Weekly News Report 12-03-2024

Kate Dzienis • Mar 12, 2024

Sandman 50, WA
Sri Chinmoy Road 100 (Championships), ACT
Belair Marathon, SA
Backyard Ultra Trial Series, Vic
Upcoming Events

WEEKLY NEWS REPORT FOR 12-03-2024

As always, we’re continuously on the hunt for your stories and reports for the next edition of Ultramag, 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, and it looks amazing!
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 an AURA or non-AURA listed event anywhere on home soil or internationally, we’d love to include your race results and experience in our Member News items here in the weekly reports, 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.

SANDMAN 50 (WA)

The Sandman 50 was held from Old Dunsborough boat ramp to the Busselton Jetty and back in the south west of WA, with runners racing on the beach just 3m away from the water’s edge, on (Saturday) 24 February. On offer was a 50km distance in Male Solo, Female Solo and Relay categories with 84 finishers in the solos combined.

In the Men’s 50km, top spots were awarded to Stuart Caulfield (3:31:52, a new course record), Jonathan Sammut (3:46:30) and Chris Martin (3:58:44).

In the Women’s 50km, winners were named Kirsten Buist (4:00:02, a new course record), Ans Vercammen (4:38:04) and Sarah Norton (4:42:37).

The Team Relay was won by Team Rick (3:36:25) followed by Team Guinness Gluggers (4:03:28) and Team MJs (4:04:19).

Congratulations to all AURA members who raced in the Sandman 50, including Mitchell Crook (4:08:00), Matthew Salinovich (5:07:39), David Giles (5:21:30) and Geoff Quinton (6:18:40).

For the full list of results, you can click through here.

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SRI CHINMOY CANBERRA 100KM / AUSTRALIAN 100KM ROAD CHAMPIONSHIPS (ACT)

The Sri Chinmoy Canberra 100km Road Race was held on the weekend of 24-25 February at Commonwealth Park, Canberra in the ACT. This race, hosted by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team, also doubled up as the 2024 Australian 100km Road Championships along a 5km loop course on the paths around Lake Burley Griffin.

This was the inaugural event of the 100km Road Race.

Please note, winners of the Championships – podium positions in both the Men’s and Women’s divisions – do not need to be financial AURA members. They simply need to win 1st, 2nd and 3rd to be recognised as Championship winners by AURA.

Out of the top 6 finishers (top 3 men and top 3 women), 4 are AURA members.

In the Men’s 100km, the top spot was awarded to AURA’s very own Wayne Spies from Brisbane, Qld who secured the win with a whopping time of 6:49:55. This performance saw him claim the M50 Australian Record for 50mi in 5:25:44 and the M50 Australian Record for 100km with his final time, as mentioned, 6:49:55.

Second Male was claimed by AURA member Benjamin Kuang from Carnegie, Vic who secured his incredible with with a time of 7:35:28. Third was awarded to Marcus Cockshutt with 8:37:59.

In the Women’s 100km, AURA’s Rhiannon Snipe from Forest Hill, Vic secured the top position following a strong race of 8:34:23. Christine Ta took 2nd with 12:18:42, whilst AURA’s own Pam Muston from Wamboin, NSW claimed 3rd Female following a finish of 12:51:19.

A big congratulations to all 6 athletes, especially our AURA members Wayne Spies, Benjamin Kuang, Rhiannon Snipe and Pam Muston who took their respective titles in the Championships.

Well done to every AURA member who raced at the inaugural event, including James Hewat (9:12:01 / 4th Male), Kevin Muller (9:30:56 / 6th Male), Michael Griffin (9:32:33 / 7th Male), Dan Symonds (10:07:22 / 8th Male), Greg Wilson (12:58:54), Ross Scott (13:46:39), Karen Chan (14:40:01) and Beck Myors (14:41:13).

You can access full results here.

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BELAIR MARATHON (SA)

The Belair Marathon took place on Saturday, 2 March through Belair National Park in SA. Hosted by Ultra Series, this event has close to 1500m of elevation gain in the marathon distance, and offers participants choices of entering the 50km, Marathon, Half Marathon, 10km and 5km.

Kicking off with the Women’s 50km, the top spot for 1st Female was won by AURA’s Holly Ranson from Renmark, SA who crossed the finish line in 4:54:02. Second Female and 3rd were won by Sophie Shawdon (6:23:19) and Sheena Appleyard (6:36:14) respectively.

In the Men’s 50km, podium finishes were awarded to Joel Kittel (4:46:39), Brodie Hudd (4:58:09) and Christopher Johnson (5:08:38).

Congratulations to our AURA members who also raced in the Belair Marathon 50km distance, including Justin Brock (6:32:55), Anthony Parfilo (6:38:04), David Brown (7:07:19) and Barry McBride (8:17:28).

For the full list of results, plus results for all other distance, click here.

Images (below): James Raison

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BACKYARD ULTRA TRIAL SERIES (VIC)

The Backyard Ultra Trial Series is a series held as one event in four locations every month for four months: 10 March in Wodonga, 7 April in Bendigo, 7 July in Wangaratta and 11 August in Echuca. Hosted by North-Vic Backyard Ultras, each event in the series is capped at 8 hours, making it the perfect last one standing race for beginners (and elites, alike!). Although not affiliated with the international backyard ultra format, all standard backyard ultra rules apply at the Backyard Ultra Trial Series.

The first of the events was held on Sunday, 10 March at Willow Park, Wodonga in Vic.

Twenty-three runners, many of whom had never tried the backyard format before, started. Lap 5 began to slow some of them down, with 7 runners completing the whole 8 laps and everyone acknowledging just how hard it was in the heat.

To register for any of the other Backyard Ultra Trial Series events in April, July and August head to northvicbyu.com.