2022 AURA ULTRA PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR AWARD VOTING
The “AURA Ultra Performance Of The Year Award” is now open for voting by AURA Members. Nominations were received by AURA Members from by the 24th – 29th March, and these were shortlisted to the top five nominations as judged by the AURA Committee. The “AURA Ultra Performance Of The Year Award” will be announced on Tuesday 4th April. Voting will commence on Friday 31st March and close at 11:59pm Tuesday 4th April.
All 5 choices must be made for the form to be valid, please submit numbered 1-5 with 1 being your first choice and 5 your last.
Nomination 1: Greg Wilson – Australian 24 Hour Track Invitational
Greg has had an amazing year competing in the Age Group of M70.
This year we believe that Greg’s performance at 24 Hour Track Invitational in July was an outstanding run with multiple Age Group records broken during his 24 Hour race where Greg achieved a total distance of 170.395km.
Greg managed to break no fewer than 6 Australian Age Group records whilst competing at the 24 Hour race.
The records that Greg had set were for the 100km, 50mile, 100mile, 6hr, 12hr and also the 24hr. Many of these records had stood for 15+ years, which goes to show just what an amazing performance this was.
Congratulations on a stellar year!
Nomination 2: Cassie Cohen – IAU Asian & Oceania 24 Hour Championships – Bengaluru
In July 2022, Cassie was part of the Australian 24 Hour team representing her country at the IAU Asian/Oceania 24 Hour Championships
Not only did Cassie take home the individual silver medal at the Asian Champs in what was considered very difficult conditions, with 214.590km and finishing only 2km behind the winner, but also help as a team to take home the Female Gold Medal at the championships.
Cassie put on a hard fought race for the entire 24 hours with almost no time off the track, whilst showing complete composure in her running.
Also to note, Cassie broke three W25 AG records for the 100mile, 200km and 24hr with what became the best distance of an Australian female for 2022. A very worthy candidate and Australian representative.
Nomination 3: Phil Gore – Big Dog’s Backyard World Championship
In October 2022, Phil toed the line at Big Dog’s Backyard World Championship, becoming the last Australian standing.
Phil Gore covered a staggering 509.656K in 76H. This was not only a World Class performance, but showed that he could push way beyond the 54H/362K that he achieved only a few months earlier at Birdy’s Backyard Ultra.
Also to note with Phil having had another great year, placing 1st in the AURA points comp for 2022, along with winning the Australian 24 hour Track Invitational running 250.762km for 1st place (these both are also deserving of recognition).
Nomination 4: Stephen Redfern – Sri Chinmoy Self Transcendence 3100mile – New York
Stephen Redfern’s 2728 mile performance at the race has been nominated multiple times for good reason.
Stephen is worthy of this award because of the persistence and grit he demonstrated over such an extraordinarily long duration of this event. After being sidelined for days because of very serious foot blistering and nerve damage, he returned to the course despite having lost almost a week at a critical juncture of the race. He continued to stand on the start line every day of the 52 day event, even when he was not allowed to run, so that he could say he was still there for the race and to support the other runners. He could have easily quit and gone home once pulled from the race that week. He played the hand he was dealt which is at the heart of any standout performance. Stephen’s performance inspired an incredible amount of people for his dedication to the race, the distance and to the challenge.
He didn’t come First, nor Second…he did it for himself, not for the glory, and brought a lot of awareness to the Australian ultra running community about this particular race. He made it clear that it was a mental, and spiritual, ability he had to maintain throughout – not just physical. It was the mindfulness and internal challenge he needed to overcome to make it to the end of day 52.
Nomination 5: Allicia Heron – Sri Chinmoy 48 hour
Allicia Heron has had a great 12 months but her standout performance for 2022 was her run at the Sri Chinmoy 48 hours, where she became the National Champion with a distance of 329.392kms, which also secured her the W35 age group record.
She also achieved her 24 hour qualifier of 204.9km in this event which saw her selected for the Asian Champs. Impressive to then go on and continue running for another 24 hours!
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