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North Canberra Two Peaks Challenge

This is a 26km cross country race over Mt Majura and Mt Ainslie.

The weather was fine with some high cloud and a N-W breeze; 10-16 Celsius and there were 43 individual and 2 relay team entries.

Course description: Start at Australian Heritage village, up Mt Majura then down the Mt Majura Rd into the pine forest on the east side, followed by a long undulating run south along the full length of the nature park. The climb up the south side of Mt Ainslie is followed by a fairly rough descent and a long flat run back to the Heritage village. (The course was unchanged from last year.)

Race Manager: Anthony Scott for Nth Canberra Athletics Club & the ACT Cross Country Club.

Race officials: Nicki Taws, Ian Mackenzie, Andrew Fiddian, Alan Fien, Graham Turner, John Harding, Natalie's Dad, Bruce Arthur, Sue Johnston, Peter Plunkett-Cole.

Race Report: Walter and Jorgensen win mountain run in record times. At this year's Canberra Two Peaks Challenge, Rob Walter not only made amends for his second placing at last year's race, but also broke the previous course record. On the climb up Mt Majura, Walter was challenged by Australian Orienteering Champion, Andy Hogg and also by Bryan Graham (ANU). Walter made his move between 7 and 10km on the fast downhill sections through Majura Pines and managed to take a slender lead. As they raced south towards Mt Ainslie, he slowly extended this lead and after the gruelling climb up Mt Ainslie was on record pace. His final time of 102 minutes for the 26km mountain race is almost 4 minutes faster than the previous record set by Trevor Jacobs. Hogg took out second place in 106 minutes and Graham was third in 107 minutes.

In the women's division, Fiona Jorgensen used her superior mountain running skills to pull away from her main rivals on the first ascent. She maintained this lead through the flatter sections of the course and then powered up Mt Ainslie to smash the previous record by 6 minutes. Second place went to Sarah Fien (who also broke the previous record) and in third place was last year's winner Michele Davis.

The women's relay team of Belinda Allison, Natalie Smith and Julia Minty recorded a time of 147 minutes, 2 minutes faster than the previous record for the women's relay category.

Other notable performances were David Baldwin who ran 10 minutes faster than last year and John Dimitriou, 7 minutes faster. The prize for the longest distance travelled to get to the event goes to Alice Springs resident, Lee Tomren.

And finally, the contribution towards prizes from the Runners Shop is gratefully acknowledged.

Race Results

Relay teams

Results courtesy of Race Organiser, Anthony Scott

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