05.06.2009

Ain't no mountain high enough for top Aussie runners

Victorian runner Kate Seibold-Crosbie will be hoping her local knowledge of the Ferntree Gully course gives her an edge when she takes on defending Australian women’s champion Jessamy Hosking (ACT) and 2008 world long distance mountain running championships bronze medallist Angela Bateup (ACT) in the Australian mountain running championships on Sunday.

Despite a chequered running career due to a spate of injuries, Hosking is in good form at present and will be one to watch when racing gets under way at Ferntree Gully Picnic Ground this weekend.

Bateup, a former national junior middle distance champion on the track with plenty of speed in her legs, has built a phenomenal endurance base over the years and will be very strong up the Ferntree Gully hills.

The experienced trio will take on young guns Hannah Flannery (ACT), Samantha Cook (VIC) and Sarah Lester (VIC) out on course, the young runners set to challenge the field over the two-lap 4.1km circuit.
 
ACT athlete Mark Bourne will start hot favourite for the open men’s title, to be contested over a challenging 12.3km course.

Australia’s best senior male performer at the 2007 world mountain running championships (34th place), Bourne gained additional race experience in Europe across 2008 and finished well up in two World Mountain Running Association Grand Prix events.

Bourne will be challenged by Wollongong’s Stephen Brown, who at just 24 has represented Australia at the last four world mountain running championships and also has a winter racing campaign in Europe under his belt.

An easy victor in the NSW mountain running championships, Brown looms as the most likely threat to Bourne’s campaign with Victorian state champion Joji Mori also set to figure on the podium.
 
The junior men’s 8.3km and junior women’s 4.1km events boast wide open fields, with Tasmanian orienteering specialist Oscar Phillips the one to beat in the junior men’s category.

The veterans’ categories feature a host world-class performers including Colleen Middleton, Kathy Southgate, Narelle Patrick, Lavinia Petrie and Caroline Campbell in the women’s field and national 24-hour running representative Simon Phillips (TAS), prolific mountain race winner David Hosking (ACT) and Albury legend Clive Vogel the standouts in the men’s ranks.

Sunday’s championships will double as a selection trial for the world mountain running championships in Italy on September 6 and the Commonwealth Mountain Running Championships in England from September 17-20.

Further event details are available here.

Image courtesy www.mountainrunning.coolrunning.com.au