2019 Yearly Report

Canberra 48 Hour Carnival, AIS Athletics Track, Canberra, 15-17 March 2019

Two of our top walkers were in action in the Canberra 48 Hour. Australian centurions Justin Scholz (C61) and David Billett (C50) were both eyeing the Australian 48 Hour Walk record of 283km, held by Barry Loveday (C62). They started fast, reaching the 100 mile centurion mark (160.934km) in 22:40:08 and 22:47:45 respectively. This was Justin’s 12th centurion walk performance and David’s third. Alas, the early pace took its toll and Justin was soon to stop, coming back on again on the Sunday morning to take his total to 187.065km. David continued on alone, but with feet problems that eventually slowed him too much. He finally finished with 275.673km, close to the record but not close enough. David set 7 new Australian M45 Masters records along the way.

The 24 Hour event saw two walkers, of whom one in particular had my attention. Linda Christison had completed 154km in the 24 Hour walk in last year’s event, falling just short of the 100 mile standard due to the unseasonably hot weather. While it was sunny again this year, it was not as bad overall, and she looked the goods, striding out to reach the half way time mark (12 hours) with 87.5km. Last year she had only covered 80km in the first 12 hours so she was well ahead of the required schedule and looking good. But here’s the rub – Linda was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s Disease way back in 2004. Although she can no longer run, she can still walk with the aid of a stick, and this she does. But on this occasion, her body was not able to control the symptoms and the second half became a horror story for her. It was a sad end for what had been a gallant performance. She looked to have it in the bag at the 100km mark.

March 2019 - Gerald Manderson completes his walk from Perth to Melbourne

5 new Centurion badges awarded at our 2019 Qualifier in Coburg

Coburg 24 Hour Carnival, Coburg, Victoria, 13-14 April 2019

• Michelle Thompson (C58) had her first walk in 2 years, after a long injury related outage. She showed that she had lost little of her form, leading the field throughout the first 12 hours and setting a series of new Australian W50 records along the way. She then walked through to the 100km mark (which she reached in 12:14:49) before stopping. She of course holds all our Australian W45 and Open records. Now that she has moved up to the W50 division, we can expect to see more records toppling.
• Karen Chiarello from the Isle of Man, already an accomplished English Centurion walker, had hoped to knock off a good 12 hour walk but she had caught a cold while holidaying in Australia and she was forced out early, feeling very poorly.  
• Centurions Justin Scholz (C61) and Karyn O’Neill (C45) had comfortable strolls.
• Pramesh Prasad, the current Victorian 50km racewalking champion, surprised us with an entry for what was his first ultra walk. And he did not disappoint, powering through to 56.512km. Alas, he just fell short of Andrew Ludwig’s M40 6 Hour record of 56.855km.
• Albin Hess finished second to him in the 6H walk with a very good distance of 46.658km, only 9m short of his PB. As he said later, if only he not chatted so much during his walk….!
• Albin’s daughter Elise Hess (18 years of age) joined him for the walk and reached an impressive first up 37.493km. Great effort Elise!

Justin Scholz sets new Australian walk records in Hungary

Documents

Records in 2019

 This year also saw a number of new Australian Masters Age Group records, compliments of David Billett (C50), Michelle Thompson (C58) and Justin Scholz (C61), as well as two Open Residential records by David.