Dates for
Your Diary

Contents

Sat 23 Apr   Club 5 km Handicap, Box Hill
Sat 30 Apr   Cross Country Relays, Yarra Bend
Sat 14 May   Cross Country, Bendigo
Sat 21 May   Presentation Night, Box Hill
Sat 28 May   Road Race, Sandown
Sat  4 June  Club 10 Mile Championship, Box Hill
Sun 26 June  Road Race, Albert Park
Sat  9 July  Road Relays, Sandown
Sat 23 July  Cross Country, Bundoora
Sat  6 Aug   Cross Country, Frankston
Sat  6 Aug   TRIVIA NIGHT, Ashburton Primary
Sat 20 Aug   Coliban Relays
Sun  4 Sep   Half Marathon, Burnley
Sun 18 Sep   Tan Relays
Sun  9 Oct   Melbourne Marathon

State League Premiers
Vale Martha Fraser
Steven Hooker Flies into Helsinki Team
Association Final Results
Venue Final Results
Distance Running Forum
Matthew Coloe – World Youth Championship Selection
Registrations Due
Presentation Night
Trivia Night
Australian Club Championships Feedback
New Format for Club News
Winter Program of Events
National Open & U20 Championships
Victorian Youth Championships
Victorian Open & U20 Championships
Club 5 km Handicap
Cam Baker Wins First Ever Gold Medal
Vale Jack Leach

Members of the 2005 Men's State League Premiership Team

On Saturday 2 April, the Box Hill Athletic Club completed a most successful season by winning two premierships at the Athletics Victoria Association Finals held at Knox. The men’s Open Division 1 team dominated the competition to win by over 100 points and claim the inaugural Athletics Victoria Shield for men’s interclub competition. The Under 18 team also had a convincing win, while the Open men’s Division 2 team finished second to Preston by just 8.5 points to show that we are clearly the strongest men’s club in Victoria.

The women’s teams suffered through having several athletes absent through injuries and other reasons and were unable to match the depth of the other competing clubs. The Open women’s Division 1 team finished a close third behind Melbourne University and Eureka, while the Under 16 women’s team also finished third and the Under 18 women’s teams finished in fourth place. Full results follow:

Division 1 Men
Box Hill           276.5
Essendon           163.0
Waverley           146.5
Eureka              25.0
Division 2 Men
Preston            181.0
Box Hill           172.5
Knox                55.5
Under 18 Men
Box Hill           229.5
Knox               165.0
Chilwell           104.5
Western Athletics   91.0

Division 1 Women
Melbourne Uni      273.0
Eureka             219.0
Box Hill           211.0
Glenhuntly         154.0
Geelong Guild        0.0
Under 18 Women
Deakin             164.0
Keilor St Bernards 128.0
Knox               111.0
Box Hill           108.0
Under 16 Women
Western Athletics  213.5
Geelong Guild      156.5
Box Hill           141.0
Frankston           13.0
   

Box Hill had a most successful day at the Venue Finals held at Box Hill on Saturday 19th March with the men’s Division 1, Division 2 and Under 18 teams all winning Venue Premierships, along with the women’s Division 1, Under 18 and Under 16 teams. This is a wonderful result – winning premierships in half of the grades in which we have teams entered. The men’s Under 18 athletes were particularly successful, with Box Hill teams finishing both first and second in this competition. This is a great sign for the future success of the Club.

For a full set of results, please click on the following link: Results.

A number of Club members including coaches, athletes and officials attended a meeting held at the Club rooms on Wednesday 2 March to discuss the reasons for the decline of the performance of the distance running group within the Club over the past 20 years and to put forward ideas to reverse this trend and rebuild distance running within the Club.

A number of positive and constructive suggestions were made at the meeting and a small sub-committee was formed to develop a more detailed action plan to be implemented during the coming winter season and beyond. Members of the sub-committee are Ian Sloane (chairman), Megan Sloane, Chris O’Connor, Doug Bourne and Graeme Olden.

If you have any suggestions for ways to improve our distance running group or would like to assist in some way in improving our winter performance, please contact any member of the sub-committee listed above.

One of the strong recommendations from the forum was for regular group runs to be held and for all distance runners to be encouraged to meet at least once a month for a long run together. With a group of Box Hill athletes already running each Sunday from Templestowe, it was decided that this would be the logical place for everyone to meet. Runners of all ages and standards are invited to meet at 8:30 am each Sunday morning at Adrian Vincent's house at 8 Yolande Court, Templestowe, In particular, it is hoped to make the first Sunday of each month a big group run and encourage as many distance runners as possible to make it to this session.

The Box Hill Athletic Club Annual Presentation Night is being held on Saturday 22 May 2005 at the Box Hill Community Arts Centre, Station Street, Box Hill, commencing at 7:30 pm.

As well as presentations to individual athletes and members of the successful teams from this season, there will be audio-visual presentations of highlights from the season.

The evening will commence at 7:00 pm, with formal proceedings starting at 7:30 pm.

The cost of the evening is $15 for Under 18’s and $20 for all others. Please fill out the attached reply slip and return to the Club by Saturday 14th May 2004 to secure your seat.

The Club’s major fundraising event for the year is once again going to be a Trivia Night and auction. This year’s event is being held at the same venue as last year – the Ashburton Primary School on Saturday 6th August 2005, commencing at 7:30 pm. Please put this date in your diary and start organizing your friends to fill a table of ten people. We also need to start collecting items to auction on the night so start asking your friends and relatives for favours. If you can assist in any way, please contact Leana Tilley on 0402 264 503 or at leana@bambooblinds.com.au (email) or Cameron Joyce on 0402 264 504 or at camjoyce@bigpond.com (email).

Messages of congratulations have been received from several sources following the victory by the men’s team at the Australian Club Championships in Canberra in February.

Lew Hall, the President of Ivanhoe Harriers sent us a letter of congratulations in which he stated:

I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of our club to congratulate you and your members on the success you achieved at the recent National Club Championships held in Canberra.

Max Binnington, the President of Athletics Victoria, personally congratulated the team after our win and at the recent Athletics Victoria President’s meeting, opened the meeting by congratulating Box Hill on becoming the first Victorian club to win the Australian Club Championship.

You will notice that the format for Club News has been changed significantly to provide a more attractive presentation for viewing directly from a computer screen via the internet. While hardcopy newsletters will still be distributed to members who do not have internet access, it will simply be a copied printout of the internet version, so the presentation may not be quite as attractive as the current version as a result. Should you have any thoughts on how we can further improve the format and presentation of the club newsletter, please contact the editor, Cameron Baker at vaultcam@hotmail.com or on 0438 737 908.

The 2005 winter season commences on Saturday 23rd April with the Club 5 km handicap race (see below), followed by the Cross Country Relays at Yarra Bend on Saturday 30th April. If you wish to run the cross-country relays you must be registered on or before the day of the relays.

After several disappointing winter seasons, the Club is hoping to be able to field much stronger teams this winter so we need as many athletes as possible to make themselves available to run. Please contact the team managers Chris O’Connor or Ian Sloane to inform them of your availability to run.

A number of Box Hill athletes competed at the National Open and Under 20 Championships held in Sydney on the weekend of 4th - 6th March 2005. Highlights included Steven Hooker winning a silver medal in the pole vault (5.50 m) which should ensure his selection in the team to the Helsinki World Championships, Mohamad Zeed collecting silver in the 110 m hurdles (14.47) and PB's to Tim Williams in the 100 m (10.47) to make the final, Marty Duke in the 400 m (46.79) to also make the final, and Georgina Connell in the 800 m (2:09.30) to just miss a place in the final.

For a full set of results from Box Hill athletes at the National Championships and a full report from Newsletter editor Cameron Baker, please click on the following link… Results.

Box Hill Athletes excelled at the 2005 Victorian Youth Championships. Highlights were Lachlan Aspinall's win in a very competitive 800m, John Peavey's PB 2.08m in the high jump, Navin Arunasalam's heat run in the 800m (trying to qualify for world Youths) and the girls 1-2-3 in the under 18 pole vault.

For a full set of results from Box Hill athletes at the Victorian Youth Championships, please click on the following link… Results.

Box Hill athletes excelled at the Victorian Open and Under 20 State Championships held on 12th and 13th February, winning 12 state titles and 32 medals altogether. Special mention to 16 year old Matthew Coloe who ran a PB 3:52.9 to win the bronze medal in the men's Open 1500 m to qualify for the world Youth Championships later this year in Morocco, and to Joel Pocklington who won both the Under 20 and the Open men's pole vault.

For a full set of results from Box Hill athletes at the Victorian Open and Under 20 Championships, please click on the following link… Results.

On Saturday 23rd April, the annual Box Hill Athletic Club 5 km Handicap race will be conducted along the bike paths along Gardiner’s Creek. The race will commence at 1:30 pm from the Bennettswood Bowls Club carpark. To those unfamiliar with the course of starting location, a group will leave from the Club rooms at 1:00 pm to travel to the start. A BBQ lunch will be provided back at the club afterwards where prizes will be presented to the leading runners and an opportunity provided to register for the coming season and fill in winter entry forms. Make sure you complete the attached Club registration form and bring it with you to the handicap race so that you can be registered in time for the cross-country relays the following weekend.

If you are interested in running, please contact either Ian Sloane (phone 9459 4486, e-mail iansloane@optusnet.com.au), Chris O’Connor (phone 9882 6108, e-mail coconnor@swin.edu.au) or Graeme Olden (phone 9885 0890, e-mail golden@sprint.net.au) to let them know that you are planning to run, along with a recent time for 3000 m or 5000 m. Alternatively, you may wish to return the attached entry form to the Club.

After years of competing in athletics, club captain Cameron Baker finally won a gold medal at the National Club Championships. Rumour had it that Cam hasn’t taken his medal off yet, and now we have the pictures to prove it.

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Life Member, Jack Leach on Monday 11th April 2005.

Jack was the secretary of the Box Hill Amateur Athletic Club from 1955 to 1957, following which he took on the role of President from 1958 to 1963. This was the period of time that the Club grew from a small Club which had experienced limited success in its first 35 years, to a large successful Club on the verge of our first A grade premiership (1964).

Jack was made a life member of the Club in 1965 in recognition of his service to the Club.