THE HARRIER THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF RANDWICK-BOTANY HARRIERS www.rbharriers.com Editor: Edward Ovadia July 2007 Contents Endeavour Cup - By Jim 'Bruiser' Dawes NSW Novice Cross Country Championships NSW Road Championships NSW Cross Country Relays SMH Half Marathon - By Andrew Knox Botany Bolt - By Vlad Kravchenko and Edward Ovadia Overseas Results Contributions Endeavour Cup By Jim 'Bruiser' Dawes This year the cup moved to Scarborough Park. The cup had been in the possession of our club since the hard-fought victory beneath the glow of the Lucas Heights reactor in 2005. Many great runners were lost that day bringing the cup back to Randwick for the first time in decades (Andrew Vagi has never been seen since!). It was easily defended last year on home soil at Mutch Park. Rumour has it that the move to pancake-flat Scarborough was purely an effort by the other clubs to blunt Randwick s hill-running domination. It would prove to be a tactic that this great club was unable to overcome. The moment we turned up it was obvious we were a touch light on juniors (lingering sterilisation from the reactor?). However, the ones that did show ran so bravely that even the Aussie Rules supporters at the southern end of the course were forced to turn and watch. Unfortunately, many of the senior runners were in the middle of a heavy training block and were understandably focusing on future state medal events. Valuable lessons were learnt. I personally learnt that if you want to overtake someone you d better do so before the u-turn at the end as it s impossible to pass on that tight turn. I was caught wide with 50m to go and nearly failed to finish! Jeremy Horne was the fastest runner of the day but Sutherland won the numbers game and stole our trophy away. Sorry for the lack of further details, Sutherland only put their own times on the website! NSW Novice Cross Country Championships Nick Cope leading the 4km The NSW Novice Championships is a 10km race for the men, and 4km for the women, Open to those who have not won an individual state Open medal at a distance of 3000m or over. An Open
race is also held on the day, Open to everyone. The Novice Champs is a very prestigious event for up and coming runners wanting to make their mark at state level. RBH performed very well at this meet, literally cleaning up the Open 4km event, winning the Novice teams male 10km, and placing well in other events. Vlad Kravchenko ran a brave race to come second in the Novice 10km, dropping from the winner only in the final lap. Vlad recorded a 10km PB for his run (32:37), and a handy title on the way. In the Open 10km Andrew Knox went close to his 10000m track PB to come third with 30:54, setting himself up for a probable NSW Distance Runner title. In the Open 4km, RBH took first, thanks to Nick Cope, as well as 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and so on. Claire Doyle claimed 2nd in the women's, with a blistering run of 13:30, from Rebecca Lowe in 3rd. Jim Dawes in the Novice 10km Vlad finishing the Novice Champs The Novice men's team of Vlad, Adam Laughan, Jim Dawes, and Manu Sivaraj also won the team's title.
NSW Road Championships In a last minute change, the NSW Road Championships were moved from their normal home at Holsworthy to a course at Appen, much to the dismay of the vast majority of people. Despite the long travelling times from Sydney, a solid contingent of RBH runners turned out for the hilly course. In the male Open 10km race, RBH dominated the teams, winning by an Appen mile, if you will. The team consisted of Jeff Hunt, Nick Cope, Andrew Knox, Manu Sivaraj, Jim Dawes, and Tony Russo. Jeff Hunt stormed away from rising star Ben St. Lawrence to claim the overall title in 31:15. In the Open women's 10km, the RBH team came a close second, with Lucy Chapman, Rebecca Lowe, Jenny Dallaway, and Heidi Cayzer making up the team. Lucy Chapman claimed 2nd, with Lowe 4th and Dallaway 5th. In the Under 20 male, Adam Laughlan came 2nd in a close race. Nathan Derriman was 3rd in the Under 14s. Alexis McKillop was 2nd in the Under 20 girls 6km, and 2nd and 3rd in the Under 18s went to Lauren McKillop and Amy Neville. Male leaders in the Botany Bolt, including NSW Road Champs winner Jeff Hunt lying in second.
NSW Cross Country Relays The NSW Relays are always a chance to demonstrate the depth of Randwick Botany, and this year's Cross Country Relays were no exception. RBH took out both the Open Men's and Women's races, as well as the U14 boys, U18 girls and 35+ women's, and seconds in the U18 boys, U20 boys, U20 girls and 35+ men's. Here are the RBH medal winning teams: Place Category Name Lap Split 1 OM Jeff Farrelly 11:56 0:11:56 1 OM Andrew Knox 11:55 0:23:51 1 35M Nicholas Cope 12:05 0:35:56 1 OM Jeffrey Hunt 11:34 0:47:30 1 OF Lara Nicod 14:39 0:14:39 1 OF Jenny Dallaway 14:04 0:28:43 1 OF Lucinda Chapman 13:25 0:42:08 1 20F Rebecca Lowe 14:12 0:56:20 1 12M Morgan McDonald 06:53 06:53 1 14M Jordan Williams 07:29 14:22 1 14M Nathan Derriman 07:06 21:28 1 14M Josh Davies 06:51 28:19 1 18F Amy Neville 10:45 10:45 1 18F Lauren McKillop 10:22 21:07 1 18F Selma Kajan 11:07 32:14 1 18F Claire Doyle 10:36 42:50 1 OF Fleur Flanery 15:19 0:15:19 1 35F Elizabeth Perle 18:13 0:33:32 1 35F Katherine Squire 17:30 0:51:02 1 35F Cindy King 14:42 1:05:44 2 16M Joshua Johnson 09:19 09:19 2 18M Angus Campbell 09:31 18:50 2 18M Harry Summers 09:19 28:09 2 18M Adam Miller 09:42 37:51 Christopher 2 20M McDonald 12:17 0:12:17 2 18M Tom Hurley 13:01 0:25:18 Adam Laughlan- 2 20M Bowlby 12:52 0:38:10 2 18M Lawrence Rushton 13:45 0:51:55 2 20F Rebecca Lowe 10:22 10:22 2 18F Kristy Colman 11:12 21:34 2 20F Alexis McKillop 11:30 33:04 2 16F Rachel Howard 12:13 45:17 2 35M Sean Williams 13:07 0:13:07 2 35M Matthew Patterson 14:51 0:27:58 2 35M Jim Dawes 13:17 0:41:15 2 35M Martin Considine 12:55 0:54:10 Lauren McKillop at the relays Kristy Colman Lara Nicod
SMH Sydney Half Marathon (NSW Half Marathon Championships) By Andrew Knox, who describes his tense battle with fellow RBH runner Jeremy Horne The days leading up to the SMH half marathon are usually tense. Questions swim around in my head about my preparation, the conditions and every conceivable scenario for the race ahead. Then Saturday comes and it hits home that the big race is less than 24 hours away. Then the questions become less blue sky; am I keeping up my fluids, am I eating right, should I go for a walk to take my mind of things? Then the alarm rings and its dark outside. This is the worst part! The trick now is to keep calm and chase the negative thoughts away. As I eat my muesli bar and banana I stretch watching music video. In my hey day I might still be in the club at this ungodly hour, how things change. Ok so now I m warming up and I m by myself. I m totally focused. Looks like its going to be great conditions, not too cold and no wind. I ve made a pact with myself, I have to run equal to or better than my race number, my race number is number 7. I make my way to the start line to do some strides and drills, all the usual suspects are there. Where are the other Bot s? Ah there is Jeremey Horne talking to Rod De Highden. So which guys from NSW are going to be up there? Barry Keem definitely, heard Scott Wescott is running, Colin from Asics West is running well. And then there s the ever reliable JH from RBH. The gun goes off and I start to watch the race unfold. The five guys in front are motoring! Brett Cartwright, Scott Westcott, Marty Dent, Barry Keem and Colin Johnston. I choose to stay back a bit, this is a long way and I m not about to have a brain explosion. My preparation has been less than ideal. I soon realize I m running with Jeremey Horne and Stephen Brown from Kembla Joggers. For two thirds of the race we work together to try and peg the front five guys back. This is such a great race, the crowd is a big help. I have friends scattered throughout the course cheering me on. My fiancée and friend are with the Saint on Pitt St. I notice an old school mate on Lady Macquarie Chair which totally freaks me out! Sergio Carvalho and company are popping up all over the place. The back markers and now chiming in, every minute there is a go Knoxy, I m not even sure who they are. I m dazed and confused. JH is also getting great support we lift. The first 10km are easy. Go through in 32.48, maybe too easy. There is Sean at the 10km marker he has a lot to say. Something about Colin up in front looks like he is struggling work together, catch him! Within a few km s Stephen Brown falls off. It s now JH and AK from RBH chasing the top 5. The second climb up Hunter st is tough. JH puts some surges in on Macquarie st and I manage to stay with him just! We go down to Lade
Macquarie Chair and get our breath back. It s now quite warm and the sun is right in front of us and reflects off the road. No respite until we hit some shady patches further down the road. We make it back up to the church on Macquarie St. and I m stuffed. I ve convinced myself I must just try and stay with JH. Just before the turn back down to Hunter St JH puts in a surge while I m not paying attention. Within seconds he has a gap on me that seems to be at least 20 metres. How did this happen? I get angry at myself. The last 4km s is all about hanging on and maybe a kick finish. JH keeps going away from me yet I feel like I ve increased my pace considerably. That guy is super human. With 1.5km to go I think back to the pact I made with myself. My race number or better and I start calculating my current position. Not a hard calculation really but in those gruelling moments 1+1 can seem hard. I m in 7 th position and this gives me some consolation. I hold my position and cross the line in 69.17. A little bit disappointing I thought 68 mts was attainable. JH finishes in 68.40 something and this shocks me. He almost catches Colin. That's it I've finished! I come through the gates and there is Alija Kajan and Marty Considine. Alija tries to take the timing chip off my shoelace but its triple tied and very tight, he takes a few minutes and we laugh. Marty is supportive as ever and I go straight for the power drink and fruit. It is precisely this moment in every race that I realise why I run. It s the high and sense of achievement. Every runner knows this feeling. I put my feet up for the rest of the day and watch the Swannies on TV. Can someone please press pause! See you all at the ANSW State relays. Botany Bolt Mutch Park, May 27th, 2007 Written by Vladimir Kravchenko and Edward Ovadia This year is the 100th Anniversary of The Randwick-Botany Harriers, one of the oldest athletics clubs in NSW. To celebrate, they launched the Botany Bolt, a community fun run in Sydney's Mutch Park, on Sunday the 27th of May. The course is a common stomping ground for the Harriers winter cross country races, and is notoriously hilly. The Bolt, as it came to be known, is run over 4km, with shorter races of 1km and 2km for younger runners. The 4km course consists of two laps of a 2km loop; the first km scales the 'monster hill' twice, whereas the second km is relatively flat. Despite the challenging course, what makes The Bolt so attractive is that it is contained within the confines of the relatively small Mutch Park, which
makes it a spectators' dream, and means that the runners can always keep an eye on where the leaders are. Over 100 runners came to compete, with 80% electing to run the 4km course. As a true community fun run, prizes were donated by local businesses. Shoes and running gear from New Balance in Bondi Junction and Randwick's Athletic Edge; even the Kellogg factory (which is located next to the park) sent over sample bags. And the day was all about families and getting involved. It was wonderful to see Martin Considine, RBH's Australian marathon representative, running both the 1km and 2km races next to his children to encourage them, and then lining up in the 4km himself. Claire, Lara and Becky at The Bolt In the junior races, the U/6 1km was won by Kieran Donnelly by just 2 seconds from Kate Arnol and Siobhan Considine. The U/12 2km race saw Morgan McDonald win by a staggering 51 seconds, to run a very fast 7:25 2km lap. Morgan took the lead from the beginning and was never challenged. Second was Alexander Capelli, with a strong 8:16, ahead of Gus Wong in third. In the girls' race, Emma McKinney won in 8:54, from Natasha Fountas, and Samantha Martin. Jeff Hunt winning The Bolt The Open race was over 4km. The Mayor of Botany Council - Ron Hoenig - fired the gun at 10:15 to start the race. The male race was always going to be a battle between the RBH star Jeff Hunt, the Parramatta runner Tom Do Canto and the junior phenomenon from Gosford Ben Guest. Hunt took the initiative from the very start, creating a leader s group of about eight runners in the first 300m of the race. After the first kilometre the group was reduced to five. Tom Do Canto went to the front for a short time at the 1km mark but Hunt quickly got back into the lead and did not relinquish that position until the finish. Picking up the pace progressively, he pulled away from the remainder of the runners on the second lap and finished 14 seconds ahead of the runner
up. Surprisingly this was another harrier - Jeff Farrelly. Do Canto finished strongly in third just 20 metres behind Farrelly. A brilliant performance also came from Cameron Page. Still an U18 runner, Page not only finished just 23 seconds behind the winner but outran his experienced club mate Guest and many other good runners. The female race was won by another U18 standout - Claire Doyle. Like in many other races she has won, Doyle turned the race into a war of attrition by establishing a very fast early pace. Rebecca Lowe and Lara Nicod, both national level performers considerably older than Doyle, were the only runners who dared to follow. After half a kilometre the three were clear in front of the rest of the female field. On the second lap Doyle continued her relentless rhythm and ran ahead of the two rivals. She finished 10 seconds in front of Lowe and placed 18th overall. A good battle for third ensued from the fatiguing Nicod and a strongly finishing Botany resident Amy Neville. Nicod managed to hold on and beat Neville by five seconds. The Bolt was a roaring success, and everyone enjoyed a solid hit out and an enjoyable Sunday morning - there is even a group who go for their long run after the race, for those who want more. Look out for the Botany Bolt next year, as it grows into a major event on the running calendar. The Botany Bolt start line!
International Results Jeremy Roff and Brad Woods have been competing on the European circuit, blazing 1500m events in an attempt to clock the World Champs A Qualifier of 3:36.60. Although they have not reached this mark yet, they have both run strongly and are doing RBH proud. Best results so far have been 3:39.87 for Roffy in Glasgow, behind Augustine Choge (Commonwealth Games 5000m winner); and Woods 3:39.83 in Malmo, Sweden. This is a huge PB for Woods and his first time under the 3:40 mark. Both have also recorded solid times in the 800m, with Roff running 1:51.74, and Woods clocking 1:50.29. Best of luck in the next races! Contributions If anyone has any contributions they would like to submit to The Harrier, please feel free to email me at its_all_good_16@hotmail.com Whether running related or otherwise, I would be happy to consider nearly anything. If someone wants to write a report on an event they have competed in, either a club event, state event, or fun run, or simply a great training run or session, please send it my way and I'll put it in, and you'll get to have your name and article publicised throughout an eager running community. Brad Woods (left) and Jeremy Roff (second from left) racing in Europe