Dates for
Your Diary

Fri  16 Feb   Shield P2 & Premier League - Olympic Park
Sat  17 Feb   Club Room Official Opening - Box Hill
Tues  6 Mar   Shield P3 - Box Hill
Sat  24 Mar   Shield Final - P1 - Nunawading
Sat  21 Apr   5 km Handicap - Bennetswood Bowling Club
Fri  27 Apr   Presentation Night - Box Hill
Sat  28 Apr   Cross Country Relay - Jells Park
Sat  12 May   15 km Road Race - Latrobe Uni
Sat  26 May   10 km Raod Race - Sandown
Sat  23 Jun   16 km Cross Country - Geelong
Sat  30 Jun   75 Year Dinner - Box Hill Town Hall
Sat   7 Jul   Coliban Relays
Sat  21 Jul   12 km Cross Country - Bundoora
Sun   4 Aug   Sandown Road Relays
Sat  18 Aug   8 km Cross Country - Yarra Bend
Sun   9 Sep   Burnley Half Marathon
Sat  22 Sep   Tan Relays
Sun   7 Oct   Melbourne Marathon

Club Room Official Opening Party
Club Captains
National Club Championships
Iris Mann
Club Legend - David Cross
State Relay Championships
Interclub
Top Marks for Rahul
Winter Program
Underage Victorian Championships
Editor's Rant
The Championship of the Universe
State Multi-Event Championships
Club 75 Year Dinner

After many years of fundraising and frustration, our Club rooms have finally been completed and we now have permission to use them so to celebrate we are holding an official opening ceremony on Saturday 17th February 2007 at 5:30 pm.

Following the official ribbon-cutting ceremony, we are hoping that as many club members as possible will join us in a party upstairs to celebrate.

The Club is providing a great venue, music, snacks, nibbles, tea and coffee, with other drinks available for purchase from a temporary bar.

To download a flyer about the night, please click on the following link: Club Room Opening Flyer.

If you are able to help with setup prior to the night or assist with promoting the event, please contact Graeme Olden at golden@sprint.net.au

The committee is pleased to annouce that the Club captains for the current season are Cameron Baker and Fiona Buchanan.

Cameron has an outstanding record as captain with the Club winning four State League titles, a National Club Championship and numerous Shield Premierships so we are hoping that he can inspire our men's teams to further success this year.

After several years as our female Club captain, Leana Tilley retired from competition this season, so the committee has appointed Fiona Buchanan to fill this role. Fiona has been an enthusiastic Club member for many years, serving on the committee for a number of years and is always happy to have a chat and give encouragement to others so we are sure that she will also be a wonderful captain.

Please give Fiona and Cameron your full support over the remaining weeks of the season in the leadup to what we hope will be another successful finals series.

Congratulations to the clubs women's team of Jacinta Lynn, Viv Lee, Kate Ackland, Kristine Hopkins, Kate Wall, Margie Conley, Dora Spathis, Veronica Kirby, Lauren Burns and Sarah Hewitt, who won the silver medal in the national club championships in Hobart last weekend. this was a tremendous result with many outstanding performances.

Unfortunately after several late withdrawals due to injury and a controversial relay disqualification, the men's team finished out of the placings.

Full details next newsletter as AA had not posted full results at the time of publication.

The club was saddened to learn of the passing of Iris Mann on January 31st. Iris, her husband Perc and daughter Deb were great contributors to the club for many years, helping with team management, coaching and administration. Iris was a life member of the Box Hill Women's Amateur Athletic Club, as it was then known. Our condolences go to Deb and to the rest of the family.

There will be a celebration of the life of Iris Mann at the St.Kilda Botanical Gardens Eco Centre on the corner of Herbert and Blessington Sts at 2.30 pm on February 24th.

Welcome to what we hope will become a regular column in the club news. Box Hill Athletic Club as well as having great success in the modern day has a rich history of achievement and with the column "Club Legends" we hope to help the new generation of Box Hill athletes become familiar with some of the athletes who made Box Hill the club that it is today.

David Cross (or Crossy as he is better known) has been a member of Box Hill Athletic Club since he joined at age 18 in 1979. He had a PB of 50.5 in the 400m and while he may not be as young as he used to be he is maintaining his form as he came 4th in the 100 m in the World Masters Games in Melbourne. Coached by such legendary coaches as Andrew Fraser, Mark Fielding and Allan Barlow he is currently in charge of his own training regime along with some help from his mate Leigh Miller.

David is a firm believer in the idea that training was harder back in his day with one memorable training session being 2 x 400m runs up Anderson St, following which he threw up. However Allan Barlow was not a easy taskmaster and told David to get up and do two more 300 m hill sprints.

Crossy's training group included Lethal, Stewart Miller, Col Pocklington, Rob Stone, Mark Fielding, Rocco Zerbi, Todd Lucas & Dave Tyrrell. Most of these guys still get together for a card night every month where Crossy says he always wins Todd's money. They also still all go for Xmas morning run around Wattle Park at 8 am. The old boys bring their kids around these days the sprint up the 2nd hole is the traditional finish. Much like the cards, Crossy won this year (but only because Leigh wasn't there apparently).

At this time last season due to the Commonwealth Games the interclub competition was over. This year at the moment there are two rounds of interclub left for Box Hill teams to push for finals berths. Remember, the top 4 teams in each division make finals so throw a javelin, do a triple jump and help your team out.

F14		Pts
BOX HILL - 5th	27
		
F16		Pts
BOX HILL- 3rd	82
		
F18		Pts
BOX HILL - 1st	59
		
F20		Pts
BOX HILL - 2nd	24.5
		
FOP1		Pts
BOX HILL - 1st	69
		
FOP2		Pts
BOX HILL - 4th	53.5
		
M16		Pts
BOX HILL - 5th  63
		
M18		Pts
BOX HILL - 5th	71
		
M20		Pts
BOX HILL - 3rd	29
		
MOP1		Pts
BOX HILL - 1st	86
		
MOP2		Pts
BOX HILL - 5th  58
		
MOP3		Pts
BOX HILL - 6th	54

Congratulations to Rahul Barmanray who achieved a maximum possible score of 99.95 in last year's VCE. A number of other Box Hill members also achieved excellent results in their exams, however it is hard to beat this extraordinary achievement by Rahul.

Athletics Victoria has released a draft winter calendar for the coming season. Following on from the success of our teams last winter and the continued good form of many of our distance runners over summer, we are confident of having another successful winter season this year.

With all of our athletes available, there is no reason why we shouldn't be able to finally challenge Glenhuntly for the winter premiership in both men's and women's competition after trailing in their wake for so many years.

A list of winter race dates is on the front page of the newsletter so please mark them in your diary now. Note that there have been a number of venue changes from past years, including the introduction of a new course for the 15 km Road Race at Latrobe Uni.

Box Hill had some good results at the underage championships at Doncaster on the weekend of February 3 and 4. Congratulations to all those who took part in the hot conditions, especially our medal winners.

Under 23 Men
Imran Zeed               400m Hurdles    Gold Medal
Daniel Clark             1500m           Gold Medal
Andrew White             5000m           Gold Medal
Joel Pocklington         Pole Vault      Gold Medal
Adam Rabone              Triple Jump     Silver Medal

Under 23 Women
Jacinta Lynn             Pole Vault      Gold Medal
Gabriela Kruger          Pole Vault      Silver Medal
Amy Zagato               800m            Bronze Medal

Under 18 Women
Natalia Kremenchutskaya  Triple Jump     Silver Medal
Breanne Cross            Pole Vault      Silver Medal
Olivia Milnes            Pole Vault      Bronze Medal

Under 16 Men
Lachlan McMillan         Long Jump       Gold Medal,
                         100m Hurdles    Bronze Medal
Kevin Wu                 Shot Put        Silver Medal
Dominic Poole            Pole Vault      Silver Medal
Danny Krause             800m            Bronze Medal,
                         1500m           Bronze Medal,
                         Shot Put        Bronze Medal
Tim Pappas               200m            Bronze Medal

Under 16 Women
Alexandra Pocklington    Pole Vault      Gold Medal

Under 14 Men
Brodie Cross             Pole Vault      Gold Medal

Under 14 Women
Cassandra Raselli        1500m Walk      Gold Medal
Grace Cotton             High Jump       Gold Medal,
                         200m Hurdles    Silver Medal,
                         100m            Bronze Medal

When I started full time work State League was still being held every Thursday night at Olympic Park. And while it may be hard for some to believe I was competing at State League nearly every week back then. But very soon I discovered that while on Thursday night I was jumping great guns, on Saturdays I started feeling slow and was finding it difficult to take off. It made no sense to me at first. I generally had better sleep prior to Saturdays and Friday was an easier training day than Wednesday. But soon I realised the answer; Coffee.

I was late to bed every evening and the only way I was making it through the working day were some strong coffees, and the last of these I was downing at 4:30pm only an hour or two before I was competing. Where as on Saturday morning, due to getting enough sleep on Friday night, I was caffeine free. Pole vaulting is a peculiar event in that when you are standing on the runway you need to be thinking completely positive thoughts if you are even going to take off. And the small difference that my afternoon coffee made was enough for Thursday to feel good and Saturdays to feel bad.

These days before every competition I down a coffee and I don't see this habit being broken any time soon. The sad part is that before I started work I never needed a coffee to help my athletics and now I can't go without.

Keep you eyes open this Friday at Olympic Park for the annual running of the Championship of the Universe. Peter Knott is the reigning Champion of the Universe but his achilles has been sore and he is out of form. Peter claims that Cameron Baker should be disqualified from the race this year due to a solid winter of training and his consistent performances during the summer which go against the spirit of the race.

Peter has been dancing an ancient Indian rain dance for the last week praying for rain on Friday night as he is aware that Cam is susceptible to head winds. Meanwhile Cameron has been encouraging the girls across the road to keep Pete up in an effort to disrupt his sleeping patterns leading up to the race.

Who will win? What is certain is that there will be some sore bodies on Saturday morning and one Champion who will let the looser know it for the rest of the year.

It was Sydney’s turn on the rotation policy to hold the Victorian, NSW and ACT state decathlon and heptathlon championships on January 6 & 7 and Box Hill had two representatives and came home with two medals.

Theodora Spathis was entered in the Open Heptathlon and won the Victorian Gold Medal with a performance of 5044 points. “Dora” is a recent addition to the Box Hill stable and is being coached by Efim Shuravetsky, which possibly is why she is so good at so many events. She is currently ranked in the top 5 in Victoria in 4 of the events in the heptathlon!

Dora’s victory in the Heptathlon lead me to try and think of the last time a Box Hill female won an Open Victorian Championship in an event other than pole vault. I stand to be corrected (as my memory is not as good as it once was) but I was struggling to remember an open female gold medallist (pole vaulters aside) since Georgie Power.

And just to prove that her victory in Sydney was no fluke Dora went to Tasmania on 3 & 4 February for their combined events championship and dominated the entire field to win with a score of 5089.

Meanwhile in the men’s competition, after the 100m Cameron Baker was in the gold medal winning position and was wishing thew competition could have been called off at that point, but alas, there was 9 events remaining. In the end he won a valiant Bronze Medal.

Box Hill Athletic Club commenced in 1932, and this year, 2007, marks our 75th Anniversary. Our club has an outstanding record of achievement, as do many individuals who have competed for “the white horse”. Following the marvellous success of our 70th anniversary celebrations, an organizing committee has been formed to oversee a 75th reunion celebration. Although arrangements are not yet finalised, we ask all current and former members and associates to pencil Saturday June 30th into your diary. Please mention this event and the date to all your friends associated with our great club, as we want as many of our current and former members no matter what level of achievement they attained to be present on the night.

We invite you to join the organising committee to assist us with any of the myriad tasks which will be necessary for success on the night. If you have photos, video or film footage of any event involving Box Hill athletes we would appreciate you letting us know so that we might be able to transfer it on to DVD for a display on the night. If you have any ideas about anything that you would like the organising committee to consider, we invite you to contact us by phone, letter or e-mail.

We would like you to think of the group of friends that you would like to be seated with at your table and contact them so that they know the celebration is on. We welcome your support, ideas, thoughts and suggestions.

Doug Bourne - email doug@bourneromeo.com.au
Chris O’Connor - email coconnor@swin.edu.au 0410 490 630 (M); 9882 6108 (H); 9214 8966 (W)
Ian Sloane - email iansloane@optusnet.com.au 0418 584 309 (M); 9459 4486 (H); 9873 1551 (W)
Julie Milner - email jmilner@jpg.com.au