It was a busy weekend in both track and trails with several ultra events on the run sheet.
Starting over in Bunbury, Western Australia the National 24hr champs was won by Dale-Lyn Russell in the ladies event (184km) and Kevin Muller (230km+). In the ladies, Emma Luscombe finished second and Cheryl Symons third, with Stephen Redfern finishing second and Rob Freitag third.
Moving back east, the Berry Long Run is one of those smaller community style racing events, but that doesn’t mean to say it fails to attract any talent – far from it. The small matter of one of our leading track runners, Mick Thwaites was over to ply his trade on the trails, fresh from his joint first placing at the Glasshouse 50km a few weeks ago with good friend Shaun Mullholland.
In the men’s event, Daniel Nunan ran a blistering 6hrs 9mins for the 70km course to break the course record and take out the win. Ross McPhee finished in second (6hrs 27mins), with Mick Thwaites bringing up the rear end of the podium for third in 6hrs 31 mins.
In the ladies event, Nicole Vaughan also ran a superb race to take out another course record in the ladies in a time of 7hrs 46mins. Cassandra Gash was in second in 8hrs 16 mins and Trish Yates in third in 8hrs 29mins.
In the 40km event at the Berry Long Run, the ladies finished up as follows: Sue Forsyth in 3h 55mins, Chloe Webber in 4hrs dead and Cecile Laurent in 4h mins. Well done ladies, some excellent running there. In the men’s race Dylan Perera took out the win in 3hrs 34mins, followed by Ben Wolstencroft in 3hrs 44mins and Graham Challice was third in 4h 4mins.
Finally, we head to the red centre for the Run Larapinta stage race, which is still going on at the time of writing. There are two events across both male and female, the Malbunka, which is the long course and the Namatjira, which is the shorter version. So far, the winners of each stage in each race (male and female) have been won by the same person. Big hands to Queensland ultra runner, Deb Nichol who’s smashing it in the ladies long course version and Jess Short in the short course version.
In the men’s race, Troy Lum is killing the longer course, while Courtney Atkinson, who finished second at Six Foot Track earlier this year is winning the shorter course version by a country mile.
Podium results from day one, which started on Friday night in Alice Springs were as follows:
Malbunka Female Results:
1. Deb Nicholl 1:44:50.6
2. Naomi Ramsay 1:51:49.7
3. Marie Heitz 1:52:48.7
Malbunka Male Results:
1. Troy Lum 1:31:39.1
2. Gary Philpott 1:35:36.3
3. Mark Burgess 1:36:24.0
Namatjira Female Results:
1. Jess Short 53:59.6
2. Anatola Taylor 59:08.4
3. Julie Day 59:28.1
Namatjira Male Results:
1. Courtney Atkinson 42:29.4
2. Thomas Windsor 49:46.9
3. Brett Tucker 49:48.1
Results from stage two were:
Female Results:
1. Deb Nicholl 6:02:33.0
2. Kristen Brace 6:47:25.9
3. Marie Heitz 6:51:09.9
Malbunka Male Results:
1. Troy Lum 6:02:33.3
2. Mark Burgess 6:08:44.1
3. Aaron Royall 6:11:23.1
Namatjira Female Results:
1. Jessica Short 2:54:16.0
2. Eliza Edkins 3:24:17.6
3. Julie Day 3:28:48.2
Namatjira Male Results:
1. Courtney Atkinson 2:14:56.8
2. Thomas Windsor 2:49:02.4
4. Matt Watson 2:50:09.3
