Christmas Day

Canberra times was not produced today, and I didn't see anything in the previous few days issues about it, We were supposed to know, so nil real estate notices and no crossword and puzzles.


It was fine in the mornng when we went to Gungahlin, and very little traffic and thus very few stops at traffic lights. There were no windscreen cleaners at the traffic lights, normally they are at most of the busy places, and a very clear run on return.


Later in the afternoon, there was heavy rain, which looked very threatening of something worse.

Went to Wanniassa for Christmas dinner, a huge ham, which we couldn't get through for Christmas dinner, and lots of side dishes, salads, gingerbread men, and panacotta, I think that's how it is spelt.

Nice cool tea to drink and then home for a welcome rest.

Christmas Cheer

A lot of christmas wishes to everybody.

We have finally made our choice, and are going to relatives in Tuggeranong.

It will be in the afternoon, Christmas day. and we have had meals there previously, and we know they are always good.

Best Wishes to everybody for a great new year.

BBQ Stakes 20th December 2011

Today's winner --- Laura Toyne, making her 5 wins and 19 runs since last win, she crossed the line at 39:47. She has 131 runs to her credit including a second placing in the Christmas relay event.


Second was Tony Wynd and Elle Knight was third . Coming up for their 399 th runs are Bruce Wight and Bob Harlow, and Raymond Chao has 95 runs to his credit.

Kerrie Tanner ran 7th for her age group in the recent Hawaii Marathon.

She has posted many photos of the marriage between Michael and and Kelley.

The Runners Shop Sale

The Runners Shop January Sale

Season’s Greetings!


We hope it’s been a terrific year for you. With Christmas and New Year almost upon us, so too is The Runners Shop January sale!


This year we have some great specials, particularly in Brooks, New Balance and Nike.

As always, we want to give our members of running, triathlon and orienteering clubs the first opportunity to purchase the sale stock at the discount price. We won’t commence advertising to the general public until early in the new year. This gives you the month of December to get stuck in and pick the eyes out of our sale stock.

All models other than the Asics Gel Mens 1160 (due later this week) are now in store.

We hope to see you soon! Please contact us if you wish to reserve a pair.

Nick, Brian and the Runners Shop team.


The Runners Shop - Canberra

(02) 6285 3508

Canberra Runners Shop Sale

This sale is now on.

For information on some of the items on special, visit the Canberra Runners Shop Website, or better still, visit The Runners Shop.

By the time the Ads are on the TV screens, some of the stock will have been sold, so get in early for the best deals and the best discounts.

BBQ Stakes 14 th December 2011

Today's event went ahead, with more than 43 runners competing, including Gabrielle and Tim Wright.

Kerrie Tanner recently travelled overseas to attend the wedding of Mick Horan and Kelley Flood. Photos of the happy couple may be seen on Speedy Geoff's Blogsite. With the Christmas relays last week, this week the Teams event was held. The winning team was from the "Others". An update on the pointscore for the year 2010 was that Terry Dixon was the winner, Raymod Chao was second and Bruce Wight was third. Today's team event was won by the others, consisting of Andrew Walker, Heather Powrie and Roger Pilkington. As can be deduced, today's winner was Andrew Walker.

Tery Dixon helped today with the timing, Carolyne Kramar had a run and despite some hassles concerning the timing clock, the run was conducted with the usual clockwork precision, the early starters Adrian Plunkett, John Busteed and Judy Kuleas, being the first to finish, with the Wright's towards the rear of the field, being 3rd last and 2nd last respectively.

A reminder that an event will be held next week, with no event on 28th December this year.

Emily Brichacek

Brichacek has sights on Olympic qualifying time

BY DAVID POLKINGHORNE, ATHLETICS

The Canberra Times
12 Dec, 2011 04:00 AM



With another national title under her belt, Canberra runner Emily Brichacek will look to slash a couple of minutes off her 10,000m time to try to qualify for next year's London Olympics.
Brichacek took out the Australian 10,000m title in Melbourne on Saturday night, despite finishing third behind Kenyan runners Joyce Chepkirui and Emily Chebet, who both posted Olympic qualifying times.

She posted a time of 33min 2.55sec, which is about 77sec from getting a ticket to London, and beat home Jess Trengove, from South Australia, by 14.17sec.

''[The Olympic qualifying time] is a fair bit quicker but if you get in the right race and improve my fitness a bit anything's possible,'' Brichacek said.

''So I'd have to really get stuck into training now and set up a few races, possibly overseas next year, and try and get as close to that [time] as I can.''

It's been a great year so far for Brichacek, who also won the Australian cross country title in Canberra in August.

She'll have a couple of weeks off over Christmas before resuming training in the New Year.

''I'll just see how the training goes after a bit of a break but there's the NSW 5km champs [in Sydney on January 14] so I might run that and then AA [Athletics Australia] are putting on the whole athletics tour that goes to all the states in Australia,'' Brichacek said.

Her countryman Ben St Lawrence went a long way towards booking his spot on the London Olympics team by successfully defending his Australian 10,000m title at a rain-swept Lakeside Stadium.

St Lawrence was fourth across the line behind a trio of Kenyans in the feature event of the Zatopek:10 meet in a time of 28:1.68.

As he was unable to better the A qualifying standard of 27:45, the 30-year-old from Sydney did not secure automatic Olympic selection.

But having already bettered the mark when setting an Australian record of 27:24.95 in California in May, he is now all but assured of a seat on the plane to London.

The news was nowhere near as good for fellow countryman Craig Mottram, who fell off the pace with 15 laps to go on Saturday night and narrowly avoided being lapped before finishing seventh in 28:52.20.

Cabinet Reshuffle

Is this move prompted by her appearances on the ABC Program Q and A ??

*************************************************************************

Tanya Plibersek is expected to be elevated into cabinet, and to get the health portfolio.

Australian 50 km Road walking Championships

2011 Australian 50km Road Walking Championships - Results

Australian 50km Road Walking Championships - 11/12/2011
Fawkner Park, Melbourne

Men 50km Race Walk Championship Open
1, 167 Jared Tallent, Ais/Vic, 3:49.33A. 2, 122 Nathan Deakes, Ais/Vic,
3:50.34A. 3, 163 Christopher Erickson, Ais/Vic, 3:51.57A. 4, 187 Ian Rayson, Nswis, 3:57.55A.

BBQ Stakes Christmas Relay 7 December 2011

Refer also a separate post which is a summary of the event.

Results are as follows:--

Richard Jukes 12:11, Tony Sergi 15:19, Peter Clarke 12:54, Sean O'Halloran 15:22, Leanne Wilks 17:25, Geoff King 14:58, Ruth Baussmann 18:05, Jeff Gardner 15:25, John Busteed 22:27, Raymond Chao 16:00, Rhys Patterson 14:59, Adrian Plunkett 21:32, Ian Hore 17:00, Caroline Campbell 19;23, Anne Young 22:58, Matthew Fisher 17:12, Heather Powrie 16:36, Roger Pilkington 14:04, Darren Leseberg, Andrew Blyton 12:36, Leah Afiabo 24:09, Andrew Guild 16:19, Kevin Chapman 17:45, Richard Frost 17:56, Jen Bright 16:29, Matthew Murphy 10:26, Laura Toyne 13:11, Gary Lee 11:23, Talwar Singh 14:34, Dolph Page 17:29, Andrew Walker 13:49, Roger Pilkington 13:27, Lloyd Donnelly 15:47, John Hall 16:43, Steve Smith 14:05, Ben Reay 16:18, Marc Wilson 17:25, Tony Wynd 12:35, Bob Harlow 12:54, Jim White 14:32, Andrew Matthews 14:03, Frasew Powrie 16:08, Rad Leovic 19:01, Andrew Luton 12:56, Kerrie Tanner 12:35, Sam Wright 13:20, Terry Levings 15:18, Richard Frost 18:47, Daniel Bright 17:26.

If anyone wants the full results, pleasecontact Terry Levings by e-mail.

Asics Luxmore Grunt __ Stuart Doyle

ASICS Luxmore Grunt winners

The ASICS Luxmore Grunt was a battle between experience and youth. Stuart Doyle, 45, of Canberra, Australia, overtook to beat Troy McAlister, a year 12 Southland lad from Winton aged just 17. Doyle came in at 2:02:43, with McAlister at 2:04:17. Third was Richard Ford at 2:10:47.

McAlister was in the lead by about a minute at Luxmore Hut. Doyle thought he wasn’t going to catch McAlister on the downhill, but managed it towards the bottom of the hill. “I guess I just have more experience on the downhill, but McAlister will learn that,” said Doyle.

Doyle thanked the runners coming up the hill for keeping him informed about McAlister’s position. “I’m stuffed now but everyone was so encouraging and I got a second wind at the top – there are awesome views up there. It was a great atmosphere and now I’m off for icecream,” said Doyle.

Doyle’s girlfriend was doing the Kepler Challenge. Doyle said: “She’s tougher than me.”

Doyle, who has competed in the world mountain running championships, said the Grunt was the perfect length for him and that he was aided by a year’s consistent training.

McAlister said: “I’ve never run on such a big hill before and I am utterly thrilled to be second. My goal is to be in the Olympics triathlon.”

The first female in was Jess Simpson of Wanaka, in at 2:18:39 who was new to mountain running. She said: “It’s such a magical environment and the secret is to enjoy it – I just love running outside. The bush is incredible – unlike anywhere else I’ve ever run.”

Second female was Claire Corbett of Australia, in at 2:29:16 and third was Beth Cardelli of Sydney.

Local Te Anau farmer, Hamish McClean, 32, doing the grunt for the first time, was delighted to come in 11th, said: “I ‘m built like a greyhound and I wondered if I could run like one.”

The secret to winning the Grunt is clearly muesli and fruit: the breakfast of choice of both Doyle and Simpson.

BBQ Stakes Christmas Relay 7 th December 2011

A field of 20 or so teams fromted for this Annual event.

Teams of two work out their running handicaps and try to cover the 6km event in as close to 40 minutes as possible. This was achieved by Garry Lee and Peter Clarke followed in second place by by Laura Toyne and Tony Sergi. Matthew Murphy and Richard Jukes came in third place.

Pointscore for the year second place was won by Raymond Chao.

Fastest male was Matthew Murphy, and Fastest Female was Julie Quinn.

Regular male runner was Garry Bowen, and Regular Female runner was Helen Larmour.

Helpers on the day were Doug Fry, Bernie Crowe, Brian Crowe, Carolyne Kramar, Steve Smith, Terry Levings, and lots of others.

Youngest to finish was Daniel Bright, enjoying his stroller ride, pushed by his mother, could be the youngest person to complete the BBQ Stakes course.

Gramps Christmas Mount Ainslie Run Up

HANDICAP RESULTS First Ten.

Name Sex Start time Finish time Actual time
George Pagotelis 8.30 21.58 13.28
Yogesh Mulye 3.30 22.04 18.34
Marie Janczura F 3.30 23.11 19.41
Andrew Bowman 4.00 23.29 19.29
Chris Withington 4.15 23.39 19.44
Peter Zygadlo 10.15 23.46 13.31
Brad Hetharia 11.40 23.49 12.09
Craig Wurtz 6.00 23.54 17.54
Nick Blackaby GO 23.57 23.57
Norak Theam 8.45 24.01 15.16