WEEKLY NEWS REPORT 4-2-2021

Kate Dzienis • February 4, 2021

Sandman 50, WA
OMFG Running Festival, WA
Coming Up & Postponement
Member Reminder

The AURA-listed Sandman 50 and OMFG Running Festival were held at the weekend (30-31 January), just in time before WA went into hard lockdown from 6pm Sunday (31 January).

Sandman 50
The Sandman 50 is a 50km race from Old Dunsborough boat ramp to the Busselton Jetty and back, with the majority of the course set on the beach. Held on 30 January (Saturday) the results saw, for the men, Tony Smith come in 1st Male (3:45:39), David Collins 2nd (4:08:09) and Adrian Castle 3rd (4:09:05).

For the women top spots went to Ruth Murdie for 1st Female (5:01:08), Katie Lovis 2nd (5:02:49) and Vanessa Best 3rd(5:08:25).

Congratulations to all our AURA members who ran in the Sandman 50 including Jon Pendse (4:27:04), Bryan Wright(5:06:49), Geoff Quinton (5:57:11), Heath Watkins (6:02:16) and Diane Breant (7:04:27).

OMFG Running Festival
This Ultra Series WA held OMFG Running Festival took place on 30 January (Saturday) at John Forrest National Park in Swan View, WA. The Swan View Railway Tunnel along with the Eagle View and Heritage trails serve as the venue for the festival, and offers a variety of distances including 6km, 10km, 16km and 25km.

In the 25km men’s event podium spots went to Brian Madigan (2:03:15), Oliver Flloyd (2:03:29) and Daniel Hewitt (2:12:29). For the women top finishers were Cantale Paoliello (2:13:21), Helena Tooming (2:25:59) and Geraldine Pretorius (2:32:35).

Well done to AURA member John Cooke who also competed in the 25km and finished at 3:39:05.

Coming Up
This month we have some more exciting events on the AURA-listed calendar of events.

Cradle Mountain Run will be held in Cradle Mountain, Tas this weekend on 6 February. Some of the track in several areas will see participants race an altitude of 1000m – which by world standards may not be huge, but is well above the tree line. The Cradle Mountain Run offers an 80km distance.

That same weekend (7 February) will see GoodRunnings host the City Run in Bonython Park, Adelaide in SA with an offering of 50km and 60km events.

Last for February is the Lark Hill Dusk to Dawn Ultra to be held on the 27th at Lark Hill Sporting Complex in Port Kennedy, WA. A night time run around a 3km limestone track loop, runners are offered a 25km (8 laps), 50km (17 laps) and a 100km (34 laps).

We will keep our members posted on whether Lark Hill will take place, as hard lockdown is due to be lifted 5 February from 6pm but some restrictions will stay.

Coming Up
Delirious W.E.S.T was originally scheduled to take place this weekend – a 200 miler starting from Northcliffe in WA. However due to WA’s hard lockdown, Delirious W.E.S.T has officially been postponed until 6-10 October. Ultra Series WA race director Shaun Kaesler said yesterday (3 February) that despite zero new cases of COVID-19 in WA and Premier Mark McGowan announcing that restrictions will continue in some capacity past the lockdown lift on 5 February, it was enough information for Shaun to justify the postponement.

“I find it heartbreaking and ridiculously over the top that one Covid case and the actions of government can cause such catastrophic affects to so many…but then in the next breath, I am eternally grateful for the systems we have in place that have allowed us so much freedom in the last 12 months in an otherwise chaotic world,” he said.

“I know how much everyone invests in this (Delirious W.E.S.T); I’m not talking financial. I’m talking about the investment you can’t put a value on.

“All entries are being automatically rolled to the new October dates (6-10). We will hold the 2022 Delirious W.E.S.T once again in February (9-13) so if you would prefer this date over the October one, we will give you a 100% rollover to that as an option.”

Reminder
A reminder for all AURA members that with the new year already upon us, we would love to have even more race reports contributed to our digital Ultramag magazine than ever before. It doesn’t matter what event you ran in, it can be AURA-listed or not, we love reading your reports and sharing them with the AURA community – PLUS you get a bonus point in the AURA points competition!

Email your report in a Word document (single spaced and include your name, event name and date) along with high resolution photographs (not in the Word document but attached to the email) to ultramag@aura.asn.au

Pictured – Participants in the weekend OMFG Running Festival. Photograph – Marcos De Martini.

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