President's Report: July 2024

Simone Hayes • July 30, 2024

july, 2024

A big July hello to all of our members, and a big welcome to our new ones! Its so great to see our membership growing month on month as we continue to strive to deliver you more and more member benefits in the form of discounts, information, newsletter, podcasts, but most importantly by bringing on new races for you to all enjoy. Our event calendar continues to grow so we hope you are as excited by this as we are!

Our team has been working closely with our new Director of Events, Lisa Sherman, and our aim is to make the AUTRA calendar the ‘go to’ calendar in Australia for the running community. If any race directors out there need help or advice about listing or insurance, please reach out to Lisa.

This month we are excited to announce your National Championship events for 2025! So, lock them into your calendar and get training!

Long Trail – Lonely Mountain Ultra 100km – Orange, NSW
Short Trail – Five Peaks 58km– SA
100 mile Trail – Grampian Peaks Trail (GPT) miler - VIC
50km Road – Gold Coast 50 – QLD
100km Road – Sri Chinmoy 100km – ACT
48 Hour Track – Southern Sydney Ultra – NSW
24 Hour Track – Sri Chinmoy – ACT

Congratulations to all the successful applicants. We had an extraordinarily hard decision to make this year with so many great events applying. We tried to mix up the events so that many states were covered, as well as offer the opportunity to host to some newcomer events that have proven to be well run events over the last few years. We can‘t award them to everyone unfortunately, and we hope to see the events that were not successful this year reapply next year. There is a criteria we consider when selecting so as to offer a quality championship across all events.

On the Trail Running front, we have sent off our provisional team selections for the Asia Pacific Trail Running Championships and will announce the team once it is confirmed. But its exciting times to be able to officially send a trail team under the AUTRA banner.

We are in the process of designing our new AUTRA merchandise so watch this space! We are adding some cool new lines to the list such as hoodies, socks and new hats along with a newly designed AUTRA shirt, singlet and buff range.

Check out our growing list of partners offering members benefits on your members page on the website. New partners on board this month include Pace Athletic, Fractel, LSKD, Health+High Performance, and Mindset for Runners.

Upcoming AUTRA events in August are:

Birdy’s Backyard Ultra – WA
Red’s Backyard Ultra – NSW
Tolosa Half, Quarter and Mini – TAS
Rumble in the Jungle – NSW
Sri Chinmoy Canberra Trail 100 – ACT
Berry Long Run – NSW
Backyard Ultra Trail Series – Echuca – VIC
K2PD – QLD
Unreasonable East 100 & 200 miler – QLD
GBomb Trail Run – NSW
Wild Earth ‘Coastal High’ Trail Runs – QLD
Southern Sydney 24 Hour Ultra – NSW

So, if that’s not a good enough reason to lace up your shoes and get out there, I don’t know what is! Not to mention make sure you are a current financial AUTRA member to get all of your race entry discounts and make the most of our partner discounts - you can save a huge amount of cash on entries gear and more!

That’s it for July, I looking forward to giving you some more exciting news next month!

Simone Hayes, AUTRA President

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AUTRA Race Report 23-3-2026

By Kate Dzienis • March 23, 2026

Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, WA Gold Coast Backyard Ultra, Qld I'm Still Standing Sydney, NSW Trail Run Australia - Tathra, NSW Sri Chinmoy 48hr Track Ultra (Australian 48hr Track Championships, ACT Washpool World Heritage Trails, NSW Tamworth Trailblazer, NSW Upcoming Events WEEKLY NEWS REPORT FOR 23-3-2026 As always, we're continuously on the hunt for your stories and reports, so get those race reports and photographs in to ultramag@autra.asn.au with the following information: Word document, single spaced Include the name of the event, the date and the location anywhere in the report (just a bullet point at the top is great) Please attach photographs to the email – do not put images in the body of your Word doc. You’ll just get me emailing you back asking for the photos sent in the correct way! As many photos as possible. With our new website, it’s now easier than ever to include a nice gallery in each race report No PDFs please And remember, it doesn’t have to be about an AUTRA-listed event specifically! You just have to be an AUTRA member for the 2026 year. Also too, if you’ve run in a non-AUTRA listed event anywhere on home soil or internationally, we’d love to include your race results and experience in our Member Updates, so please do reach out to us via email to kate.dzienis@autra.asn.au If any corrections need to be made in any of the results listed below, please alert me via email.

2026 AGM Notice (15 April 2026)

By Dave Martin • March 14, 2026

AUTRA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Wednesday 15 April 2026

AUTRA statement regarding Snowies Trail Run Festival

March 12, 2026

AUTRA has been in direct contact with the organisers of the Snowies Trail Run Festival, In2Adventure, regarding a recent situation involving an athlete and the event’s in‑person safety briefing requirements. In2Adventure has confirmed that the situation was discussed directly with the athlete at the time. From In2Adventure’s account, and for the purpose of clarifying the public record, AUTRA notes the following points: At no stage was the athlete prevented from breastfeeding at the event. The organiser states that the following options were offered to enable the athlete to participate while still meeting safety requirements: a quiet and private space where she could breastfeed while still being present at the briefing; the option to receive the required briefing at the 30 km start line after the start; and the option to change her registration to the 21 km event, where the briefing is conducted on the start line. At no stage prior to event registration on Saturday night did the athlete contact the organiser to advise of her situation or request alternative arrangements, which limited what could be put in place at the time. Face‑to‑face safety briefings have always been a requirement for In2Adventure events due to the remote and higher‑risk nature of the trails. AUTRA was aware that in‑person briefings were used and had not raised concerns about that general approach. The organiser has indicated that this requirement is driven by safety, duty‑of‑care and insurance obligations, and follows previous experience where remote or online briefings resulted in athletes starting events without critical safety information. The organiser maintains that the event was not conducted in a manner that was intended to be non‑inclusive, inflexible or discriminatory, and that decisions made on the day were based solely on safety requirements that apply equally to all participants. AUTRA’s aim in issuing this statement is solely to clarify the context and ensure that the public record reflects the information provided to us by the organiser.