (27:21). Pomona King of the Mountain, Neil Labinsky came second and Jonathan Peters from UQ came third.

The women’s race was won by Ashgrove Rangers President and Queen of Pomona, Hubertien Wichers (33:28). Meryl Fletcher from the Toowong Harriers placed second and in third place came Rachel Effeney also from the Ashgrove Rangers.

Graham Barralet at the Queensland Mt Running Champs

First and second came Brendan Fenwick from Nambour and Tom Madden.  In third place came our own Ashgrove Ranger Tim Gibson, who also officially took out the championship title as the first QA registered athlete. It was Tim’s first mountain race experience, and while he was doing it tough during the race, he seemed very happy with the result.

The junior women’s title was won by Sarah O’Dwyer Mazur, with her younger sister Roisin placing second (QEII athletes).  Katelyn Effeney from the Ashgrove Rangers earned bronze.

The plan is to hold next year’s Queensland Mountain Running Championships at the same venue, building on the numbers and quality of competition from the previous two years.

Congratulations to all competitors and a big thank you to the volunteers who made the event a success!