Dates for
Your Diary

Sat  21 Apr   5 km Handicap - Bennetswood Bowling Club
Fri  27 Apr   Presentation Night - Club Rooms
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

Presentation Night - Friday 27 April 2007
75 Year Dinner
Club 5km Handicap
Official Club Room Opening
Association Finals
Region Finals
World Cross Country Championships
National Championships
National Club Championships
Victorian Open Chamionships
Run For the Kids
Winter Season
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Editor's Rant

Following another most successful season, all Club members, supporters and friends are invited to attend the Annual Presentation Night of the Box Hill Athletic Club to be held on Friday 27th April 2007, commencing at 7:30 pm. For the first time, Presentation Night will be held in our new upstairs rooms at Hagenauer's Reserve.

The format for this year's event has been changed from previous years in that a meal will not be served this year and entry will be free. Drinks will be sold from the bar and following the presentations, which should conclude by 9:30 pm, Cameron Sherry and Nico Deoki will provide a sound system and music to entertain everyone into the night.

We look forward to seeing a big crowd on Friday 27th to celebrate a successful season and look back on some of the highlights of the past year.

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 organising committee has been formed to oversee a 75th reunion celebration. We ask all current and former members and associates to pencil Saturday June 30th into your diary for the 75th Anniversary Diner which will be held at the Box Hill Town Hall.

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

The annual Club 5 km Handicap Race will be held this year on Saturday 21st April 2007 commencing at 1:00 pm from the Bennetswood Bowling Club adjacent to the Gardiners Creek Bike Path. All participants should take note of the STARTING TIME for the race of 1:00 pm as in recent years, a number of athletes have arrived after the race has already started.

The 5 km Handicap Race is an excellent lead-in to the first event of the winter season, the Cross-Country Relays to be held at Jells Park on the following weekend so we encourage everyone planning to run the winter events to take part, as well as all other Club members who can use the race as a training run. Ian Sloane has kindly agreed to once again set handicap marks for the entrants, so to ensure that you receive a fair mark, please contact Ian prior to Wednesday 18th April if you wish to run with a recent time for 400, 800, 1500, 3000 or 5000. Hard luck stories of injuries, ill health or lack of form occasionally have some impact on the handicap mark, but generally are a waste of effort. Ian's contact details are:
email: iansloane@optusnet.com.au 0418 584 309 (M); 9459 4486 (H); 9873 1551 (W).

A good cross section of members and former members, as well as a number of invited guests were present at the official opening of the upstairs section of the clubrooms on Saturday 17th February 2007.

Long serving Life Member, Joan Hines cut the ribbon to officially open the rooms after Club President, Graeme Olden outlined the long process involved in redeveloping the clubrooms.

The main upstairs room has been named the Graeme Olden Room as a fitting tribute to the work done by Graeme as President of the club for more than 10 years.

Anyone who was there to hear the saga of the clubrooms development would appreciate the amount of work Graeme has done for the benefit of the club.

For the full story of the saga of the clubroom redevelopment, based on the speech given by Graeme Olden at the official opening, please click on the following link: The Tale of the Clubroom Redevelopment

Box Hill won the men's division 1 Athletics Victoria Association Premiership at Olympic Park on Saturday. In a strong display, Box Hill was far too good for the opposition and won by a huge margin. Congratulations to all the athletes that represented the club and performed so well.

Best performances of the day included a great effort by Rhett Medford who dominated the sprints, a win by Daniel Clark over a strong field in the 800m and the usual point scoring efforts of Dave Featherston who completed four events for the day. But it was the consistent team effort that was the main highlight to another division 1 premiership for Box Hill.

A special mention also to Rob Falkenberg who has yet again done a great job as men's team manager this year.

Thanks also to David Burke, Julie Milner, David Boyd, Viv Lee, Neville Gardner and to anyone else who helped out as on official on Saturday. Your help is much appreciated.

RESULTS

MEN DIVISION 1
BOX HILL                        317.5
MELBOURNE UNI.                  207.5
WAVERLEY                        196.0

Male 100m Sprint - MOP1
1  Medford, Rhett               10.94
2  Ross, Joshua                 11.43
4  Sherry, Cameron              11.75

Male 200m Sprint - MOP1
1  Medford, Rhett               21.61
2  Ross, Joshua                 22.50
3  Zeed, Mohamad                22.75

Male 800m Run - MOP1
1  Clark, Daniel                1:52.89
3  Aspinall, Lachlan            1:56.22
4  Tirhazouine, Otmane          1:57.11

Male 1500m Run - MOP1
1  Dinneen, Stephen             3:56.86
2  Chefnaoui, Bouchaib          3:59.57
3  White, Andrew                4:03.57

Male 3000m Run - MOP1
2  Craigie, Alan                8:44.41
4  Boxshall, Paul               9:03.75
7  Olden, Graeme                9:39.13

Male 400m Hurdles - MOP1
1  Featherston, David           57.13
2  Zeed, Mohamad                1:00.48

Male 4x400m Relay - MOP1
1     Box Hill                  3:25.81

Walk - MOP1
2    Evans, Simon               14:39.69
3    Olden, Graeme              16:09.98

Male  Discus - MOP1
3  Rutty, Chris                 33.30m
4  Scherma, Sam                 29.85m

Male  High Jump - MOP1
1  Peavey, John                 1.85m
4  Lima, Paul                   1.55m

Male  Javelin - MOP1
3  Featherston, David           45.45m
4  Baker, Cameron               36.55m

Male  Long Jump - MOP1
2  Featherston, David

Male  Shot Put - MOP1
3  Rutty, Chris                 11.27m
4  Scherma, Sam                 8.82m

Male  Triple Jump - MOP1
1  Rabone, Adam                 14.26m
3  Featherston, David           11.84m

MEN UNDER 20
Unfortunately our men's under 20 team was not at full strength with several athletes unavailable due to illness or injury, but the team still put up a good fight to finish 2nd. Thanks to Dave Boyd who has helped with the junior team managing duties this season.

KNOX            97.0
BOX HILL        84.0
DIAMOND VALLEY  57.0

WOMEN DIVISION 1
For most of the day the women's division 1 final was a very close battle, but in the end our team fell short and finished in 3rd position. There were however some promising signs and with a number of good under 20 athletes moving up into open next season, there is a good chance that we can finally win another women's division 1 premiership. Congratulations to all the athletes who took part on Saturday, with most of them doing multiple events. Thanks also to Cathy Tilley who has again done a wonderful job this year as women's team manager.

MELBOURNE UNI    259.3
EUREKA           224.0
BOX HILL         192.3
WAVERLEY         83.3

UNDER 20 WOMEN
Our under 20 women put up a brave effort to finish 2nd. Congratulations to all the girls, especially to Kate Wall who competed in the 800m, 1500m, 3000m and the 4x400m relay! and to Priscilla Barrington who ran two PBs and to Laura Anderson and Morgan Deane who also competed in multiple events.

KEILOR ST BERNARDS   115.0
BOX HILL             92.0
KNOX                 85.0

We were concerned to hear that Chris Hamer collapsed in the heat during the world cross country championships in Kenya last Saturday and was taken to hospital. Reports are that Chris is fine but the hot humid conditions took their toll on many runners in both the junior and senior races, including multiple world champion Kenenisa Bekele who also failed to complete the course. Chris had finished the 1st of 4 laps in 79th position out of 126 starters. He was 68th at half way and although he does not remember finishing the third lap, he had moved up to 59th position after 3 laps and looked set for a good result.

Congratulations to club member Andrew Letherby who ran brilliantly to finish 45th in the world cross championships in Kenya. Andrew, now living in the USA, was the first Australian across the line and this result suggests that he is likely to produce some more outstanding performances this year.

Congratulations to all club members who performed at the national open championships in Brisbane. Special mention to our medallists, Rosie Ditton who picked up a bronze in the pole vault, James Filshie and Joel Pocklington who tied for bronze in the pole vault (5.20m), Theodora Spathis who won bronze in the heptathlon and Sarah Grahame who also won bronze in the steeplechase.

Other great performances were by Adam Rabone who was the 4th Australian in the triple jump (15.18m), Pole Vaulters Jacinta Lynn (5th with 4.05m), Simone Carre (3.70m) and Jacqui Williams (3.70m), Rhett Medford, who missed out on the final in the 400m but then ran a 21.31 (heat) and 21.25 (final) in the 200m to finish 6th in a very strong field and Mohamad Zeed who ran 14.43 in his heat of the 110m hurdles but unfortunately crashed out in the final.

In the 1500m, Matt Coloe (3:50.15) and Daniel Clark (3:50.50) both made the final but Steve Dineen (3:53.38) just missed out.

National Club Championships were down in Hobart this year and many Box Hill athletes took the opportunity of some cheap airfares and made the trip down to the Apple Isle. Club management stalwarts the Tilley's, Chris O'Connor and Rob Falkenburg were in charge of the teams on the field and their efforts to make the trip down are always appreciated. A s always (it seems) our team was struck down with some late injuries and withdrawals which allowed some of the athletes to shine in events that they may not normally participate in.

In the women's competition Box Hill dominated the field with Jacinta Lynn, Lauren Burns, Sarah Hewitt, Veronica Kirby and Theodora Spathis cleaning up. The competition was tight all afternoon but eventually UTS Sydney took out the gold medal and the Box Hill women exceeded expectations and hung on for an impressive silver medal.

For the men Mohammad Zeed performed in his regular maximum number of events and with Cameron Sherry made the bulk of our sprints. David Burke ran a PB in the 400m after he dumped his old coach Rob for Cameron Baker, who rounded off his trip by becoming Box Hill's number 1 javelin thrower. But luck was not with Box Hill men this year and despite the officials ruling our protest was not frivolous they did not reinstate our relay team and we finished 5th overall.

Final Scores:
Women:                                        Men:
1. UTS Northern Suburbs:    322             1. Gold Coast Victory       279
2. Box Hill                 282             2. Sydney University        267
3. Hills District           276.5           3. UTS Northen Suburbs      264
4. University of Queensland 275.5           4. University of Queensland 261
5. North Launceston         237             5. Box Hill                 230
6. North West Athletics     194             6. Eastern Suburbs          227
                                            7. Tea Tree Gully           222
                                            8. North Launceston         191

Congratulations to all those who competed at the Victorian Open Championships over the weekend of 23 to 25 February 2007.

Open Men
200m         3rd MEDFORD, RHETT       21.99
400m         2nd MEDFORD, RHETT       48.09
800m         3rd ASPINALL, LACHLAN    1:52.14
1500m        1st CLARK, DANIEL        3:48.69
1500m        2nd CHEFNAOUI, BOUCHAIB  3:49.49
1500m        5th COLOE, MATTHEW       3:53.27
1500m        9th DINNEEN, STEPHEN     3:57.15
4x1500m 40+  1st BOX HILL             17:50.04
110H         1st ZEED, MOHAMAD        14.49
400H         3rd FEATHERSTON, DAVID   57.39
3000m St     3rd BOXSHALL, PAUL       9:52.19
Long Jump    7th RABONE, ADAM         6.59m
Triple Jump  4th RABONE, ADAM         14.61m
High Jump    5th PEAVEY, JOHN         1.90m
Pole Vault   1st FILSHIE, JAMES       5.15m
Pole Vault   2nd POCKLINGTON, JOEL    5.00m
Pole Vault   4th SHERRY, CAMERON      4.60m
Pole Vault   7th BAKER, CAMERON       3.80m
Hammer       8th SCHERMA, SAM         46.38m

U20 Men
100m         1st ROSS, JOSHUA         11.19
200m         1st ROSS, JOSHUA         22.53
200m         7th BURKE, DAVID         23.36
400m         2nd BURKE, DAVID         49.56
800m         2nd ARUNASALAM, NAVIN    1:55.90
800m         6th MCLEAN, ALISTAIR     1:58.41
1500m        8th MCLEAN, ALISTAIR     4:05.03
5000m        2nd HAMER, CHRISTOPHER   15:06.64
High Jump    2nd BOVILL, ANGUS        1.85m
Pole Vault   8th POOLE, DOMINIC       2.80m
Pole Vault   9th CROSS, BRODIE        2.80m

Open Women
400m         8th ACKLAND, KATHRYN     58.25
5000m        13th GRAHAME, SARAH       17:53.01
3000m St     1st GRAHAME, SARAH       10:36.34
100H         3rd CARRE, SIMONE        14.95
Long Jump    2nd SPATHIS, THEODORA    5.71m
High Jump    1st SPATHIS, THEODORA    1.68m
High Jump    2nd KIRBY, VERONICA      1.68m
High Jump    3rd CARRE, SIMONE        1.68m
Pole Vault   1st DITTON, ROSANNA      4.20m
Pole Vault   2nd LYNN, JACINTA        3.90m
Pole Vault   4th CARRE, SIMONE        3.90m
Pole Vault   5th HARTIGAN, DAWN       3.30m
Pole Vault   6th KRUGER, GABRIELA     3.30m
Shot Put     5th PHILLIPS, ANGELA     11.37m
Discus       5th BURNS, LAUREN        40.82m
Discus       6th HEWITT, SARAH        35.64m
Javelin      4th SPATHIS, THEODORA    35.65m
Javelin      5th PHILLIPS, ANGELA     31.39m

U20 Women
100m         7th DEANE, MORGAN        12.72
200m         5th DEANE, MORGAN        26.16
800m         3rd WALL, KATHERINE      2:18.13
Long Jump    7th KREMENCHUTSKAYA, N   4.92m
Triple Jump  3rd KREMENCHUTSKAYA, N   11.41m
Triple Jump  6th TURNBULL, HANNAH     10.72m
Pole Vault   1st WILLIAMS, JACQUI     3.55m
Pole Vault   3rd CROSS, BREANNE       2.80m
Pole Vault   4th MILNES, OLIVIA       2.60m
Pole Vault   7th CANT, SOPHIE         2.40m

Over 26,000 runners took part in the Run for the Kids around Melbourne on Sunday 1 April with Box Hill being well represented. Official results have been difficult to obtain, but Daniel Clark, Andrew White and John Meagher all finished in the top 15 in the 15.2km event.

A special thanks also to Carole De Greenlaw, Doug Bourne, Kate Wall, Chris Wall, Rachel Johnson, Erryn Barlow and Elise Mosley who got up early and gave up their Sunday morning to act as officials out on the course.

Despite winning a truckload of track and field premierships, it has been many years since Box Hill has won an open division 1 winter premiership. With our distance running stocks rising each year for both men and women, this might be the year that we break through. However, we will need to have a good turn out of runners at EVERY event this year, so please make an effort to make yourself available for as many events as possible.

With the close to the summer track season the winter cross country and road race season will soon begin. We encourage club members to become a part of the winter season. If you are not a distance runner you might still like to try some of the shorter events or come out and support our runners. We can always do with more officials and timekeepers!

The Athletics Victoria winter season opens with the cross country relays, this year to be held at Jells Park in Wheelers Hill on Saturday, April 28. We are hoping to enter a large number of teams in all age groups. Please let us know of your availability so that teams can be selected. The distance is 6km for the open (men and women) and men's under 20 event and 3km for all other age groups.

Club registrations are now due. Registration paid now covers your club and Athletics Victoria membership until April 1 next year. We ask members to try to get their membership paid up as soon as possible.

I recently attended the A-Series meet in Melbourne and while the papers said it was one of the best ever I felt strangely let down. We had 5 of the top 10 pole vaulters in the world and so while Steve Hooker won in a meet record of 5.81m I felt a little bit disappointed that no one jumped 6.00m. Craig Motram blew away his opposition and won the national 5000m title with an exhilarating last 600m but I felt empty because he didn't break 13 minutes. Shawn Crawford the Cheater Man won the 100 / 200 double but he didn't break 10 or 20 seconds so my heart didn't race too fast.

But why is this? Meet records, stunning runs and Olympic Champions were all on show. Is this not enough? Seemingly no. I remember going to the NEC meet (as it was once called) and watching Cathy Freeman break 50 seconds for the first time ever and I went off. I remember watching Bronwyn Thompson jump 7.00m in the long jump (ever though it was a foul - trust me, I was sitting in the second row right on the board) and it was amazing. I remember the American 400m hurdler Brian Bronsen literally throw the track behind him as he stretched out to get in his 13 strides down the back straight and I though it was the most awesome athletic feat I had ever seen.

But since those innocent days I have grown up. Now I come in with expectations. I believe that seeing as how I paid an entry fee I am somehow owed multiple Australian records from the locals and super human performances from the visiting internationals. And yet when David who I train with runs a PB at interclub, I am overjoyed. Strange times.