The Box Hill Athletic Club is once again holding the Whitehorse Gift meeting at Hagenauer's Reserve on Saturday 22 November 2003, from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm. The program of events will be similar to last year with 400 m and Mile races being conducted by the VAL, handicapped races over 110 m, 800 m and 3000 m for all-comers, a handicapped pole vault event and PB races over 60 m and 300 m. 

We are also hopeful of being able to include the Victorian Mile Championship on the program. 

This event is a great chance to win some money in one of the handicap races and take place in a short, exciting athletics meet at our home track. There is no interclub competition scheduled for this weekend so there is no excuse for not entering one of the races on the program. Entry forms can be downloaded from the club website or collected from team managers.

Over the past few months, the committee has initiated a number of maintenance and equipment upgrades which will hopefully have the ground in great condition in time for the start of the track season. Works which are in progress include:

·                Installation of a new frame and netting at the hammer cage so that the cage will now comply with the latest IAAF regulations. The existing netting on the hammer cage is not high enough and this has become an issue which the technical committee of Athletics Victoria have requested that we address in order that competition be retained at Box Hill.

·                Re-alignment of the hammer throw sector markings to comply with the latest IAAF regulations for the sector dimensions.

·                Remarking of all coloured lines on the track to indicate hurdle locations and relay change boxes.

·                Repair and painting of the bench seats in the grandstand and around the ground.

·                Installation of new "Toilet" signs to guide visitors to the public toilets

·                Replacement of broken shade sail poles and installation of new bracing between the existing poles.

·                Repair and painting of hurdles.

·                Cleaning and painting of the pole vault uprights

·                Installation of a concrete slab which will enable a combined third pole vault pit and second high jump pit to be established on the north side of the high jump area.

·                Installation of concrete paved areas in the inside of the track for stacking of hurdles.

Note that many of these tasks will not be completed prior to the commencement of the track season but will continue throughout the summer months so if you are able to assist with any of these tasks, your help would be greatly appreciated.

We are seeking a suitable person/persons to manage the canteen. Duties will include stocking, food preparation and organising a roster of helpers. Preference will be given to applicant available to open weekdays as required by hirers of the track. Salary $15 / hour.

Enquiries : Angela Robbie 9898 3052

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. 

There are also copies of the video shown at the 70 Year Dinner and Presentation Night available for purchase in DVD format for just $30. The professionally produced video shows many of our members from the last 30 years in action and is a great record of some of the athletes who have competed for Box Hill. 

For any of the above, or uniforms please contact Julie Milner on 9818 1278 or email juliem@brd.net.au.

New locks have been installed on the gate and club rooms and new keys will be issued to us. This means that old keys to the gate and club rooms have become redundant and new keys will need to be issued to those that need them.

 As it is not possible for members to cut their own copies of the new keys would athletes please ensure that someone who does have keys locks the rooms before leaving. Do not assume that just because somebody had an old key that they will have a new key.

 The committee is happy to issue keys to any member who applies in writing to the committee for a key, however there will be a $30 deposit (fully refundable on return of the key) to cover the cost of producing the keys and to encourage members to look after them. Keys will not be issued to non-members.

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 presentation night for the 2002/03 season was:

·         $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 (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.

New email for Editor

Would everyone please note that the Club News editor Cameron Baker has a new email address as Monash Uni finally caught up with the fact that he is no longer enrolled there. You can now contact him at vaultcam@hotmail.com. 

Uniforms

Unfortunately, due to an increase in the manufacturing costs, the price of club singlets and women's bodysuit tops will be increased to $30.

 Summer Interclub Season

As you will have noted from the dates on the first page of the newsletter, the summer interclub season commenced on Saturday 11 October. We apologise for not issuing a newsletter prior to the start of the season. Unfortunately, AV have not yet had their summer handbooks printed either!

 Interclub competition is held at Box Hill most Saturday afternoons with the hammer starting at 12:00 noon and the rest of the program commencing at 1:00 pm. A full program of events is listed in the summer handbook which can be collected from your team manager at the track, hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

 State League competition commences on Thursday 30 October 2003.

World Championships Results

After a wonderful performance in winning the bronze medal in the marathon at last year's Commonwealth Games in Manchester, club member Andrew Letherby was selected to represent Australia in the marathon the World Championships in Paris. Andrew once again performed well to be the second Australian home in a time of 2:16:12 for 35^th place. This was a creditable performance in a high class field and helped the Australian team into 7^th place in the teams event. We wish Andrew all the best in his recovery from this marathon and with this attempts to qualify for the team to compete in Athens next year. 

World Student Games

Well done to the Box Hill contingent of Rosanna Ditton, Steve Hooker and coach Mark Stewart who competed at Deagu in the World Student Games. Steve even managed to make a color photo in the local newspaper over there. Well done guys!!

What a World Champs!!! My first major meet since I started work was always going to be difficult. The problem was how to fit in watching it all and still have a job at the end. The solution was to sleep in shifts. 6:30pm to 8:30pm, get up eat dinner, back to bed until 2:00am, watch TV until 7:00am and then sleep till 8:00am again. But man was it worth it. 

The best steeple race of all time. Championship records in every long distance event. Jana Pitman watching Rocky IV (the one where he beats the Russian. Watching Les “I don’t know anything about athletics” Murray say Dimitri had a bad competition when he came 4^th and jumped a season’s best. Marc Raquil. Monfil and EPO. The women’s high jump. Can’t wait for the Olympics. 

To submit articles either see Cameron Baker or el Presidente Graeme Olden down at the track or email Cameron on vaultcam@hotmail.com.

The committee responsible for running your Club for the 2003-2004 year is listed below. Please feel free to contact a member of the committee with any queries or concerns.

 President - Graeme Olden 9885 0890, email - golden@sprint.net.au

Treasurer/Registrar - Angela Robbie 98983052, email - Angela.Robbie@mckeanpark.com.au

Secretary - Julie Milner 9818 1278, email - juliem@brd.net.au

Committee:

Joan Hines - 9859 5081

Colin Organ - 9813 3597, email - colo@bigpond.com

Fiona Buchanan - 9817 3095, email -  fionaland@yahoo.com

Simon Bromley - 9807 2884, email - sbbromley@hotmail.com

Kate Ackland - 9890 3096, email -  kacka_5@hotmail.com

Jessica Turner - 9733 4017, email -  jess_turner@hotmail.com

Sarah Oldfield,  email - sol@deakin.edu.au

The Trivia Night held on 30 August 2003 at the St Peter's Church Hall in Box Hill was once again a resounding success. With about 200 people squashed into the hall, quiz master Chris O'Connor had a difficult job in making himself heard over all the noise, however he once again prepared a challenging set of questions which kept everyone entertained throughout the evening.

Thanks to the generous donations of auctions items and the large attendance on the evening, the Trivia Night was the most successful event we have held from a financial perspective, with a net profit from the night of about $7500. Special thanks to the huge effort put in by Leana Tilley and Cameron Joyce who did most of the organisation for the night and obtained a huge proportion of the magnificent selection of items which were auctioned on the night. The proceeds from the night will all be put towards funding completion of the upstairs section of the club rooms which we are hopeful will be able to proceed either late this year or early next year.

The Box Hill contingent was somewhat down from uni-games of the past with the traditional members of Cameron, Fiona, Kym, Timmy and Bad Timmy making way for the new breed of Supercharged Box Hill athletes to make their mark on Newcastle.

But some questions still remain:

• How did Jessica get those scratches on her legs?
• Did Kate really get velcroed?
• What shinangans did Lachlan get up to?
• How did James win a medal in the 4x100m when they couldn’t win one last year with Tim Williams in the team?
• Where did Mohamad spend the final night?

Results

James Filshie         Pole Vault        4.00m          2^nd
                            4x100m                               2^nd

Mohamad Zeed     100m                11.04           2^nd
                            110m Hurdles   14.83           1^st

Lachlan Aspinall    800m                1:57.86         6^th
                            1500m              4:25.45         9^th

Jessica Turner       Pole Vault        2.80m          2^nd

Kate Ackland        200m                26.06           7^th

With the retirement of Stewart Livingston and Alan Cross during the last track season, we have been left with a major challenge to look after maintenance of equipment and the numerous tasks required to set up and pack away each week. We have managed to find some volunteers to assist with the many tasks, however we will require assistance from others throughout the season to help spread the workload and ensure that all the equipment is available for competition each week.

 Peter Robbie has taken on the job of maintaining and preparing all the equipment so that it is ready for the competition season while Adam Pepper has agreed to act as Technical Official on competition days and Grant Hodges will take responsibility for putting out and packing away equipment. To help ease the load on these people, it is essential that others step in to help with putting out equipment each week and cleaning up and packing away after competition. If you can help out in any way, please talk to Adam or Grant or contact a member of the committee.

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.

COLIBAN RELAYS - SATURDAY 2 AUGUST 2003

The Box Hill men's Division 1 team had our most successful day for the season to date at the Coliban Relays from Harcourt to Bendigo to finish in third place behind the strong Glenhuntly and Doncaster teams.

 Graeme Olden ran the first leg in Division 1 and struggled up the hill in 6th place, well behind Geelong and Glenhuntly and about a minute behind Doncaster, Malvern and Peninsula Road Runners. Hamish McElwee ran very strongly up the hill to the top of Mt Alexander to pass the Malvern and Peninsula Road Runner athletes and hold about a minute gap to Sean Quilty from Doncaster, with a similar margin to Glenhuntly and Geelong in first and second. Hamish won the Western Australian 10 km Road Racing Championship last weekend in Perth and had still had sore calves so was unable to run as fast on the downhill and lost about 30 s to Quilty but still ran under 29 minutes which is a fine run fro this leg. Marcus Tierney also ran strongly on the long third leg to catch and pass Geelong and lift us into third position, but lost some ground to Peter Hulbert from Glenhuntly and Dean Paulin from Doncaster ahead of us. From here on the places were unchanged and the gaps between each of the teams gradually widened with Adrian Vincent, Paul Boxshall and John Meagher all running strong legs to pull away from the Geelong runners behind, but also losing ground to Glenhuntly and Doncaster in front of us. Chris Bunney ran the last leg into Bendigo and although he lost over 2 minutes to Mark Tucker from Geelong, we finished well over 2 minutes in front of Geelong to claim the bronze medal.

 The Division 3 team of David Ayers, Luke Vipond, Adam Pepper, Chris O'Connor and David Boyd all ran solid legs to bring the team home in 6th place. Unfortunately, the women's teams were decimated by withdrawals and Rachel Johnson was the only runner who made it to Harcourt which meant that we were not able to field a full team. 

Coburg 16 km Cross Country

In cold, blustery and sometimes wet conditions, Box Hill managed to field a Senior Men’s and Senior Women’s team on Saturday 30^th August.  This year for the first time in a number of years the 16 K Cross Country was held at the Coburg course, which was used for various Cross Country races many years ago. 

 John Meagher started extremely strongly sitting in 4^th place after 1000 metres.  He slipped back a little bit through the race, holding 9^th place for a long time, until overtaken by two athletes in the final stages.  Graeme Olden improved on his recent form in this race.  He made a steady start, and held his position throughout the race, finishing 26^th unofficially.  Recently joined member, David Jiminez, dueled with Chris O’Connor through out the race over the four lap course.  David commenced with a strong opening lap, after which he settled around 30^th position.  Chris caught up to David several times , but was unable to overtake him and they completed the whole race being separated by no more than 15 seconds, with a 2 or three second gap for three laps.  Adam Pepper led Tony Bird in the early stages, but Tony gradually forged ahead, leaving Adam in his wake later in the race.  Our team placed 4^th.

 The women’s race, consisting of a single lap, was run in very chilly conditions with several rain squalls engulfing competitors.   Rachel Johnson ran a strong race to finish in 15:56.  Melinda Missen and Felicity Gamble finished very close to each other, with Melinda finishing one place ahead of Felicity.  Megan Sloane started conservatively after recovering from illness and ran evenly finishing a little further back.

 Andrew White returned to the dais to collect third place in the Under 20 race finishing behind Collis Birmingham and Craig Appleby. It was also particularly pleasing to have Adrian Vincent finish in fourth place, just a couple of seconds behind Andrew, with Lachlan Aspinall in sixth place, not far behind the other two meaning that Box Hill easily won the Under 20 men's team event. 

2003 Half Marathon Championship of Victoria at Burnley

Box Hill AC had an extraordinary team result, somewhat unexpectedly on Sunday 14 September, in the teams’ race in the Half Marathon.  This result was our best for the year, and there were a number of fine individual performances which contributed to our success.

 Magnus Michelsson made the early running, shadowed by Andrew White whose intention was to run a fast 10 k and then jog to the finish.  Not far behind him was John Meagher who set out at a very solid clip.  John held third and then fourth place in the early stages.  Further back, but within striking distance was Hamish McElwee, who appeared to be moving very comfortably and indeed he worked his way through the field after the first 5000 metres.  Also prominent in the first 25 were Paul Boxshall, who looked to be in good shape, with David Jimenez running strongly in the early section of the race.  Further back, perhaps in 35^th to 40^th position was Chris O’Connor, with Tony Bird further back, running in the top half of the field.  Megan Sloane was the only female Box Hill representative, and she was running with another former Australian World Championships Marathon representative, Jackie Cook.  They were running within themselves.

 As the race progressed, it was evident that with five athletes in the top 25, Box Hill was not only in with a chance for a place, but had a fair chance of defeating Glen Huntly.  A rough calculation at the 10 km mark showed that we were a point or two ahead of Glen Huntly.  The dynamics changed slightly after the 10 km point when first Andrew White slowly drifted back through the field after his 10 k. effort, and then Paul Boxshall withdrew.  Box Hill’s team slipped back to be about 10 points behind Glen Huntly.  Hamish McElwee moved past John Meagher to hold third position clearly, and John Meagher was involved in a battle for fourth place with a Glen Huntly rival.  Shortly after, Linton Gloster, GH, started drifting back through the field.  Both John and Hamish looked very strong. 

 David Jiminez passed through a bad patch after about 8 kilometres, losing a number of places, suffering from a cramp or stitch.  However, crucially, he stuck at his task, gaining strong encouragement to do so from the small but vocal group of Box Hill supporters, including Julie Milner, Graeme Olden, ill and unable to run, Ian Sloane and others.  Eventually he steadied and started overtaking others in the latter stages of the race.  With Chris O’Connor starting to move through the field, and the decline in position of several GH athletes, the race started to open up again.  Then Andrew White withdrew and this meant that the scoring team moved back in to a clear second spot. Tony Bird was running steadily further back.  Megan Sloane accelerated and ran away from the group she had been with for 15 kilometres.

 In the last lap, Hamish McElwee, third, and John Meagher, fourth, held their positions, behind the winner, Magnus Michelsson. David Jiminez found something extra and passed several rivals in the final stretch to place 20^th, and Chris O’Connor made a mighty effort to pass others as well, to place 31^st. 

 The end result from our third and fourth athletes enabled Box Hill to defeat Glen Huntly by three points in a thrilling finish, our first victory in a Road Championship for a number of years.  John Meagher was recorded in “The Age” as the first 40 plus finisher, with Chris O’Connor the winner of the Bronze medal in the same age group in the results on the Web site.  Tony Bird put in a sound effort to place 112^th, and Megan Sloane finished 34^th in the Women’s section. 

 Our team result enabled Box Hill to ascend to fourth place overall for the Winter Season. 

Men’s Results

1. Magnus Michelsson              COL           65:10 
2. Peter Eason                         BHA           68:36
3. Hamish McElwee              BOH          69:21
4. John Meagher                   BOH          71:12
5. Tyler Coady                         GHY           71:23
20. David Jimenez                 BOH          74:36
30. Chris O'Connor               BOH          75:55
112. Tony Bird                      BOH          83:34

Teams Race

1. Box Hill                               53
2. Glen Huntly                          57
3. Keilor St Bernards                98 

Women’s Results