2005 Yearly Report

DAVID BILLETT = C 50 : 23:52:27
DERYCK SKINNER - C 51 : 22:39:55

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2005 Australian Centurions 24 Hour Event
Harold Stevens Athletics Track, Coburg
16-17 April 2005

This event was a combined run/walk event with the Australian Centurions joining with the Coburg Harriers as co-hosts. A record 53 starters fronted the line with competitors split across the following divisions

24 Hour Run / 12 Hour Run / 6 Hour Run 24 Hour Walk / 12 Hour Walk / 6 Hour Walk

15 / 9 / 10   13 / 1 / 5

The carnival started at 10AM on Saturday morning in overcast cool conditions. The sun broke through after several hours but was never too debilitating with the day recording a maximum temperature of 19 degrees C. A cold still night was followed by a sunny Sunday morning as the 24 hour competitors closed in on their various individual targets.

Three walkers completed in excess of 100 miles and we welcomed one new Australian Centurion into our elite club.

English legend Jill Green, C38, was the first to reach the 100 mile mark in an excellent 22 hours and 59 minutes and was the overall winner with 165.996 km. Jill, who is already an Australian Centurion (1999 – C38), competed with a torn hamstring but this did not seem to slow her as she led the whole way. Jill is one of only 2 people who have all 6 Centurion badges and she has completed over 50 100 mile walks during her illustrious career.

Geoff Hain, C49, who had previously completed the 100 mile distance in October 2004 in Adelaide, completed his second Australian qualifier and improved on his previous time with 23 hours and 27 minutes.

The third centurion finisher was 34 year old South Australian runner David Billett. In this same event last year, David completed 163.8 km in the 24 hour run. This year, he entered as a walker and recorded a very similar distance – 161.887 km. Along the way, he passed the 100 mile mark in 23:52:27 to become Australian Centurion Number 50.

David becomes the 10th ultra distance athlete who has separately run and walked the 100 mile distance within 24 hours. Others are Claude Martin, Jim Turnbull, George Audley, Stan Miskin, Yiannis Kouros, Sandra Brown, Carol Baird, Lyn Lewis and Geoff Hain.

David was behind the required schedule at the 18 hour mark and had to dig deep during the final stages of the event to bring himself back into contention. The final outcome was a fitting reward for his efforts and it won him the Jack Webber Trophy which is awarded annually to the best Centurion performance of the meet.

This year, we hosted the inaugural Racewalking Australia 100 km Australian Walking Championships for men and women. We hope this will continue as an annual event.

Walk results were as follows

24 HOUR WALK MEN

1  2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Geoff Hain David Billett Fred Baker Robin Whyte Stan Miskin Don MacKechnie  Graham Watt Fred Brooks Ron McGregor

QLD  SA QLD ACT VIC VIC VIC VIC VIC

C49 C50 **   C29 C23 C48 C42

163.411 km   161.887 km 103.200 km 102.000 km   81.950 km   81.994 km   60.000 km   37.200 km DNS

24 HOUR WALK WOMEN

1  2 3 4

Jill Green Karyn Bollen Val Chesterton Sandra Howorth

UK VIC ACT  VIC

C38   C45

165.995 km   132.588 km 109.967 km 102.555 km

12 HOUR WALK MEN

1

Ken Carter

VIC

56.188 km

6 HOUR WALK MEN

1 2 3

Steve Jordan Laurie Tinson Willie Erasmu  s

VIC ViC VIC

43.600 km 38.736 km 32.232 km

6 HOUR WALK WOMEN

1  2

Ellwyn Miskin Heather Beattie

VIC   VIC

38.793 km   34.429 k

AUSTRALIAN 100 KM CHAMPIONSHIP FOR MEN

1 2 3

Geoff Hain Robin Whyte  David Billett

QLD  ACT SA

13:51:31  13:57:09 14:11:37

AUSTRALIAN 100KM CHAMPIONSHIP FOR WOMEN

1 2 3

Jill Green Karyn Bollen Val Chesterton

UK VIC ACT

13:28:55 16:32:30 19:33:44

CENTURION WALK QUALIFIERS

Jill Green Geoff Hain David Billett

C45 C49 C50 **

22:58:41 23:27:49 23:52:27

The Jack Webber Trophy was awarded to David Billett for the most meritorious Centurion performance on the day

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AUSTRALIAN 24 HOUR TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP, ADELAIDE, 15-16 OCTOBER 2005

The annual Sri Shinmoy 24 Hour Track championship was held at Santos Stadium in Adelaide on 15-16 October 2005 and Deryck Skinner was amongst the starters.

Deryck had walked in the 12 Hour event there last year and had set new Australian M70 walking records for 50 miles (11:15:30) and 12 hours (85.580 km). He recently approached me to advise that this year he would be attempting the 24 hour walk this year and, with a number of our Centurions (Geoff Peters, Carol Baird, David Billett, Stan Miskin and Tim Thompson) available to judge his performance, I gave the official go-ahead.

I am now very excited to officially announce that Deryck has become Australian Centurion number 51 with a superb 100 mile time of 22:39:55. His significant splits were as follows

50 Km 50 Miles 100 Km 100 Miles  24 Hrs

6.16.29 10.23.05 13.10.44 22.39.55 166.33 Km (415 laps + 33.2 mtrs

It was a real record breaking spree for Deryck - new Australian M70 walking records at 50 miles, 12 Hours, 100 km, 100 miles and 24 Hours and new Australian M70 running records for 100 km, 100 miles and 24 Hours (even though he was walking!). His 100 miles and 24 Hour records are probably M70 World Walking bests for track and he becomes the first Australian male in that age group to cover 100 miles either running or walking. We think he also became the oldest ever Centurion Walker on Debut. If so, this will put Australia on top of the tree as we will then have the youngest debutante (Bill Dyer - 16 years) and the oldest debutante (Deryck at 72 years and 10 months). Deryck was born 27 November 1932. Hence he was only just short of his 73rd birthday when qualifying as a Centurion!

His record breaking performance was one of a number in the race - other record breakers included

- Peter Lahiff who set 50 Miles and 12 Hours Australian Records as a runner in the 70-74 Age group.
- Shirley Young who set W75 Australian Age Records for 50km and 6 Hours. These may also be World records.
- Carol Baird (C 39) who bettered her own W55 Australian 24 Hour running record by 5 km with a fantastic distance of 194.945km.

Full results, photos and race reports may be viewed at http://www.srichinmoyraces.org/au/events/24hour/

The results for the 24 Hour competitors were as follows

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Anyce Kip Melham Caril Baird David Billett Tony Collins Deryck Skinner (W) Jerry Zukowski Prabuddha Nicol Eric Trad Peter Anderson John Timms Sarah Barnett Dick Crotty Stan Miskin (W) Peter Gray Richard McCormick  Bruce Salisbury

197.779 km   194.945 172.747 168.599 166.033 162.116 150.529 128.040 120.205 114.944 111.577 102.100 101.703 101.244 101.111 70.000

Deryck was one of 4 Centurions in action. Carol Baird (C 39) came second overall with a PB run distance of 194.945 km, David Billett (C 50) improved on his best 24 hour run distance to come third overall with a good 172.747 km and Stan Miskin (C 23) completed yet another 24 hour walk with 101.703 km. Stan is now over 80 and not 100% well but it takes a lot to keep him off the track!

Amazingly, Deryck was a bit disappointed with the second half of his walk and he vows to be back next year to try again (wow!). His preparation for this year's race was very thorough and he clocked thousands of kilometres along the way. His longest training session was a 21½ hour stroll 3 weeks before the event. On that occasion, he covered 135 km, winding around Adelaide along the marathon course and along the beach front.

His time of 22:39:55 makes him the fastest South Australian Centurion, beating the times of Jack Webber, Tim Thompson, Geoff Peters and David Billett. He is now the fifth person from that State to join our elite company.