Victorian Masters Athletics

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The weather was perfect as runners walked north from the Northern Pavilion of Princess Park to the start line adjacent the home ground of Carlton Football Club.

As we readied to fire the gun, in synchronised manner, every man and his dog converged onto the running path, delaying the start.

With athletic finesse, the ‘masters of running’ led by Bert Pelgrim, Andrew Edwards and new-comer Shane Draper glided away toward the accolades of a five-lap finish! The runners wound anti-clockwise along the tree lined asphalt path, grading to a sandy track following the eastern edge of the park. The slight rise along this edge invited the field to separate and soak in the hint of a spring morning.

A field of 44 including 3 invitees made their moves around the course, runners representing 8 venues focused on the pleasures of running, perhaps a PB, hopefully a contribution to their venues ‘shot at the Browne Shield’, all good aspirations but none better than proudly wearing the unifying colours of VMA.

The results again show the remarkable contribution of ‘masters’ to the running arena, with almost 40% of runners achieving an age-grade percentage of 70 or more.

Bert Pelgrim, showed the way with a winning time of 59:41, closely tagged by Andrew Edwards 1:02:22 and Julie Norney 1:05:49.

VMA Vice Captain David Sheehan presented what seemed to be a ‘see-saw’ of age group medals shared between Knox and Aberfeldie. Congratulations to all runners for an outstanding effort!

In closing we offer an exceptional thankyou to the Aberfeldie team of John, Peter, Natalie, Jenny, Rachel, Alfred and Bill for their fine efforts in enabling this event to run so smoothly, with special recognition to our supporting time recorder Les Clarke.
— John Dean,   Peter Black   – 4 Sep 10 —  [full results . . . here  ]

The 12th annual Eric Greaves 10km road race championship was held at Braeside Park on Sunday 25^th July in ideal conditions in conjunction with the Victorian Cross Country League (VCCL). Eric was a former VMA captain as well as a VCCL member and was a very determined competitor and tireless worker for both clubs.

A field of 64 Masters athletes (47 men and 17 women) entered the event, together with 14 invitation entries who competed over the 10km or a 5km run or walk.

First Master home was Bert Pelgrim (36.37) who was too strong for Alan Long (37.15) with a close contest between Andrew Edwards (38.22) and Tony Dell (38.36) for third. In the female division there were some good performances with Julie Norney (40.23) beating home Bronwen Cardy (40.47) and June Petrie (41.40) who was challenging for the lead at the half way mark filling third place.

There were some close tussles in the older age groups. In M75 Brian Lynch managed to hold out Bill Page to win by 2 seconds while in the M65 there was only 26 seconds between the first three placegetters in Ralph Bennett, Gabriel Carmona and Ashley Page [in photo above]. In M60 Gary Stewart continued with the good form he has shown in recent months.

The best age graded performance was won by Lavinia Petrie with 98.78%, the second best on record. Her time of 43.51 was superb for a 66 year old and was faster than she ran last year to win the award for the first time. She now has a second under her belt and if she maintains her form she will be extremely hard to beat next year. Mention should be made of Bronwen Cardy with a percentage of 94.44. She has won the award twice in the past and this year’s % is better than all bar one of the previous winning efforts, that being the record of Theresia Baird achieving 99.61% in 2007.

As always it was a delight to have Eric’s parents Linda and Ted attend and they presented the medals to the placegetters. They were accompanied by Eric’s sisters Bev and Marilyn and their husband’s Paul and Barry. And we can’t forget Wendy who fired the starting gun and presented the age graded trophy to Lavinia.

Of course an event doesn’t occur without officials and many thanks to the large band of volunteers from the Springvale venue (and Peter McGrath from Glen Eira) who assisted in making sure the event ran to its usual high standard. It makes my job easy with such wonderful support so much so that I had time for a coffee 15 minutes before start time.
— Alan Bennie – Springvale Venue Manager — [full results . . . here  ]

DOT BROWNE - [ An Inspiring CV ]

The Athletic Achievements of Dot Browne:

Dot Browne has been a resident of Mitcham in the City of Whitehorse since 1962. Mother of four children, grandmother to four children aged 12, 11, 5 and 3 years, and married to Colin Browne since 1961.

Committee Work:

• Committee member of Doncaster Women's Athletic Club from 1979 - 1981 & President in 1981. (3 years of service)
• Committee member of Victorian Veterans Athletic Club from 1980 - 2003, Assistant Secretary from 1980 - 1993, Hon. Secretary from 1994 - 2003 (23 years service)
• National Secretary of the Australian Association of Veteran Athletic Clubs from 1992 - 1996 (4 years of service)
• Committee member of Victorian Marathon Club from 1982 - 1988, Vice President & Club Captain (6 years of service)
• Founder & Hon. Secretary of Australian Ultra Runners Association from 1986 - 2001 (15 years of service)
• On the Organizing Committee of the World Veteran Games in Melbourne 1987

Race Director Roles

Sole organizer of 79 separate athletic events which include ultra distance road races and track events, biathlons, and public fun runs.

Literary Involvement in Athletics

• Associate Editor in "Fun Runner" national running magazine from 1981 - 1992
• Sub-Editor of "The Veteran Athlete" monthly national newspaper 1985 - 1989
• Founder, Editor & publisher of "Ultra-mag" quarterly national magazine for ultra-runners from 1986 - 2001.

Competing

Dot has been an active competitor in athletics as a distance runner, participating in events from 800metres to marathons.

Competed as a member of Doncaster Women's Athletic Team from 1979 to 1981.

Has competed weekly at Croydon venue of the Vic Masters Athletics (formerly Vic Veterans Athletic Club) from 1979 until the present day. Still competing every Tuesday night.

Represented Australia in the following marathons overseas as an official Australian Team member, authorised by Athletics Australia:

• 1982 San Francisco Avon Women's Marathon
• 1983 The London Marathon
• 1983 Djakarta Proclamathon (45km)
  to celebrate the anniversary of Indonesia's Independence which occurred on 17/8/1945
• 1984 Singapore Marathon

Competed in World Veterans Games in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1981 winning silver medals in 10k & 5K & gold in the 1500m.

Competed in the World Veterans Games in Melbourne in 1987 winning 3 silver medals in the 5K, 10K and Cross-Country 10k.

Competed in the Oceania Veterans Games in Fiji in 1982, winning 4 gold medals for 1500m, 5km, 10km on the track and cross country 10k,

Member of Team Adidas from 1982 - 1988, being sponsored by Adidas to compete in distance events in various states of Australia.

Masters Athletics Age-Group Records [possibly still held]:

W35	1500metres	4.40.1	set 18/10/1980
W40	1500 metres	4.31.8	set 3/4/1983
W40	One Mile track	5.05	set 22/12/81
W35	5,000 metres	17.43.9	set 19/10/80
W40	5,000 metres	17.09.1	set 3/4/1983
W45	5,000 metres	17.33.3	set 30/3/1986
W40	10,000 metres	35.30.5	set 1/4/1985
W40	Marathon	2.41.24	set 17/4/83

AWARDS

For services to Athletics in Australia - An Order of Australia Medal awarded as part of the Queen's Birthday Honours List, 1992.

City of Whitehorse Australia Day Deakin Community Award, presented in 2008 for services to the Whitehorse Community in education, athletics and art.

CURRENT INTERESTS:

Regular weekly bike-riding with Handlebar Harriers. In September/October 2008, rode from Switzerland to Paris with six other Harriers and covered over 2,000km, over 7 weeks, carrying all our gear in paniers.

Currently a committee member of the City of Whitehorse Bicycle Advisory Committee, a group dedicated to improving conditions for cyclists in the local area with increased and improved bike tracks and bike lanes on main roads.

Since retiring from art/craft teaching in December 2008, Dot attends the Genesis Gymnasium around five times per week and pursues artistic interests by creating indoor/outdoor mosaics for local shopping centre exhibitions. Treasurer of Whitehorse Arts Association.         -  compiled  -  January 2010

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