May, 2003 - ACT Veterans Athletics Club

Page 14—May Vetrunnerheaves were by Jan 15.37m, Bob 14.53,Jayne 14.26 and Ray 14.20m.Next month’s handicap (shot put anddiscus) will be Saturday, April 26. It willbe hammer and javelin again on May24; then shot and discus on June 21,July 26, August 30, September 27,October 25 and the final event for theyear will be a 6pm start on Wednesday,November 26.Except for the November event allmonthly throwing handicaps are held ona Saturday afternoon at the MassonStreet Throwing Field (Turner)commencing at 1pm. The cost remainsat $3 and includes afternoon tea andbirthday cake.Because all participants receive ahandicap distance to add to the distancethey throw everybody has a chance to bea medallist. The “regulars” are a veryfriendly and supportive bunch and makeall newcomers feel most welcome.Your throws reporter BRYAN THOMAS2003 THROWING HANDICAPPOINTSCORESAge Name Feb Mar TotW55 Thomas,Trish 47 50 97M60 Blewitt,Kevin 46 49 95M65 Robbie,Colin 50 43 93W40 Gibbins,Sharon 36 46 82W60 Davies,Jan 42 39 81W50 Taylor,Margaret 40 41 81M80 Fristad,Audun 44 35 79W60 Bourke,Jen 43 36 79M70 Burns,John 41 38 79M55 Freeman,Peter 33 44 77M50 Banens,Bob 28 48 76W60 De Chazal,Nola 29 45 74W40 Colyer,Tania 48 24 74M75 Drummond,E 39 30 69W55 Rudov,Raylea 45 23 68W35 Blackaby,N’elle 34 34 68W50 O'brien,Wendy 32 32 64W40 Hardy,Jayne 37 25 62M40 Nugent,Frank 31 28 59M65 Neill,Peter 30 29 59M60 Thomas,Bryan 26 31 57M55 Green, Ray 25 26 51W65 Wahren,Mary 49 0 49M60 Whyte,Robin 0 47 47W60 Chesterton,Val 0 42 42W60 Mitchell,Irene 0 40 40M60 Spaits,Attila 38 0 38M50 Toomey,Phil 0 37 37M70 Mencik,George 35 0 35W35 Perry,Claire 0 33 33W45 Schiller,Fran 27 0 27M70 Leovic,Rad 0 27 27HEAVY WEIGHT THROWAge Name Feb MarM45 Dawes,Steve 8.61 --M50 Banens,Bob 14.60 14.53M55 Freeman,Peter 8.36 --M55 Toomey,Phil 8.74 --M55 Green,Ray 11.83 14.20M60 Blewitt,Kevin 11.86 --M60 Spaits,Attila 11.65 --M70 Burns,John 7.76 --M70 Mencik,George 14.92 --M80 Fristad,Audun 8.79 --W40 Gibbins,Sharon 12.30 --W40 Hardy,Jayne 14.23 14.26W55 Thomas,Trish 8.48 9.31W55 Rudov,Raylea 11.46 --W60 Heath,Jean -- 5.33W60 Davies,Jan 13.66 15.37W60 Dechazal,Nola 6.74 6.45O’CONNOR RIDGE HANDICAP SEEMSA POPULAR EVENT FOR RUNNERSDespite being a quite difficultcourse, runners appear to likecompeting at the O’Connor Ridge races.It was also great to see that thenumbers were back again over 220mark, with the 133 in the Thomas, 60 inthe Frylink and 28 in the Waddellbringing the number of competitors thismonth to 221.The Waddell Series doesn’t seem tohave much luck on the O’Connor Ridgecourse that was used for the walkinghandicaps this month.In 2002, over the same course, someof the walkers went the wrong way andwere subsequently disqualified despitesome protest from those walkers thatcarried on down the recreation pathtoward Dryanda Street in O’Connor.This year there was a marshal onthat particular turning that leads thecompetitors back towards the CanberraStadium and then down the back of thestadium. Then before they got anyfurther, and just into the area of thestadium carpark they were turned backby a marshal after barely going 1500mon the course that was supposed to be4km long. This changed the race toaround 3km long and therefore therewas a need for alterations to the timesthat were in between the startinggroups. This is why the medal winnerscould not be appointed on the day.Now for the record in future eventsthat are held on this course. Thewalkers start on the recreation path asthey normally do. Carry on down thatrecreation path past the CanberraStadium until there is a big left-handerthat indicates that this is the way toKaleen. It’s quite a sharp turn and it isthe only turn on this particularrecreation path. The walkers then makea right-hand turn, still staying on therecreation path that runs behind theAIS, keep going all the way down pastthe soccer fields until reaching the roadthat comes off Ginninderra Driveleading to the AIS. Don’t cross the roadas this is the correct turn around pointfor the normal 4km race. The walkersthen go back the way they came, turnleft after the stadium, you will have toas this is the only way the path goes.Then after about 50m it joins the mainrecreation path that comes up fromO’Connor and goes right up the hill pastthe AIS Athletic Field and behind theBruce Campus of the Technical Collegewhere the start finish area is located.At the stage of writing this reportthe medal winners of the Thomas andFrylink Series’ are listed on theSHERPA website as gold, silver andbronze but on the Waddell Series thereare the full results with the pointscoresindicated but no medals winners arelisted. More on that as it comes tohand.This was my first outing over theO’Connor Ridge short course and I hadbeen told that it is a course devoid ofany flat stretches. It is either up ordown, no matter which direction one isgoing. On the outward journey one doesnot tend to notice that the first 700m orso is easy, but surely can’t escape fromthe up hill sections. There is anotherdown hill stretch where the marshal onthat point indicated that it is easy forthe next 500m but just remember thatyou have to come back up the same wayon the journey back. The hardest hillsare on the next section that is decidedlyup, in fact right up to the halfway pointfor Frylink runners and about 6km forthe Thomas runners. Then both serieshave to make their way back to the startfinish area with two tough climbs tonegotiate before getting there.For myself I have been doing a bit ofuphill work leading up to the runs atO’Connor Ridge but I’m not quite surewhat went wrong as I had a shocker of arun and seem not to be able to get mylegs to react to what my brain wastelling them to do. Subsequently I hadmany walks on both the outward andinward journeys and it was sheerdetermination that kept me going. I feltso that I must conquer that fourkilometers and I was so determined todo so that I went back there thefollowing Wednesday before I left for thenorth coast of NSW for a ten day break.Yes, certainly I did it much betterknocking about six minutes off mySunday time, but it was still terriblyslow. Never mind I will use Plan B thenext time and take my mountain bikealong.It wasn’t until at the Tuesday groupthat I heard about Juani O’Reilly, theolder one, having a bad turn before shegot to the halfway point in the ThomasSeries and struggled with the help ofher daughter to make it back up thestart. This is again a reminder that allrunners and even walkers should in theevent of feeling unwell in the firstinstance stop and even sit down and get