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Club News |
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Phone: 9890 3631 http://www.boxhillathleticclub.org |
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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY |
CONTENTS
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Sat 1 June ’02
Coliban Relay - Harcourt, Bendigo |
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This year the Box Hill men’s team won the State League
Premiership for the first time since 1995. While the team finished the season 6th
on the ladder those in the know always had confidence as the rounds are biased
towards field events and the finals format was always going to let Box Hill’s
dominance on the track shine through.
After the first week the team was 22 points behind after a controversial and highly contested disqualification by an obviously either blind or biased official. But with the second week our stronger team, manager Chris O’Connor was always confident and Box Hill ran out winners by 46 points.
The women’s team finished a credible 3rd
in State League finals this year suffering the same problems that they have had
all year with a lack of depth in the sprints and injuries to key athletes.
Bayside took out their first premiership ahead of Melbourne University.
It was a sad night for the women’s team though with the retiring of Val and Les Armstrong who have managed the team to their recent successes. Though I feel that several athletes will be breathing easier now that Val won’t be ringing them up, bugging them to run on a Thursday night.
With
the ages of the athletes competing for Box Hill ranging from 15 to 38 we have a
lot of talented juniors coming through who should be able to lead the team to
more victories in the future.
But I think the last word should be left to the man with the biggest smile of the night, Graeme Olden:
“It is extremely satisfying to win our first men’s State League premiership for seven years, particularly as Box Hill is one of the few non-combine teams in the competition. It is great to have so many juniors come though to fill holes in the team and return Box Hill to the position as the strongest club in Victoria.”
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The victorious men’s State League team at Presentation Night. |
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The National Club Championships were held on the Sunday morning of the National Championships in Brisbane. With several Box Hill athletes having just made the Commonwealth Games team on Saturday there had been much celebrating for the Box Hill athletes on Saturday night and somehow after two hours sleep the entire team in an inhuman show of determination and club spirit managed to rouse itself from its sleep and arrived at the track at 8:15am to compete for their club.
This year the program was not to the liking of the men’s team with no pole vault (in which we dominate) and winning was always going to be a tough ask when Cameron Baker is the number one high jumper and discus thrower and number two shot putter thanks to the sterling efforts of Marty Duke who rose to prominence in his new event. Mark Stewart had a Leanna Tilley type performance in the 3000m, very inspirational but not too quick and Tim Williams showed that the seven races he had already had over the last two days had taken their toll. The junior 200m hurdles team was inspirational finishing second in both divisions and Mohamed Zeed took out the second heat of the 100m.
Final Results for the men were:
Queensland
Uni
309
Sydney Uni
304
Queensland Pacififc
280
Melbourne Uni
270
Box Hill
249
Port Adelaide
238
In
the women’s division Box Hill again finished 5th in a much stronger
field then last year. For some idea of the standard of competition Box Hill has
3 of the top 6 women’s pole vaulters in Australia yet only managed 3rd
and DNQ in the Club Championships. The prospects of the team were hampered when
one of the star athletes was struck down with a sudden illness that would not
allow her to walk let alone compete. The highlight was Kerri Jorgensen who was
the only Box Hill athlete to win a first division event in the 800m followed in
by Elisa Eddy who was second in her division despite the flu.
Final results for women:
Queensland
Uni
316
Melbourne Uni
292
Adelaide Hills
282
Queensland Pacific
253
Box Hill
236
Sydney Pacific
233
To
celebrate the 70th Anniversary this year of the formation of the Box
Hill Athletic Club, the Club is holding a dinner on Saturday 27th
July 2002. The dinner is being held at the Eastern Golf Club, 473 Doncaster
Road, Doncaster, commencing at 7:00 pm.
The
evening will be an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate some of the great
successes enjoyed by the Club over the past 70 years and a number of different
presentations are planned to remind us of some of the highlights. The cost of
the evening will be $50 per head which includes hot and cold savouries, buffet
style main course and dessert.
To book tickets use the attached flyer or contact Ian Sloane on 9459 4486 or by e-mail at sloane@cybernetint.net.
The Annual General Meeting of the Box Hill Athletic Club will be held on Tuesday 26 June 2002 at 7:30 pm at the Club rooms. All members and friends are invited to attend to show some support for the work performed by the committee over the past year and learn of plans for the second stage of the building works. A formal notice of meeting can be downloaded from the following link....AGM Notice of Meeting.
Pizza will be served after the meeting for all those in attendance
A working bee is being held at the club rooms on Saturday 29 June 2002 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. It is hoped that we will be able to begin preparations for erection of the steelwork for the new upstairs section of the club rooms. There are also many tasks which need completing for next season including painting of equipment and erecting photos and signs which have still not been put back into position after the ground floor upgrade. A full update on the club room update will be provided at the AGM and in the next edition of Club News.
Presentation
night this year was on 4th May at the Box Hill Community Arts Centre.
With the State League Premiership win of the men’s and four Association Finals
victories the focus this year was on our successes as a club.
The
hall was decked out in balloons (well at least the ones we didn’t burst when
putting up) which created a festive atmosphere for the cream of Victoria’s
athletes to display their finery.
Some of the distance boys enjoying the night.
The
were some surprises during the night. Marty Duke was disappointed that his shot
putting effort at National Club Championships was not enough to win him the
Thrower of the Year award though he did take out Male Athlete of the Year.
Female athlete of the Year was won by club stalwart Kerri Jorgensen who was
“unfortunately” just married and on her honeymoon. But the highlight of the
night was the group of balloons launched by the gate crashing Elly Hutton which
upstaged Graeme Olden in mid speech.
Marty Duke receiving his award.
The
award winners were:
Allan Barlow Shield – Male Athlete of the Year
Marty Duke
Martha
Fraser Shield – Female Athlete of the Year
Kerri Jorgensen
Reg
Barlow Cup – Male Junior Athlete of the Year
Mohamad Zeed
Armstrong Shield – Junior Female Athlete of the Year – Hayley Tomlinson
State League Points Award – Coach – Bert Tilley
State
League Points Award – Male
Marty Duke (219.5), Braden Fraser (202.5)
State
League Points Award – Female
Kerri Jorgensen (219.75), Cathy Marshall (155.75), Larissa Touchinskaia (149.00), Georgie Power (148.25)
Club Award – Joan Hines
Grant Taggart Shield – Most Determined Junior Winter Athlete – Jessica deBruin
Hansen Trophy – Champion Winter Athlete – Male – Marcus Tierney
Megan Sloane Cup – Champion Winter Athlete – Female – Nikki Chapple
Outstanding Finals Athlete – Joel Pocklington
Vladimir Slavnic Trophy – Outstanding Thrower – Ronnie Buckley
Ross
Haywood Trophy – Race Walking – Wendy Muldoon
Andrew
Stewart Trophy – Pole Vault Champion – Steven
Hooker, Bridgid Isworth
Frank
Tutchener Shield – Club 10 Mile Trophy –
Graeme Olden
Interclub Awards – Male
David Featherston, Tim Heron, Trent Hartshorne
Interclub
Awards – Female
Elisabeth
Bird, Elissa Ward, Nicole Dunner
Under 18 Males
Alex Azcurra, Rick Taylor, Andrew White
Under
18 Females
Michelle
Fistric, Sarah Coghill, Vivienne Lee
Under
16 Males
Grant
Hodges, Joel Pocklington, David Goodwin
Under
16 Females
Amy
Zagato, Georgie McCallum, Catherine Allan
Under
14 Males
Dion
Pocklington, Pryce Butson
Under
14 Females
Sarah Cant, Hayley Tomlinson, Kate Winckworth
Your registration with Athletics Victoria and also membership of the Box Hill Athletic Club fell due on 15 April 2002. To be eligible to compete in winter races and continue to use the Club facilities for training, you will need to organise to get yourself re-registered for the 2002-2003 season. Despite increased registration costs with Athletics Victoria, increased costs associated with the new pavilion and the large financial commitment required from the Club to fund the Stage II Pavilion Upgrade works, the committee has only increased the membership fees by $5. All members are urged to re-register as soon as possible to help maximise the funds available to the Club to meet these upcoming works. Registration forms can be obtained from the club rooms or downloaded from the Club web page and should be returned to The Registrar, PO Box 247, Box Hill VIC 3128.
Congratulations
go to the three Box Hill athletes who have been selected to represent Australia
at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Bridgid Isworth has been selected in the pole vault after her third placing at Nationals.
Anna Thompson is competing in the 5000m again after a bronze at Nationals.
Tim Williams has been selected as a member of Australia’s 4x100m relay team after a 5th place in the 100m at Nationals and a time in the 200m that should have won him a silver had not Patrick Johnson been controversially placed in the final instead of Tim.
The total raised from the Pavilion Upgrade fundraising efforts currently stands at about $18,000. With still another $22,000 to go to meet our target of $40,000, we need enthusiastic support from all members for the events planned for this year, in particular the 70th Anniversary Dinner planned for 27 July 2002. If you are able to help in any way towards the fundraising effort, please contact Westly Windsor on 9890 3653 or Graeme Olden on 9885 0890.
Athletics
Australia have recently advised that the Box Hill Athletic Club was ranked equal
first in the category of Planning, Performance and Leadership in the recent
Active Australia Club Awards. Congratulations to everyone who has helped to
achieve the successes over the past year to enable us to be in a position to
receive this award. The $1000 prizemoney will help to ensure that we are able to
progress with the second stage of the Pavilion Upgrade this winter.
We are required to supply 10 officials at the Bundoora Cross Country event on Saturday 14th July. We will also be running the BBQ / canteen on the day. If you are able to assist pleas contact Julie Milner on 9818 1278 or email juliem@brd.net.au
With the Club having a most successful track season and good start to the track season, we are keen to do well in the Coliban Relays on June 1st and the Flemington Road Relays (normally held at Sandown) on July 20th. If you are available to run in either or both of these events, please contact the team managers Ian Sloane (ph 9459 4486 or email sloane@cybernetint.net) for the men's teams or Chris O'Connor (ph 9882 6108 or email coconnor@swin.edu.au) for the women's teams to let them know that you are available so that we can make sure that we enter sufficient teams and have our strongest possible teams in attendance.
The
annual Club 5000 Handicap race was run on Saturday April 27 on the
well-established Bennettswood course adjacent to Gardiner’s Creek. Ultimately 26 starters materialized, several of them vying
for the honour of coming up with the most inventive excuse for leniency or
producing the most agonized facial expression upon hearing the news of their
allocated mark. Notable efforts
came from Dave Cross, Tom Waters and Dale Bickham.
A special novice attempt from Cameron Baker was adjudged outstanding.
He nearly knocked off more experienced campaigners such as Wes Windsor, a
perennial high achiever in the annual efforts to extract a more lenient
handicap, and again this year’s star performer.
Previous race winner, Jocelyn Keage, showed she will be difficult to beat
in future years with an impressive and impassioned effort to convince the
handicapper that there had been a serious mistake made in her case.
Cameron was somewhat lucky not to have an additional time penalty, as the
handicapper had calculated his proposed time assuming that he would be running
the course with pole held aloft in the vaulting position.
Maybe with the additional adrenalin such a penalty might have induced, he
might have shaded his opposition – perhaps next year?
Sam
Hassett and Dale Bickham both qualified for the “Time Mismanagement Award”,
literally arriving when the race was about to start or when it had actually
started. Certainly this was a novel
attempt to persuade the handicapper that they deserved different treatment in
forthcoming years.
Enough
of the preliminaries, and on to the main event. Haley Tomlinson ran a superb race, and won clearly in the
outstanding time of 17 m. 44 s. She
started like a rocket and overtook everyone else in front of her, crossing the
finishing line 11 seconds clear of Dominic Macken, an experienced athlete set to
resume his running career with Box Hill after a break from the sport.
Haley’s time on this tested course was extremely impressive, and as
many of us who have watched her improving know, suggests that she will continue
to create new standards of achievement as she gets older and stronger.
Well done Haley and we look forward to seeing you continue to improve.
Chris O’Connor nearly outfoxed the handicapper, resorting to being
sighted recently riding a bicycle along the Yarra Trail with an alleged injury.
Well, the sympathy has come to an end with the revelation in the race of
his excellent form, untroubled by the previously cited injuries.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating, as they say.
Our
two leading distance athletes, Graeme Olden and Marcus Tierney, who both started
in the absence of John Meagher, performed well, and had probably their best
chance to win this year (the Year of the Backmarker), had not several others
excelled themselves on the day. Other
notable efforts came from the punctual David Ayers, Patrick Kelly, who forgot to
start at the right time, the battle between Adam Pepper and Tony Bird, adding to
their recent rivalry, and one unnamed starter who removed part of her running
costume which should have remained where it was intended to stay.
Sam
Hassett probably should really have been the winner as he ran exactly to the
time predicted by the handicapper, and Marcus Tierney also gained Brownie points
for his acuity in pace judgement.
Thanks
to Graeme Olden for setting up the course and Julie Milner and Stewart
Livingston for providing the post-race victuals.
Full results of the race are posted on the Club web site. - 5km Handicap
The
Cross Country Relay meeting at Brimbank Park was the first event on the 2002
Winter calendar. Box Hill enjoyed a
promising commencement to the Winter season, with some fine team performances by
male and female teams.
Marcus
Tierney led the men's Section 1 team off and brought us in at the end of the
first leg in 7th position. Doncaster roared to the lead, opening up a
huge gap on the other clubs who were likely to be competitive in the race.
Olympian Rod de Highden established what turned out to be a winning lead
in this leg with a particularly strong second lap.
Marcus ran relatively evenly laps and brought us in 7th place
in Section 1. Paul Boxshall ran a
solid second leg, running the second fastest individual lap in his first
circuit, racing alongside Gabriel Bouris from Essendon, who snuck past him to
push us into 8th place.
Sam
Hassett ran our third fastest time on the day (20:17), in the third leg.
Although the gap between Box Hill, and other more highly placed clubs
widened slightly, Sam recovered one place and moved us back to 7th
place, passing Essendon, but within sight of two clubs at this point.
Michael Jones was our next athlete on the course, after an outstanding
season on the track for Box Hill, and he ran what everyone was aiming to do,
namely a faster second lap than his first. The team’s position improved to 6th
in this leg, with Michael eclipsing the Ballarat YCW runner.
Barry
Lynch took over, and ran a very strong first lap, nearly drawing level with the
Peninsula Road Runners’ athlete, but the exertion was too great for him and
his second lap was 50 seconds slower than his first. Nevertheless, we were only 27 seconds adrift of PRR and the
task of trying to improve one place fell onto Graeme Olden’s shoulders.
Graeme reduced the deficit about 25 metres at the end of his first lap,
and sped past his PRR opponent shortly after to anchor our Section 1 team into 5th
place, 26 seconds clear of PRR in 6th place, which was a sound effort
for the team on the day. His
performance was the second sub-20 minute time recorded by our athletes, one
second faster than Marcus Tierney on the running watch. Glen Huntly, through the
services of Nick Harrison, made a late attack on Doncaster’s Dean Paulin, but
he failed to catch him by 6 seconds, leaving Doncaster winners of the first
Winter race for 2002. APS moved
through in the last lap to claim third, with Geelong fading into fourth without
the services of Lee Troop and Craig Mottram.
Box
Hill has been particularly strong over the last few years in Section 3, and it
proved to be the same case in 2002, but by a very slender margin.
All our runners performed well, and there was only a 61 second difference
across the whole team in their leg times. After the team was in fourth place for
much of the early stages, Luke Yeatman, with a noteworthy performance, lifted
his team into second place, to build on fine earlier legs from Adam Pepper and
Tony Bird. Patrick Kelly propelled the team into a winning position in the
fourth leg with a much faster leg than his Essendon opponent and Chris
O’Connor extended the lead over Essendon.
What Chris did not see was the danger posed by the last runner
representing Traralgon, who came back at all the Section 3 teams, after
Traralgon had held the lead in the earlier legs, but faded later.
Oblivious to the faster finishing opposition, Chris sprinted nonchalantly
to the line to lead in Section 3 several seconds in advance of the Traralgon
athlete to claim victory.
Our
Section 6 team, consisting of David Ayers, Matt Slater and Cameron McIver ran
remarkably consistently with only 17 seconds separating their performances, but,
unfortunately, we lacked a fourth runner on the day to complete their team,
despite being in a leading position.
The Under 18 team placed fifth (unofficially) after a great start from Andrew White. Chris Hamer looked very snappy on the course and Nick Bourke completed the team running the third leg.
Women’s
Results
Box
Hill women had some good results at the first winter event for 2002. The
Division 1 women’s team started well with Nikki Chapple running the 6km
distance in 22:33 (the 6th fastest time for the day) to bring the
team into the first change in 3rd place. Fiona Turner, in her first
run for the club, did well despite losing a couple of places. George Connell
returned to competition with a strong run on the third leg, while Audra Papworth,
in her first senior run, faded a little on the second lap but held on to 6th
place.
Our
Division 3 team of Kerry Putt, new member Amanda Harper and Megan Sloane also
finished 6th , with Megan Sloane running the fastest time of 26:16,
over a minute quicker than her time last year. If Megan keeps up this rate of
improvement, she might do quite well in the future!
Our
junior teams performed very well. Our under 20 team came away with a great win.
Emily Smith ran the second fastest time in this age group overhaul 2 runners on
the last leg to bring the team victory. Our second under 20 team was also
competitive. Beth Bird ran a very good first leg and was so pleased with her
performance that she decided to do it again!
The under 18 women’s competition was very competitive with 19 teams taking part, with the box Hill Teams finishing 2nd and 10th. Georgie McCallum ran a great first leg to put the team into the lead. Amy Zagato ran well but finished the second leg, 3 seconds behind the leaders. The effort of Alice Baquie on the last leg was very commendable. In her first run for the club she equalled the time Georgie ran on the first leg, the 4th fastest under 18 time for the day, but she was unable to beat the runner from Sandringham, but it was a great effort from this team to finish a close second.
The
under 16 team also performed well in taking out 3rd place. In a race
where there was just 30 seconds between the first three teams at the finish and
then a gap of 3 minutes back to 4th it was a good effort to gain a
place. Hayley Tomlinson put the team into the lead running the fastest time in
her age group and the second fastest time of all the junior women, under 16
under 18 and under 20. Sarah Cant ran a good leg, but slipped back to second
place, while Juliet Thornton brought the team home in third place right on the
tail of the first two teams.
Full results and times can be downloaded from the Box Hill Athletic Club web site.
The
Club’s tax deductible Barlow Fund also includes a separate building fund. With
additional funds needed to be able to fund the Stage II Pavilion Upgrade
(upstairs extension), donations to this fund are urgently required. Any
donations made to this building fund will be directed solely towards the club
room upgrade. Now is an excellent time to help the Club to fund your new club
rooms and reduce your tax bill. Any donation of $100 or more will be recognised
with a plaque recording your donation prominently displayed on a brick in the
new clubrooms. Donation forms can be downloaded from the Club’s web site - www.boxhillathleticclub.org
- or obtained from Colin Organ – phone 9813 3597 or email at colo@bigpond.com.
Box Hill Athletic Club operates the
Barlow Foundation as a registered project with the Australian Sports Foundation
for the purpose of supporting elite athletes and coaches in state league
interclub competition. The project makes grants to athletes and coaches from
tax-deductible donations made to the foundation. These grants have played a
significant part in the success of the State League teams over the past few
seasons and the Club is committed to continuing to provide these opportunities
for our State League athletes.
The distribution of Barlow Foundation grants made at the recent presentation night for the 2001/02 season is:
· $200 Reimbursement of expenses to the leading Female State League points scorer
· $200 Reimbursement of expenses to the leading Male State League points scorer
· $200 Reimbursement of expenses to the coach whose athletes (including both male and female) score the greatest combined total of State League points.
To help ensure the continued success of our State League teams, we are requesting donations to help fund these grants. All donations are tax deductible. If you would like to obtain a donation form to send in a donation, or have any questions about the Barlow Foundation, please contact Colin Organ on 9813 3597 or via email (colo@bigpond.com). Alternatively you may wish to download a form directly from the Club’s web site at http://www.boxhillathleticclub.org.
A draft version of all time Club
rankings for men’s track events have been posted on the Club web site at http://www.boxhillathleticclub.org.
There are certain to be some errors and omissions in the lists, however they
provide a good basis for fine tuning to produce an accurate list. If you find
any mistakes or can add to the lists in any way, please contact either Dale
Bickham (bickham@deakin.edu.au) or Graeme Olden (golden@sprint.com.au).
The men’s field events lists will be added over the coming months. Val
Armstrong is busy preparing similar lists for the women which should be
published later in the year.
There are rumors that the committee has
put together a 10 year plan with Box Hill winning the next 9 premierships to
repeat past glories. I say, why not! With athletes of the calibre of Zeed,
Harrison, McLeod, Buckley, Saunders and Polkington all coming through to be
permanent members of the State League team the future is looking bright.
It was a great feeling this year to be
involved in both Association and State League victories and success breeds
success so why can’t the Box Hill team of the new millennium emulate the teams
of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. As long as everyone stays focused and club
spirit remains high we should remain on top of Victorian athletics for years to
come.
The aim for next year is to go one
better. With the National Club Championships involving pole vault for men nest
year I see no reason why, as long as we have one thrower at Nationals, we
can’t knock Queensland University off their pedestal and win the treble.
To
submit articles either see Cameron Baker or el Presidente Graeme Olden down at
the track or email Cameron on cbak2@student..monash.edu
High
Jump Coach - Jill Taylor (Level 1 coach) is
interested in building a squad to train at Box Hill, male or female, any age
welcome. Anybody interested please call Jill on 9739 5967 for training times.
Club Merchandise – For a limited time there are some "State League" Long Sleeve Training Tops now available for only $20. Also a new order of Club Tracksuit tops has just arrived so get in early before they all go for $85. For either of the above or uniforms please contact Julie Milner 9818 1278 or email juliem@brd.net.au.
For many years now, Banksia Sports Clinic has been a sponsor and supporter of the Box Hill Athletic Club. For every Club member that attends the Banksia Sports Clinic for treatment (or for anyone referred by a Club member), a proportion of the treatment fee is returned to the Box Hill Athletic Club. Banksia Sports Clinic offers physiotherapy, myotherapy and massage services so if you have a muscle injury of some description or are just feeling a bit sore, call Jason Thompson on 9499 8887 and he will make sure that you are well looked after.
Without sponsors like this, it
would be necessary to increase fees or hold regular fundraisers just to cover
the running costs of the Club. So help yourself by getting your injuries treated
and support the Club at the same time.
Every year a dedicated team of Box Hill
athletes makes their way up to Brisbane to compete in the Australian National
Championships. This year was no different.
Though nationals started early this year
with the 5000m being held at the Melbourne A-Series meet so as to separate it
from the 10,000m. Anna Thompson finished third and subsequently gained
Commonwealth Games selection.
Up in Brisbane the majority of the Box
Hill athletes were staying with the Victorian team at Rydges, though some were
getting a cheaper deal then others. Accommodation and transport are always an
issue when you are 2000km from home and are lugging poles around. There were
stories of athletes having to pay an extra $120 to get a bag that weighed too
much on the plane and another of a Victorian athlete trying to take his pole
vault poles onto a crowded peak hour train.
I do not have a full set of results so I
won’t mention any for fear of missing someone, but special mention must go to
Marty Duke who was Box Hill’s only Gold Medallist in the 4x400m relay. Such a
pity their time was 4 seconds slower then the U20’s.
