Locals in peak of their sport

FERNTREE Gully was overrun with runners on Sunday 7 June for the Australian Mountain Running Championships.
It was the first time the national junior, senior and veteran mountain running championships were held in metropolitan Melbourne.
The open event was a key selection race for Australia’s 2009 World Mountain Running Championships team. Amateurs challenged themselves alongside the country’s best.
Cool, overcast, still weather provided idyllic running conditions for competitors.
Knox runner Jordan Nelson set the scene for the day when he and Stephen McShane took command in the first race of the day, the junior men’s 8.2 kilometres over two laps of a 4.1km circuit with a gruelling 1km steep ascent of the Lyrebird Track to start.
Nelson ran the impressive time of 35.46 with McShane runner-up in 36.14 and Junior World Orienteering Championships representative Oscar Phillips third in 36.43.
The junior girls’ 4.1kms saw a close contest between Briony Shaw, first in 22.10, and Kimberley Duthie, second in 22.33.
The open women’s 8.2kms was dominated by former world orienteering champion Hanny Allston who ran 37.02.
Defending champion Jessamy Hosking was as strong as Allston on the uphill sections but could not match her downhill speed and finished second in 38.38.
Knox runner Kate Siebold-Crosbie was third in 39.03. Angela Bateup, third in the world long distance mountain running championship in 2008, was 4th in 39.16.
The open men’s 12.3kms saw a strong win to Mark Bourne in 50.30.
Bourne was the best Australian senior male at the 2007 World Mountain Running Championship, and in 2008 performed well in World Mountain Running Associat-ion Grand Prix events in Europe, with a highest placing of ninth.
Twenty-year-old Matthew Johnson had an outstanding championship debut, finishing exactly one minute behind Bourne in 51.30, with four-time Australian representative Stephen Brown third in 52.13.
There were also a number of outstanding performances by veteran runners. Colleen Middleton took out the W45 8.2kms in 42.00, Kathy Southgate W50 in 45.54 and Lavinia Petrie the W65 championship in 25.01.
David Hosking, a prolific winner of long mountain runs in the ACT was fourth outright as well as fastest M40 in 57.23 for the 12.3kms, and the M45 title went to Australian 24 hour representative Simon Phillips who clocked 64.12.
Frank McShane won the M50 12.3kms in 67.23 from club mate Ian Twite; Bruce Rattenbury of Knox the M55 8.2kms in 50.52; and Gabriel Cardmona the M65 8.2kms in 51.04.
The oldest competitor on the day was 73-year-old Tony Krantzcke, an outstanding long distance trail runner in his younger days. He won the M70 8.2kms in 75.16.