2007 Australian Mountain Running Championships - A Funny thing
From CoolRunning Australia
Back to Australian Mountain Running Championships 2007
A funny thing happened just before the start of the men's championship. A fairly portly guy from the Canberra Times turned up to take photographs. He took photos of the start itself and of everyone heading off towards the first hill. I suggested he could get some great shots if he walked 200m up the track and try and get some shots as everyone came around to head up the hill again. He took one look at the hill and one look at me and said, "I just can't believe anyone can run up that hill". He certainly wasn't interested in checking it out first hand. The day before a car load of junior girls from Sydney arrived to check out the course. They were particularly keen to see the first hill: "Veronica Wallington told us it looked like a cliff".
Early in the second lap of the women's race, Vanessa Haverd looked like she was into cliff running in a big way as she picked off each of the three runners just ahead of her and went into the lead. I was certain she was going to win going away. But what goes up also comes down and huge gains can be made by a proficient downhill expert. So it was in both the men's and women's championships. Hubertien Wichers, Cindy King and Angela Bateup all earned their placings with downhill speed, as Vanessa struggled on the down, while Stuie Doyle put on the rocket blasters in the last lap to put more than a minute on Adam Leane. Leanie finished and said, "I have some work to do on my downhill". Nevertheless, he has been selected for the World Championship, together with Scott McTaggart, Stephen Brown, Mark Bourne and Dr Rocket Blaster (Stuie Doyle). The women's team is Hubertien Wichers (subject to confirmation of Australian citizenship), Cindy King, Angela Bateup, Vanessa Haverd. First reserve: Heather Logie. Full teams of junior men (4) and junior women (3) have been selected after hot runs in both races. Both Matthew Bayley and Veronica Wallington clocked times that would have been medal winning in Wellington two years ago. This augurs well for the future.
Many thanks to the ACTRunners who were helpers on the day: DavO, Velkro, Scott Imhoff, Sawpit, Baldy and Julie. They did a terrific job not only during the races but afterwards in packing up the course. It saved me a lot of time and enabled me to get home in time to talk to the Canberra Times and get the results in.
