Another hectic weekend of running with two extremes in terms of some pure mountain running in Bright and the ‘flatlanders’ in Coberg and Canberra. And, while there were only a few races taking places, there’s plenty to report on within each event.
Starting at the Buffalo Stampede, there’s the headline skyrace, the 75km, the marathon and then for the hardcore, the Grand Slam. This sees competitors take on three events across the 3 days.
Buffalo 75km
In the men’s race, it was another win for Blake Turner, who now has the double at Mountain Sports events after his win last year at the Hounslow Classic. This guy’s getting a great name for himself as a proper mountain goat, winning the 75km event in nine hours dead.
Second was Grant Brisbin in 9hrs 25mins and third was Ashley Bennett in 9hrs 40mins, after having led for a fair chunk of the race.
The women’s race was a tight affair with the lead changing a number of times. Eventually, Rebecca Cladingboel was victorious in 11hrs 11mins with Carol Robertson second in 11hrs 25mins and Claire Healy third in 11hrs 45mins.
42kms
In the marathon it was a welcome return to the winners podium for Mick Donges, who won the men’s race in 4hrs 15mins. Matthew Schepisi was second in 4hrs 22mins and veteran of the mountain racing scene, John Winsbury third in 4hrs 25mins.
In the women’s marathon, Sarah Ludowici took the win in 5hrs 11mins, with Lucy Clark second in 5hrs 22mins and Sasha Taplin third in 5hrs 23mins.
Grand Slam
For the hardcore among us, the grand slammers toe’ed the starting line for all three events with Carol Robertson (21hrs 53mins) and (Christian Warren (17hrs 33mins) coming out the victors across their combined times in three races.
In the women’s podium, Penny Deacon (22hrs 33mins) and Marie Doke (23hrs 32mins) were second and third respectively. While Mike Manders (18hrs 5mins) and Tim Goddard (18hrs 43mins) rounded out the mens.
Coburg 24
Down Victoria way, the Coburg 24 hour race took place and we saw a world-class performance from non other than Mr. Consistent, Kev Muller. He scored huge PB in the 24 hour race to clock up 251.605kms, which also placed his distance as the second longest in the 24 hour event in the world this year. Great running Kev.
In the women’s race, another Victorian consistent performer, Nicole Vaughan took out the win, running a distance of 191kms. rounding out the women’s podium was Cheryl Symons (186kms) and Karen Mickle (174kms).
In the men’s race, John Yoon finished second behind Kev with a total of 219kms, with Daragh O’Loughlin third with 208kms.
In the 12 hour event, it was all about the NSW invaders taking out both the women’s and men’s events. Tia Jones scored a huge 117kms to win the women’s race, while in the men’s event, another hugely consistent performer, Stephen Redfern won with 131kms.
Annabel Hepworth, (89kms) and Kirsten Maplestone (81kms) rounded out the women’s podium, while Donald Bailey (122kms) and Trevor Marsh (105kms) did so for the men.
And finally in the six-hour race, a highly competitive women’s event saw Natasha Fraser win with 72kms, Donna Urquhart second with 65.4kms and Lucy Bartholomew trying her dab hand at track in third with 65kms.
In the men’s six-hour race, Felix Webber ran a massive 86kms to finish with the win, while Matthew Eckford was second with just shy of 76kms and Jevvan McPhee third with 51kms.
And if that wasn’t enough, the Canberra 50kms was also on this weekend. Victorian gun, Ash Watson staked his claim prior to the run, looking for a new Aussie 50km road record. That didn’t materialise, but he still went on to win the 50km in a time of 2hrs 59mins. Lachlan Oakes was second in 3hrs 6mins, with some random fella who pops up racing in every corner of the country, Brendan Davies third in 3hrs 8mins 🙂
In the women’s 50km, Zoe Hawkins won in a time of 3hrs 55mins. Lilian Molesworth was second in 4hrs dead and Corrina Black third in 4hrs 3mins.
Special mention also to Steph Auston for winning the women’s marathon at Canberra in a time of 2hrs 43mins. This after a huge last few weeks of running which has seen her win Six Foot Track, knock out a casual 2:53 marathon in training and then win the Melbourne Oxfam Trailwalker 100km with her team… and then the Alpine Ascent 50km as well. Phew… Plus, she managed to squeeze in time for a chat with Ultra168 as part of an interview we’ll feature with her shortly.
