WEEKLY NEWS REPORT 15-3-2021

Trail of Kings and Queens
We are still awaiting results for Trail of Kings and Queens, which was held the weekend of 5-7 March (2021).

Six Foot Track Marathon
The Six Foot Track Marathon is a 45km trail stretching across the Blue Mountains from the Explorer’s Marked Tree near Katoomba to the Jenolan Caves, and what makes this event incredibly unique is that all profits are donated to the Blue Mountains Rural Fire Service who man the aid stations on race day – this year, it was on Saturday, 13 March (2021).

The Six Foot Track started in 1984, and this year a barrage of special awards were handed out to those who this year completed 30 Six Foots (a plate handed to Bob Fickel, only the 3rd person to have achieved this) and 18 Six Foots (a jacket).

There were 811 finishes out of 848 starters this year.

AURA’s very own Benjamin Duffus from Indooroopilly, Qld claimed victory in the 45km ultra marathon, crossing the finish line in a time of 3:20:56 to take 1st Male.

It was a stellar effort, considering the course record for the men is held by Stu Gibson (3:14:14) in 2015 whilst 2nd for the record is Ben Artup (3:15:25) in 2009. Duffus’ race means he has earnt himself 3rd Place in the course record books, taking over Barry Keem (3:23:13) in 2008. 

Duffus said he had been wanting to run the Six Foot Track Marathon for a number of years and it was finally great to do it.

“It was a real privilege to run alongside such accomplished runners like Ben St Lawrence (2nd Male) and I feel like we brought the best out of each other on the day. The conditions weren’t favourable for fast times so we were able to just really focus on the raw spirit of competition.

“I was feeling quite strong the whole way, though the quick pace certainly took its toll on my legs and I was on the verge of cramping over the last several kilometres so I was really happy to hold it together, especially when I knew that any small error would see Ben pass me.”

Continuing in the weekend’s results, 2nd Male went to Ben St Lawrence (3:21:25) as mentioned whilst 3rd was claimed by Mike Lichtwark (3:34:55).

For the women’s placings, it was Joasia Zakrzewski (4:20:58) in 1st, Julie Quinn 2nd (4:26:37) and Amy Daniel 3rd(4:29:16).

Congratulations to all our AURA members who raced at Six Foot including Brendan Davies (3:37:31), Mike Carroll(3:41:10), Andrew Lee (3:58:41), Michael Daly (4:10:41), Michel Haenggi (4:16:48), Paul Hadfield (4:31:37), Anna Pillinger (4:32:47), Andrew Bainbridge (4:36:28), Jessica Schluter (4:43:20), Gill Fowler (4:48:05), Martin Fryer(4:52:07), Melissa Robertson (4:52:34), Maree Connor (5:04:12), Alan Wheat (5:09:27), Scott Heckmann (5:14:18), Masanori Chiba (5:16:22), Chris Murphy (5:18:08), Rosario Delis (5:20:07), Ben Berriman (5:21:08), Jeremy Rankin (5:25:02), Greg Wallace (5:25:55), Shiree Yap (5:27:41), Kristen Brace (5:29:54), Pam Muston (5:30:47), Amanda Spackman (5:31:53), David Campbell (5:34:32), Greg Thomson (5:40:58), Chloe Skewes-Weir (5:44:07), Adam Darwin (5:45:06), Simone Harvey (5:49:00), Lisa Krummer (5:49:28), Shaun Whitehouse (5:50:10), Lisa Sherman (5:52:09), Peter Fitzpatrick (5:53:13), Simon Ford (5:54:15), Isabella Basaglia (5:54:48), Jenny Morris(5:57:42), Barry Carter (5:57:44), Andrew Duffus (6:01:18), David Bennie (6:03:39), Lonneke Kefalas (6:05:45), Rob Lloyd (6:08:31), Akira Suzuki (6:09:45), Kelvin Marshall (6:15:02), Michael Thompson (6:15:40), Julie Steele(6:16:41), Faye Lehane (6:17:42), Tim Yendell (6:21:23), Nicole Kruse (6:22:57), Kevin Heaton (6:32:32) and Jane Trumper (7:05:15).

For a full list of results, click here. 

Upcoming Events
This weekend will see the 2021 IAU 6hr Virtual Global Solidarity race (20-21 March). A great number of participants will be running, including 350 runners from 32 teams. Our Australian men’s team consists of Kay Bretz, Steve Robertson, Darren Linney, Anthony Boyle and Stephen Lomax whilst the women’s team stars Julia Mackay, Tash Fraser and Corrina Black.

Duncan’s Run will be held across that same weekend (20-21 March) at Tarra-Bulga National Park in South Gippsland, Vic. Participants are offered to enter ultra distances of 100km and 50km this year.

The Sri Chinmoy 48hr Track Festival will be held 26-28 March and doubles up as AURA’s 48hr Australian Track Championships. The event will see runners do laps of the Australian Institute of Sport track in Canberra racing in either a 48hr, 24hr, 12hr and 6hr event. Click here for a preview of the event.

The inaugural Herdy’s Frontyard Ultra in WA will see it continue the busy weekend in March (26-28), placing itself as a sister-event to Birdy’s Backyard later in the year. Held at Herdsman Lake, the race is a Last One Standing format where runners will tackle a 6.71km loop until only one man or woman is left.

To finish off the month, Trails and Tails is also an inaugural event this year, to be held at Charlie Watts Reserve and Cairncross State Forest in Telegraph Point, NSW. Offering a distance of 7km, 14km or 21km the course welcome your pet dog to run with you.

Reminder
A reminder for all AURA members we would love to have more race reports contributed to our digital Ultramag magazine. It doesn’t matter what event you ran in, it can be AURA-listed or not, we love reading your reports and sharing them with the AURA community. Email your reports in a Word document (single spaced and include your name, event name and dates you ran) along with high resolution photographs (not in the Word document but attached to the email) to ultramag@aura.asn.au

Pictured: Ben Duffus finishing in 1st Place at the 2021 Six Foot Track Marathon. Photograph – Maria Yiasemides.