| CRAKE AND MAY DOMINATE NATIONAL MOUNTAIN RUNNING TITLES Canberra�s international stair running star Paul Crake successfully defended his Australian mountain running title on Sunday with a scintillating performance up Mt Buffalo in Victoria. Two weeks after finishing only one second behind 2000 world mountain running champion Jonathon Wyatt in the Auckland Skytower race, Crake dominated the men�s field which included a dozen current and former international representatives. He broke away after 1.5kms and quickly built up a commanding lead. His winning time of 55 mins 53 secs for the grueling 11.2km climb up the Big Walk track was four minutes clear of runner up Russell Chin of Wollongong, a last minute entrant who was the surprise performer in the field. The course was mainly walking track through ferns and stringy bask gums on the lower slopes, changing to snow gums and mammoth boulders over the last 5kms. A difficult zig-zag mid-section kilometre included running over stones and rock faces. Fortunately the weather was perfect, about 16 degrees and sunny with a cool breeze near the summit. Crake�s North Canberra Gungahlin clubmate David Osmond, the 2002 ACT champion, was third in 61:05, 16 seconds ahead of Queensland�s Stephen Page. Osmond is a former Australian champion who ran brilliantly in the uphill 2000 World Championship, finishing leading Australian in 23rd place. Former Australian representatives Adam Leane of Canberra and Ross Hudson of Sydney put themselves in contention for national selection by finishing 5th and 6th only 2 seconds apart in 64:36 and 64:38. Leane also ensured that the ACT had a comfortable victory in the team�s competition from New South Wales (Chin 2nd, Hudson 6th, Kevin Laws 11th). The next four finishers showed the depth in quality of the field: 7th was current Australian and former world regaining champion Nigel Aylott in 65:26; 8th in 66:22 was international representative Glenn Paterson, formerly in mountain running and recently in marathon running, who has had some good wins in major mountain runs in Canberra during the last few years; 9th in 67:02 was 2000 Australian mountain running representative Garreth Candy, who is also an orienteering international; 10th in 68:26 was cross country ski international Ben Derrick, who has won the Victorian Alpine Four Peaks in the past. Canberra�s Judith May was equally as dominant as Crake in repeating her 2001 win in the women�s 10km championship which had a vertical climb of over 1,000m. She surged at the front soon after the 1km mark on a steep four wheel drive track and built up a big lead by the first road crossing at 3.5kms. She clocked 67:40 before continuing on to the Mt Buffalo Chalet in 75:09. She shattered the long-standing record time for the full ascent of the mountain which has been held by Canberra�s Nicki Taws, 13th in the World Championship several years ago. May has been a Canberra resident for more than a year but is a New Zealand citizen and represented New Zealand at last year�s world championship, finishing 39th on the up/down course in 45 minutes, 6 minutes behind world champion Melissa Moon, also of New Zealand. In the 2002 New Zealand Championship on 14 April, May was just 4 minutes behind Moon in finishing 4th, and is hoping to again represent New Zealand this year. Second placed June Petrie of Victoria ran 70:47 for the 10kms to earn the crown of Australia�s number one, 16 seconds ahead of world veteran mountain running champion Louise Fairfax of Tasmania in 71:03. For some years Petrie has been an outstanding performer in the Victorian Alpine Four Peaks and the Victorian mountain running championships on Mt St Leonard at Healesville. Fairfax finished 4th in the World Championship in 1992 and has been in the top 16 several more times. The third Australian was Victorian Sue Clark, only a minute further back in 72:17. Clark was 6th in the Australian Cross Country Championship in 2001, won the 2001 Victorian Half Marathon, and represented Australia in the Chiba ekiden in November 2001. Former national junior track and cross country star Kelly Roberts of Canberra was 5th in her mountain running debut in 76:45. In the junior women�s 7km championship New Zealand international Lucy Cant ran 50:15 for a one minute win over Victoria�s Peta Mullens. Cant was 25th in the World Junior Mountain Running Championship in 2001 but is now the number one New Zealand junior and much more highly ranked international. Mullens is Victorian under 16 2km steeplechase champion, finishing 4th at the nationals, and is also Victorian sprint distance triathlon champion. Canberra�s national W14 orienteering champion Heather Harding was 3rd in 70:50. The junior men�s 10km championship was decimated by late withdrawals and the title went to South Australian orienteering representative Lachlan Hallett in 70:52. The veterans championships saw a number of outstanding performances, particularly in the women, with June Petrie winning W35, Sue Clarke W40 and Louise Fairfax W50. Unfortunately Lavinia Petrie was forced to withdraw from W55 after feeling an injury during her warm up. In the men�s, Bob Flower�s M50 win in the 11.2 kms in 75:57, Max Bogenhuber�s M60 7km effort of 51:18 and Max Scherleitner�s M70 run of 71:49 were the most outstanding. Gary Bolton had a two-minute M45 win over Bert Pelgrim in 74:58. In M40, current orienteering international and former Australian mountain running champion Anthony Scott has finished 2nd in the last few Four Peaks runs and was expected to challenge the leaders. Unfortunately calf muscle pain struck after only 200 metres and resulted in discretion overcoming valour. Scotty walked and jogged up the mountain but collected the M40 trophy following a late withdrawal by Peter Brown. |