Weekly News Report 3-05-2024

Kate Dzienis • May 03, 2024

Down Under 135, Vic
Lighthorse Ultra, WA
Upcoming Events

WEEKLY NEWS REPORT FOR 3-05-2024

As always, we're continuously on the hunt for your stories and reports, so get those race reports and photographs in to ultramag@aura.asn.au with the following information:

Word document, single spaced
Include the name of the event, the date and the location anywhere in the report (just a bullet point at the top is great)
Please attach photographs to the email – do not put images in the body of your Word doc. You’ll just get me emailing you back asking for the photos sent in the correct way!
As many photos as possible. With our new website, it’s now easier than ever to include a nice gallery in each race report
No PDFs please

And remember, it doesn’t have to be about an AURA-listed event specifically! You just have to be an AURA member for the 2024 year. Also too, if you’ve run in a non-AURA listed event anywhere on home soil or internationally, we’d love to include your race results and experience in our Member Updates, so please do reach out to us via email to kate.dzienis@aura.asn.au

If any corrections need to be made in any of the results listed below, please alert me via email.

Down Under 135 (vic)

The Down Under 135 is one of the most demanding and extreme ultra races on the calendar, with runners required to cover 135 miles (220km) in single stage non-stop format from start to finish through Lerderderg and Wombat state forests.

Thirty-seven athletes took off from Blackwood for the 7^th edition of DU135 on Friday, 26 April 2024 with the aim of making it under the 55 hour cut-off. This year saw record numbers in both field size and female participated.

Most athletes made it through to the 42km checkpoint by nightfall on the first day and the leaders were stretched out 15km in front to Mt Blackwood Lohs checkpoint at 57km, led by eventual winner Grant Ward from Toowong, Qld.

At the MacKenzies Flat picnic ground turnaround point, there was a new race leader with Grant missing a marker and doing an extra 8km to get back on course in 7th, so it was Burt Kennedy who arrived in 20 hours. The trio of Chris McAuliffe, Tim Kacprzak and Guy Schweitzer wasn’t far behind.

However Burt didn’t return into the Lerdy. After being advised to keep an injury in check prior to DU135, he decided it was too much risk to return for the 112km it would take to finish.

As athletes came into the turnaround across the day, 2/3 would push through before the 4pm cut-off chasing another 30 hours of Lerdy trails.

The turnaround saw no better sight than Kate MacMunn and Claire Healy hug it out having spent most of the night together. According to race organisers, the maths was revealing that both women looked fresh enough and tough enough to be only the 2nd and 3rd women to finish DU135 ever. For those athletes in the back half of the event, they needed to meet time targets to be allowed to continue past checkpoints. Slowly across the second night, the DU135 course would start to devour the brave.

As the Sunday sunrise shone across the gorge, the DU135 followers would awake to see only 8 had survived past the Saturday night 9pm, 142km, 37hr cut-off. By this time Grant had turned around his race and had a sub 48hr finish clearly in sight. It was remarkable considering he had gone off course the previous day and was able to reset, refocus and turn it into a powerhouse display. He would go on to miss the sub 48hrs but still dominate the DU135 course.

In the end there were 7 finishers in total at Blackwood, with Kate MacMunn being the 2nd ever female to do so. These were Grant Ward (48hrs 15mins or 2d 00:15:00), AURA members Chris McAuliffe from Lara, Vic with a finish of 49hrs 42mins (2d 01:42:00) and Ben Nicholls from Timboon, Vic with 51hrs 46mins (2d 3:46:00), Tim O’Loughlin (52hrs 19mins or 2d 04:19:00), Chris Norris (52hrs 57mins or 2d 04:57:00), AURA member Tim Kacprzak from Bannockburn, Vic with a stellar time of 53hrs 13mins (2d 05:13:00), and Kate MacMunn (53hrs 28mins or 2d 05:28:00).

Big congratulations to Chris, Ben and Tim on accomplishing this insanely massive race!

Tim Kacprzak
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Grant Ward
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Kate Macmunn
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above Images by Warren Maynard.

lighthorse ultra (wa)

The annual Lighthorse Ultra was held the weekend after Anzac Day, from Saturday 27-28 April 2024 at Perry’s Paddock in Woodvale, WA. It’s a timed looped course of 2.5km with runners tackling the 24hr, 12hr, 6hr, 3hr and 1hr options on limestone, boardwalk and asphalt.

In the Men’s 24hr event, 1^st Male was awarded to Callum Mason (200.900km) whilst 2^nd Male was won by AURA member Kevin Matthews from City Beach, WA who completed a total of 190.100km. Jack Brown won 3^rd Male (181.840km).

In the Women’s 24hr, top spots were won by Katie Richards (177.490km), Karyn Connell (143.360km) and Emmalene Head (141.700km).

A big congratulations to all our members who raced in the 24hr event at Lighthorse, including Malcolm Sleet (143.360km), Pamela Williams (133.130km), Louise Wallace (120.060km), Brad Halls (126.290km), Andrew Shaw (110.630km), Gabe Alves (109.620km), Peta Moore (107.110km), Andy Thompson (91.350km), Glen Smetherham (78.300km), Phil Gore (72.360km) and Alexis Oosterhoff (46.980km).

In the Men’s 12hr, podium finishes were awarded to Warner Newhouse (105.400km), Nathan Metcalf (104.400km) and Christopher Whitehill (103.490km).

In the Women’s 12hr event, we had two AURA members claim positions. Claire Slater took 1^st Female (109.910km) whilst AURA’s Karen Mickle from Ettalong Beach, WA won 2^nd Female following a finish distance of 101.820km and AURA member Fay Wells from Thornlie, WA took 3^rd Female after completing a total of 90.420km.

Well done to all our members in the 12hr, including Jason Simpson (66.750km) and Del Thompson (52.200km).

Winners in the Men’s 6hr were named Kyle Hughes (64.080km), Andrew Cody (62.990km) and Cole Bergersen (59.030) while top spots in the Women’s 6hr were Shelly Hughes (66.350km), Mandy Bull (56.890km) and Jaime Stevens (56.860km).

Congratulations to our members who raced in the 6hr, including Graham Tottey (52.210km) and Mitchell Crook (39.150km).