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!

What a fantastic effort by Ashgrove Rangers at the Cross Country Relays on Saturday 9th May. It was great to see 10 teams supporting the club.

The open men took out the gold medal with the team comprising of Andrew Barralet, Chris Adams, Dan Nunan and Don Wallace. (pictured finishing right)

The masters women 35-49 category achieved a silver medal with Hubertien Wichers, Kris Stacey and Anita Fisher making a strong team.

The masters men 50 + achieved a bronze medal with the team comprising of Ashgrove Rangers veteran Graham Barralet, Peter James and Peter Effeney. Ashgrove Rangers also achieved 4th in this category with Dick Dunstan, Ivan Rogers and Paul Circosta.

The Ashgrove Rangers men in the 35-49 masters group obtained 4th position with Tom Newman making a strong start followed by Ken Stacey and Geoff Crowther.

The juniors also had a great day with April Macqueen, Jessica Stacey and Charlotte Meland taking out silver in the under 12 girls category and Ashgrove Rangers boys achieved bronze in the under 10 category with Anton Macqueen, Henry Meland and Marcus Von Rausch all having a great time.

April McQueen, Jessica Stacey

Anton McQueen, Henry Meland, Marcus Von Rausch

The Flying 4 this Sunday is a special one because it is Mothers Day! In honour of Mum we’ll serve morning tea. The total fee will be $4.00 which includes the entry fee and morning tea. The maximum you pay as a family is $8.00.

Please go to the on-line entry form via ‘Home’ and ‘Flying Four’. It literally takes a minute to complete it; that way on Sunday you just have to tick off your name and pay the entry fee (unless you ar not a member, then you have to complete a trialist form as well).

So see you at Yoku Road - West Ashgrove this Sunday for the start of the race at 8.00am!

The Joyce and Ron Petfield Trophies meet is a yearly event organised by the Ashgrove Rangers, and is a lot of fun. This year 157 primary school students represented their schools and ran hard for the trophies. There were 7 girl teams and 8 boys teams. Students did not have to qualify to run in this race; the aim is that the children give it their best and have some fun along the way.  However, one of the PE teachers mentioned that it is a valuable experience for the children who are selected to represent their schools in the cross country later on.

This year the girls team from Ashgrove and and the boys team from Oakleigh were successful in winning Trophies. However, Hannah Lewindon and Gus Daley from St Joseph’s (just beating Jesse Beaumont from Rainworth by 0.2sec)  finished first in the girls and boys races.

Ron Petfield and Cain Robertson from Oakleigh SS

Ron Petfield presented the trophies, sadly without his wife Joyce who recently past away.  Ron encouraged the young crowd to have fun and that if they did not come first, to not give up, but to do the training, which would pay off sooner or later.

While the Ashgrove girls won with 25 points and a great margin of 20 points to the nearest team (St Joseph’s), the Oakley boys only won by 1 point over the Ashgrove boys (31 v 32 points).  The score was calculated by adding up the placing numbers of the first 4 childern of each school coming in, with the lowest score winning.

Among the youngsters were a number of Ashgrove Rangers: Annie Gynther (who came 4th!), Jessica Gallagher, Jessica Stacey, Anton and April McQueen and other children from the Ashgrove Rangers Junior Squad: Zali Eason-Coutts, Maddie Moy, and Tiaki (5th!) and Akiwa Cavanagh.

We are already looking forward to next year when the Joyce and Ron Petfield Trophies will be there to win again by the schools.  A very special thanks to Robyn Burke for the great organisation!

Girls teams: Ashgrove (25), St Joseph’s (45), Bardon (55), Ithaca Creek (56), Mater Dei (66), St Ambrose’s (109), and Oakleigh (160).

Boys teams: Oakleigh (31), Ashgrove (32), Bardon (65), St Joseph’s (66), Mater Dei (102), St Ambrose’s (104), Ithaca Creek (110), and Rainworth (120).

More results…