9      Allan Failla
10    Ben Ashkettle
34    Matt Johnsen
57    Matt Carr
114  Leighton Kearney
130  George Murley
247  Chris Thek

Round 4 La Trobe Uni

Round 1 Jells Park

What a round 1 for Doncaster at Jells Park - Men's Div 1 (6th), Men's Div 5 (1st), Men's U20 (2nd), Men's U18 (1st and 8th), Women's Div 2 (10th), Women's U20 (4th), Women's U18 (1st and 7th), Women's U14 (7th).

 Bill Chambers Handicap

Congratulations Nick Hiruma on winning this years event - full results available soon.

It was great to see over 30 athletes turn out for this annual event.

 Vic Youth Track & Field Champs and Open and U20 Relays

Gold Medals	Silver Medals	Bronze Medals
Nathan Ryan - Men's U16 Triple Jump - 12.88m Bronte Gange - Women's U18 800m - 2:10.13 Samantha Carberry - Women's U18 2000m Steeple - 7:08.08 Adam Koso - Men's U18 400m - 50.50 Nathan Ryan - Men's U16 Long Jump - 5.74m Kelsey McCloskey-Huckin - Women's U18 Long Jump - 5.32m Men's Open 4x1500m - Leighton Kearney, Matthew Johnsen, Adrian Patti, Travis Longmuir - 16:29.96 Women's U20 4x800m - Sarah Casey, Natasha Lane, Tamara Lane, Maddie Gange - 10:36.04 Men's U20 4x800m - Paul Tunnecliffe, Nicholas Finch, Patrick Forno, Edward Vining - 8:11.90	Connor Gist - Women's U16 1500m - 4:49.71 Samuel Au - Men's U16 200m - 24.30 Women's U20 4x400m - Natahsa Lane, Alyce Folan, Tamara Lane, Sarah Casey - 4:15.18	Natalie Rule - Women's U14 1500m - 5:00.34 Grace Thek - Women's U18 3000m - 10:19.34 Connor Gist - Women's U16 800m - 2:18.51 Natalie Rule - Women's U14 800m - 2:27.13 Natalie Exon - Women's U18 2000m Steeple - 8:12.36 Men's U20 4x400m - Ed Vining, Nicholas Finch, Nicholas Mudge, Paul Tunnecliffe - 3:28.94

Other notable performances in finals:

 Vic Open & U20 Track & Field Champs and U14, U16, U18 Relays

Gold Medals	Silver Medals	Bronze Medals
Matthew Johnsen - Open Men's 3000m Steeple - 9:20.01 U14 Women's (Lyster, Harris, Goodwill, Rule) - 4 x 400m - 4:50.14 Ed Vining - U20 Men's 800m - 1:53.38 U18 Men's (Wooffindin, Reddie, De Bortoli, Power) - 4 x 800m - 8:27.21	Bronte Gange - U20 Women's 1500m - 4:40.03 U16 Men's - 1600m Sprint Relay - 3:56.06 U18 Women's - 4 x 200m - 1:47.72 Kendra Hubbard - U20 Women's 400m - 59.63 U18 Men's - 4 x 400m - 3:28.35 U16 Men's - 4 x 400m - 3:43.07 U18 Men's - 1600m Sprint Relay - 3:44.19	U16 Women's - 1600m Sprint Relay - 4:20.77 U16 Women's - 4 x 200m - 1:51.26 U16 Men's - 4 x 200m - 1:43.46 U16 Women's - 4 x 400m - 4:14.47 U16 Women's - 4 x 800m - 10:02.07

Other notable performances:

 Interclub (Shield Competition) Results

Round 1 - 20 October

Round 2 - 27 October

Round 3 - 1 November

Round 4 - 17 November

Round 5 - 24 November

Round 6 - 1 December

Round 7 - 8 December

Round 8 - 15 December - washed out

Round 9 - 8 January

Round 10 - 15 January

Round 11 - 22 January

Seedings after 11 Shield rounds

Region Final

 Club Records for Ben

On Tuesday 14th August, training at the Doncaster athletic track took on a heightened atmosphere with Ben Ashkettle having a crack at the Australian 1 hour and 20,000m track records.  That is 50 laps.  Ben needed to run consistently under 77 seconds per lap to extent the 1 hour record and managed to add almost another 400m to the record.

To summarize on Bens performance (and still unofficial), he ran the following splits:

5000m in 15.53, 8km in 25.19, 10km in 31.41, 15km in 47.21, 20km in 62.46 (10km splits of 31.41 and 31.05)

At the 1 hour mark, Ben passed through 19,074km.  Previous mark was 18,678km by Tony Bart (SA) run on 29 Aug 1973 in Adelaide.

The 20,000m record was held by Max Little (TAS) at 70.03.8 run in Melbourne on 5 Oct 1968.

Two very old (and rarely attempted) records, but both eclipsed by fair margins.  Unfortunately, AA wouldn't ratify these records however they stand as club records.

 2007 Australian Cross Country Championships

Congratulations Samantha Carberry - 9th in the final of the 2000m Steeplechase.  Sam's time is a PB and a new National Record 6:38.68

 Bundoora

Congratulations to David McNeill for his championship win over the rolling country side at Bundoora in the Open Men's 12km.  A couple of hours before hand I thought we might falter and not get six out on the track but a late entry from David and a couple of others running soon fixed all of that.   A gutsy run from Simon Field as well who did much of the work on Saturday out front pushing the race along.  On top of the great efforts it's not lost on me just how important every runner is when you just have six to start with.
Our team performance saw us in 5th on the day with the following points:
1. David McNeill
4. Simon Field
14. Adrian Patti
67. Matt Carr
90. Travis Longmuir
101. Campbell McLennan

 Coliban Relay

A mixture of old and new represented Doncaster at the Coliban relays with three well performed seniors (Patti, McNeill, Field) joined by three up and coming juniors (Carr, Power, Forno) to compete in division 1.  The event runs from Harcourt to Bendigo over varying terrain but with a new course this year and a significant part of the race off road and away from spectators it made for an interesting day.  The lead changed several times and although Doncaster never looked like being in the hunt for medals we were having our own mid field tussle with Sandringham and Collingwood.

Although individual times and places aren't yet available the Doncaster team performed extremely well to finish in sixth place.  Led by Mark Tucker, Lee Troop and Scott Rantell, Geelong took out first place followed by a Knox team filled with their top juniors.  Glenhuntly were third while Box Hill and Ballarat ran in forth and fifth.

After a great start to the men's division 1 season where Doncaster were second to Geelong at the Jells Park relays and then second to Glenhuntly at Latrobe, Doncaster failed to score at Sandown.  At Geelong Doncaster were 9th so to finish 6th at Coliban is a good result.  This now places Doncaster in 6th place in division 1 overall.  A good turn out at Bundoora (12km cross country) and with all of our seniors available for the Sandown relays (6 x 6.2km) Doncaster should be able to overhaul both Sandringham and the Steve Moneghetti led Ballarat and get back to forth spot.

There were 9 registered Doncaster runners unavailable for Coliban so it was fantastic to see Will Power (16), Pat Forno (17) and Nathan Carr (18) step up into the senior division 1 ranks.

 Ex Member Stars in World Cup Rowing

Congratulations to ex athlete and committee member Kim Crow who, earlier this month, won the women's pairs final at the Rowing World Cup in Linz, Austria.  Kim was also a member of the women's eight that came 5th.

Kim had to retire from athletics due to stress fractures and was spotted on a rowing machine by the rowing staff at the VIS.  A couple of years later Kim is now winning world cup rowing events.

Coached by our Tommy Kelly, Kim was a talented athlete winning a silver medal at the World Junior Championships a few years back.

Well done Kim....your old mates at Doncaster are very proud of you.

 Round 1 - Jell's Park

One of the things that particularly impressed today were those people who stepped out a fair way from their comfort zone to compete over an undulating cross country course. Like specialist longer jumper Kelsey McCloskey-Huckin, sprinters Sarah Casey, Kristie Radford and Donna Kimpton. I am sure this is going to pay dividends for their fitness come the summer track season. Kylie Dick and Emily Allen both ran on limited preparation after injury while there were also plenty of new comers like our entire Girls under 14 team; Alexander Lyster; Katherine Kerridge; Georgia Uebergang; and Nicholas Dowell. Patrick Forno competed after also having schools cross country in the morning while Hannah Papas and Ben Aw-Yeong whose availability came to my notice after our entries had been submitted ran a lap even though they weren't in a team spot.
In terms of participation we have made a terrific start to the winter season. It would be wonderful to see our ranks grow from here but it is also quite a challenge just to maintain these sort of numbers and continue scoring at each event. On this occasion we had one team win its division - our women’s under 18 team; we also had two seconds with the open men’s division 1 team and open women’s division 2 team. Our men’s under 18 team 1 came in fifth. David McNeill, our world cross country representative ran our fastest 6km of the day with 18.11 while Will Power ran our fastest 3km with 10.06. Apart from some times I received on the day the official AV results are not available at the time I am writing this so this will be updated at that time.
A very special thanks to each of the parents who helped out with our teams, volunteered to be on the course, acted as official time keepers or came to support our teams. Phil Allen had a huge day, arriving early to erect our stand out tent and then deal with the many registrations on the day and uniform purchases. Chris Gange helped me organise parents to look after teams while we also had 39 athletes out on the course competing. Those who ran early legs had warm sunny conditions to contend with while those at the end of the day had a rare Melbourne experience - rain!
Following is a summary of results following the Jells Park cross country relay event.    Results here     Full report and some individual results

 Bill Chambers Handicap

Congratulations to the 13 athletes who contested the 2007 Bill Chambers Handicap over 6km at Ruffey Lake Park.

This years winner was Ben Aw-Yeong with runner up and first woman to finish Grace Thek.  Fastest time was Matt Carr in 20:50.

In the 3km fun run for juniors, Alex Lyster beat home her sister Rachel with Nick Watson 3rd.  Thanks to the 6 athletes who competed and made this event a success.

             Winner Ben

 2007 World Cross Country Championships

Staging the world cross country championships in Kenya was heralded as 'cross country coming home'.  Not that Kenya had any role in founding the origins of this event but that so many champions have originated from this tiny country.  In fact, over the past 20 years Kenya have accounted for more than half of all possible medals from these championships.

Held in the coastal port of Mombassa, the sea breeze did little to the conditions as temperatures soared up towards 40 degrees leading into the event and humidity levels hovered up in the 90's.  Making a mockery of any winter traditions for cross country running, race day temperatures were in the mid 30's and humidity in the mid 80's.  There were four races held, a junior women's and junior men's, and a senior women's and senior men's.

he first race of the day was the junior women's race with Kenya running in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 7th to take out the teams event and taking all 3 individual medals up for grabs.  Best of the Australian trio was Frankston's Rachel Green in an impressive 29th.  In the junior men's race Kenya finished an impressive 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 11th, producing the best possible score of 10 points from their first four across the line.  First Australian home in the junior men's was Ben Guest, an impressive 51st.  Only a handful of non-African continental runners finished ahead of Ben and some of those from the likes of Qatar and Europe had familiar African rings to them.  Ben Ashkettle (Doncaster AC) ran 76th after passing the first 2km lap in 88th and slowly making his way forward of this part of the field.  Ben had been ill just a couple of days prior to the race so made a good recovery to get through the demanding 8km circuit.  Australia did not place in the teams event as the two other Australian competitors succumbed to the heat and did not finish.  There were 455 competitors at these championships and 85 of them pulled out somewhere around the journey, most as a result of the heat and humidity.

In the senior men's, Doncaster winter athlete David McNeill came home in 63rd place after passing the through the first 2km lap on the other side of 100th place.  David was also second Australian home while the senior men's team finished a credible 9th overall.  Eritrean 20km road world champion Tadesse upset pre-race favorite Bekele while Kenyan runners came home in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 9th.  Not surprisingly taking out the teams title.  It was an outstanding world cross debut for McNeill who qualified as a junior two years ago but did not make the trip after officials elected to not send a junior team.

The best placed Australian at the championships was Anna Thompson of Glenhuntly who placed 18th in the senior women's race.  Anna was followed home by Victoria Mitchell (37th), Lisa Jane Weightman (42nd), Sarah Salmon (57th) and Kristy Villis (64th).  The Australian women's team came home in a highly credible 6th place.  Lisa Jane Weightman of Knox has a close association with Doncaster as she dates leading Doncaster senior Lachlan McArthur.  The senior women's winner was former Kenyan Lorna Kiplagat of Netherlands who completely dominated the field from early into the race.  Ethiopia won the teams battle with Kenya in second.

 Australian Interstate Youth Match

Congratulations to two DAC starlets who have been chosen to represent Victoria in the Australian Interstate Youth Match.  Sam Carberry in the 2000m Steeple and Alex Lavale in the 400m, 800m and medley relay.  Good luck girls and well done!      Full team here.

 Vic Open & U20 Track & Field Champs and U14, U16, U18 Relays

Results here

 2007 U20 National Championships (Hobart)

Congratulations Ben Ashkettle and Tom Morrison who returned from Hobart last week as U20 National Champions.  Ben in the 5000m and steeplechase and Tom in the long jump - well done boys, simply outstanding.

 2007 Vic Youth T&F and Open Relay Championships

 Handicap Events

Congratulations to the winners of this years handicap events.

• Mick Gallacher was sensational off a modest handicap to win the Peter Ruff 100m

• Samantha Carberry continued her outstanding interclub form to romp in the Tom Kelly 2000m Steeple, and

• Patrick Ashkettle outsmarted the handicapper to win the Adam Robertson Javelin

 All Schools Nationals - National Record to Samantha Carberry

Most outstanding were our U16 Girls steeple chasers.  Samantha Carberry (6:42.00) beat home DAC teammate Grace Thek (6:52.54).  I understand that Sam's time is a new national record.

Another result just to hand - Kelsey McCloskey-Huckin won Gold in the U/15 Long Jump, with a new club record (pending approval).  Kelsey also was part of the Bronze Medal U/16 4x100 relay team.

Full Ladders final standings (18 September 2006)

Women                             Men

U16 - 7th                           U18 - 13th

U18 - 6th                           U20 - 5th

U20 -11th                           Div 1 - 2nd

Div 2 - 7th                          Div 4 - 3rd

Div 3 - 20th                        Div 6 - 16th

 World Juniors 2006 - Ben Ashkettle

Well done Ben.....results attached.    

 Victorian Half Marathon Championship

                                                 Rod de Highden    

 Bill Chambers Handicap

The Bill Chambers Handicap has been run and won for another year.  Congratulations to the winners:

Overall winner - Kate Myers : Fastest time - Grant Schmidlechner

 Doncaster Athletes Gain Commonwealth Games Selection

Congratulations Sonia Brito and Libby Allen on your selection in the Australian Team for this years Commonwealth Games.

Sonia is selected in the 400m Hurdles after her win in the National Championships and the 4x400m relay, while Libby is selected in the 800m after her 3rd in the Nationals.  Congratulations also to Sonia's and Libby's support staff, especially Sonia's fiancee and coach, Murray Harding and club Treasurer/Registrar and proud parent, Phil Allen.

Other ex Doncaster athletes to be selected are Mark Fountain and his fiancee Erica, Lauren Shelley (Marathon), now of WA and Natalie Harvey who will be competing for the UK.

Other interesting facts are that Lib, Nat and Lauren are all physiotherapists and Tom Kelly has coached Sonia, Libby, Erica, Mark, Lauren and Natalie at some stage.  Adam Robertson has also played his part in the strength and conditioning of most of these athletes.

 Peter Ruff Handicap, Tom Kelly Steeple, Adam Robertson Javelin

Well done to the winners.

Peter Ruff 100m handicap - Ben Ashkettle

Tom Kelly 2000m Steeple - Grace Thek

Adam Robertson Javelin handicap - David Firth

 Successful State Multi Championships

Congratulations Harry George on your win in the Victorian Championships U18 Decathlon last weekend.  Adam Watson also performed well to place 3rd.  Photos here.

 Track Relays

Well done on some great results at the relays over the weekend.  Outstanding performances were in the Open Women's 4x100m and the Open Men's 4x1500m.    Elly's was a brilliant start to give U18 Karlyn and U14 Chelsea a fighting chance passing to Renee.  Renee was nothing short of sensational the way she ran down 2 other teams to win on the line.

In the Men's 4x1500m, George, Leighton and Grant run outstandingly to give a very ill Patti a chance to hold on to the lead.  Adrian was machine like as he powered to the line before collapsing in victory.  Other outstanding results were achieved by all our Under Age team.  The U18 Boys are claiming 3 records from the day and the U14 Girls another one.  Well done all.  A handful of photos from Sunday are attached.

 Shield Competition

 First Year Member Lights Up Noosa

 Successful Cross Country Season 2005

At the conclusion of the Athletics Victoria winter calendar the Doncaster Athletic Club has a number of athletes and teams ranked very highly.

Best placed was Benjamin Ashkettle who took out the overall winter champion for the Under 18 men. Grant Schmidlechner also had a stellar season finishing with a 6^th place ranking in the Open Men. Grace Thek also performed strongly in the Under 16 women (ranked 6^th ) and Emily Paulin in the Under 14 women (ranked 10^th) also was consistent.

 The standout team was the men's Division 2 which finished second to Collingwood.

Team Rankings

Men Division 2 – Doncaster, 2^nd to Collingwood

Men's Division 4 – Doncaster 2, 6^th

Men's Division 6 – Doncaster 3, 8^th

Women's Division 2 – Doncaster, 8^th

Women's Division 3 – Doncaster 2, 17^th

Individual Rankings

Grant Schmidlechner, 6^th Open Men

Lachlan McArthur, 28^th Open Men

Allan Failla, 33^rd Open Men

Kylie Dick, 4^th Open Women

Ben Ashkettle, 1^st Men's under 18

Andre Neilson, 19^th Men's under 18

Jessica Tromp, 12^th Women's under 18

Grace Thek, 6^th Women's under 16

Emily Paulin, 10^th Women's under 14

 Australian Cross Country Champs Results 2005

Congratulations to Doncaster's 6 runners competing at the Australian Cross Country Championships in Adelaide.  Results were:

 Grant Schmidlechner - Open men’s 12km, 12^th in 38.00 in a race won in 36.50 by Martin Dent (ACT)

 Ben Ashkettle - Boys 16 & 17 6km, 8^th in 19.47 in a race won in 19.11

 Andre Nielson - Boys 16 & 17 6km, 58^th in 21.40

 Grace Thek - Girls 14 & 15 4km, 7^th in 15.14 in a race won in 13.39

 Emily Paulin - Girls 13 3km, 21^st in 11.31 in a race won in 10.36

 Amanda Paulin - sorry Amanda but I am not sure where you finished

 Coliban Relay 20 August 2005

Our teams performed outstandingly at the Coliban Relays on Saturday. Three teams were entered and each team scored a victory.

The Men’s Division 2 team covered the distance between Harcourt and Bendigo and not only won their section but beat all Division 1 teams home also!

Men’s Division 4 also won and was the second team home overall (thus beating all but one of the Division 3 teams).

The Women’s team, competing in Division 2 scored a comfortable victory.

The Coliban Relays are run between Harcourt and Bendigo along the back roads and it is a great spectacle as teams ferry their runners to the various change over points along the way.

Bundoora Park 23 July 2005

Doncaster Athletic Club athletes performed well at the most recent round of cross country held at Bundoora Park in Melbourne’s north. Eight senior men battled strong winds over 12 kilometers of hilly terrain. Allan Failla (37:37min) was the best performed local athlete finishing in 16^th place.

Kylie Dick ran impressively to finish seventh in the open women’s 8km race. The under 16 girls performed strongly with Emily Paulin (15:12min) and Jessica Tromp (15:27min) both finishing top 10 in the 4km race and Under 18 boys Andre Neilson (19:38min) and Ben Ashkettle (19:50) finishing 10^th and 12^th respectively in the 6km race.

Sandown Road Relays - 9 July 2005

Doncaster successful at Sandown

Doncaster Athletic Club fielded a number of successful teams at the recent road relays held at Sandown Park. The Open Men won the Division 2 and Division 6 titles and placed second in the Division 4 race. Grant Smidlechner ran the fastest leg (6.2km) in 18.30 minutes.

The junior teams also performed well with the Under 18 girls team finishing second and the two Under 16 girls teams finishing with a bronze medal and also in fifth place.

Sandown Road Race - 28 May 2005

Ben does it again!

Benjamin Ashkettle again was first to cross the line as Athletics Victoria’s winter program continues. At the 10km road race at Sandown on Saturday Ben completed the course in 33min 12 sec to take out the Under 18 race. In what were cold and windy conditions Ben, a new recruit to athletics, performed admirably.

Other great results for the day for Doncaster included Kyle Dick finishing 7^th in the Open Women's 10km and four runners in the top 20 places in the Open Men's 10km - Lachlan McArthur (9^th), Grant Schmidlechner (11^th), Adrian Patti (13^th) and Rod DeHighden (18^th)

Bendigo - 14 May 2005

Ben Wins Victorian Championship

Doncaster Athletic Club member Ben Ashkettle performed brilliantly on the weekend to take out the Under 18 Victorian 4 km Championships. The race, held near Bendigo, was run in fabulous conditions. Ben (12m 53s) finished strongly to beat Kale Symons of the Yallourn-Newborough Club by just one second!

Doncaster Athletic Club runners were also very successful in the Mens 8km Victorian Championships with Grant Schmidlechner taking the silver just 8 seconds behind the winner. Other solid performances on the day included Allan Failla (10^th  in the Men’s 8km), Travis Longmuir (45^th in the Men’s 8km) and Kate Myers (32^nd in the Womens 6km).

The next round of the Athletics Victoria Cross Country season will be a road race held at Sandown on the 28^th of May. Anyone interested in competing for the Doncaster Athletic Club should contact the Registrar, Phil Allen on 9846 3057

Yarra Bend - 30 April 2005

The Doncaster Athletic Club fielded eight teams in the first round of the Athletics Victoria cross country season on the weekend. The event, held at Yarra Bend Park in Fairfield, was in the form of relays with the seniors running 6 kilometers and the juniors running 3 kilometers. The teams performed very well with six podium finishes.

The Under 20 women finished first with team members Aphra Cheesman, Lizzie Olayos and Kath Katsenavakis running strongly. The Under 18 boys finished third and the Under 16 Women (Amelia Gilmore, Emily Paulin and Amanda Paulin) crossed the line in seventh place.

The Open Women fielded teams in Division 2 and Division 3. The Division 2 team of Kylie Dick, Libby Allen and Kate Myers finished strongly in third position and the Division 3 team of Sonia Britto, Emily Allen and Charmaine Smith came in eighth. The fastest Doncaster Athletic Club woman on the day was Libby Allen with a time over the 6 kilometers of 23min 12 sec.

The Open Men had 15 participants in three divisions. All three teams finished second in some hotly contested races. Sean Quilty (22m36s) ran the fastest leg in the four man Division 6 team, Steve Ellinghaus (20m33s) was quickest in the five man Division 4 team and Grant Schmidlechner (18m33s) was the fastest Doncaster athlete of the day in the six man Division 2 team.

The next round of cross county competition will be at Bendigo on May 14. Anyone interested in getting involved in a great winter sport should contact the Doncaster Athletic Club Registrar, Phil Allen on 9846 3057