COBURG 24 HOUR CARNIVAL, HAROLD STEVENS ATHLETICS TRACK, COBURG, 15-16 APRIL 2023

Coburg 24 Race Certificates
Coburg 24 Hour Race Report
Coburg 24 Hour Results
Coburg 24 Hour Lapsplits 
Coburg 24H Hourly Reports
Coburg 24 Photo Galleries

Our 2023 Coburg 24 Hour Carnival saw a record entry list of 145 athletes (126 runners and 29 walkers). Not everyone makes it to the start line each year and 2023 was no exception, with 132 athletes lining up – which was still our biggest ever field.

The Carnival boasted a variety of events – 24 Hour, 12 Hour, 6 Hour and Marathon – and saw us playing host to the AURA Australian 24 Hour Track Championship.

Conditions were windy initially, with full cloud cover and the threat of rain. This threat soon turned to reality, with heavy rain settling in around 5PM. With the wind now ceasing, a huge low pressure settled over Melbourne, dumping between 30mm and 40mm of rain onto competitors and support crews over the next 8 hours. When it finally eased around 1AM and settled into an intermittent drizzle, the damage was done and the attrition rate had been significant.

In the women’s 24 Hour Run, Sarah Jayamaha settled into the lead, followed closely by Tracy Feiner and Bernadette Benson. In the ninth hour, Fleur Douy caught and passed Tracy who was now falling back through the field. It took Fleur a further 5 hours to catch and pass Bernadette whosoon faded to fourth behind Jody Daff. The top 3 remained unchanged for the remainder of the race, with Sarah (182.961km), Fleur (161.029km) and Jody 155.559km) taking out the top placings.

In the men’s 24 Hour Run, Nicholas Bamford and Kevin Muller shot out fast, covering 12.8km in the first hour, a little ahead of 7 other runners who were all chasing at speeds in excess of 11 km/hr. It was soon obvious that no one was going to catch Nick, who stormed through the 12 hour mark with a huge distance of 143.200km. Joe Ward was now in second place with 126.000km, some 17km in arrears,  followed by Daragh O’Loughlin with 121.200km and Kevin Muller 120.400km.
At 1:29AM, the complexion of the race changed when Nick collapsed to the ground, over 16km ahead of his nearest chaser and with a distance of 157.200km under his belt. It took Joe Ward 90 minutes to make up that deficit and, soon after 3AM, he assumed the lead, well clear of Darah O’Loughlin, Darren Linney and Simon Austin. It was now just a question of who would fill the minor places behind Joe.
The final result went pretty much as expected: Joe Ward first wit 230.031km, Daragh O’Loughlin second with 223.455km and Simon Austin third with 209.476km. Special mentions to Darren Linney with 206.849km, Stavros Michael with 206.369km and Sean Bell with 201.627km.
I am pleased to report that, after a day in hospital, Nick had recovered and was discharged with a clear bill of health.

24 Hour Run Women
1 Sarah Jayamaha VIC 182.961km
2 Fleur Douy VIC 161.029km
3 Jody Daff VIC 155.559km
4 Abbey Gordon VIC 136.027km
5 Bernadette Benson VIC 102.000km
6 Joanne Hoos VIC 96.511km
7 Melinda Mcleod VIC 81.282km
8 Jodi Whelan VIC 80.037km
9 Nikki Wynd VIC 76.800km
10 Tracy Feiner VIC 76.400km
11 Eloise Wallace VIC 70.499km
12 Kerrie Bremner ACT 34.000km

24 Hour Run Men
1 Joe Ward NSW 230.031km
2 Daragh O’Loughlin VIC 223.455km
3 Simon Austin VIC 209.476km
4 Darren Linney VIC 206.849km
5 Stavros Michael VIC 206.369km
6 Sean Bell VIC 201.627km
7 James Heywood VIC 190.220km
8 Dan Farmer VIC 179.964km
9 Phil Ryan VIC 170.873km
10 James Cooney VIC 164.467km
11 David Patterson VIC 162.520km
12 Nicholas Bamford QLD 157.200km
13 Todd Wheldon TAS 150.611km
14 Dean Metcalf TAS 149.938km
15 Zac Milverton VIC 144.708km
16 Jason Montfort VIC 142.376km
17 Ryan O’Hara VIC 140.266km
18 Zac McLarty VIC 133.599km
19 Brandon Collis VIC 133.163km
20 John Yoon VIC 131.212km
21 Kevin Muller QLD 120.400km
22 Hendrik Hoos VIC 112.676km
23 Jonathan Choong VIC 109.236km
24 Dan Wright VIC 101.200km
25 Adam Miller VIC 100.358km
26 George Alexandropoulos VIC 97.682km
27 Luke McDougall VIC 96.228km
28 Hayden Turner QLD 88.400km
29 Steven O’Connell VIC 83.600km
30 Thomas Henderson VIC 62.599km
31 Matt Brassington VIC 62.205km

The 24 Hour Walk included 2 women and 11 men, and it was one of the women who set the pace right from the start and was never headed. Former Coburg walk and run winner and Australian walk record holder Michelle Thompson was in a class of her own, striding confidently through to reach her 100 mile mark in 22:16.55. That included about 30 minutes off the track helping look after Nick Bamford after his collapse, but her lead was significant and no one was going to catch her.  She retired at that point, task accomplished.  Marnie Zakis, in her first ever 24H walk, did well to see it through to the end with a final distance of 120.216km.

The men’s walk field boasted 3 internationals, Arie Kandelaars and Thomas Leijtens of the Netherlands and Christer Svensson of Sweden, and it was Arie who took the win with 165.799km. He reached his 100 mile target in a time of 23:28:07 to become Australian Centurion 85. David Billett had reached that milestone ahead of Arie, his time being 23:05:12, but he called it quits then, allowing Arie to take the overall win. Although Christer had a bad day at the office, he still managed to take third spot with 126.742km, just ahead of Paul Sweet with 123.263km.

24 Hour Walk Women
1 Michelle Thompson VIC 160.934km
2 Marnie Zakis VIC 120.216km

24 Hour Walk Men
1 David Billett SA 165.799km
2 Arie Kandelaars NED 160.934km
3 Christer Svensson SWE 126.742km
4 Paul Sweet VIC 123.263km
5 David Isaacs VIC 101.130km
6 Liam Keating VIC 91.128km
7 Daniel Lewis VIC 70.368km
8 Greg Ponych QLD 61.906km
9 Hugh Hunter VIC 50.327km
10 Thomas Leijtens NED 45.873km
11 Maurice Gregory QLD 41.419km

Three walkers completed 100 Miles (160.934km) within the requisite 24 Hours.

C58 Michelle Thompson VIC 22:16:55
C50 David Billett (SA) 23:05:12
C85 Arie Kandelaars (NED) 23:28:07

The 24 Hour Carnival also hosted the Racewalking Australia 100km walk championships, with placings as shown below.

RWA 100km Walk Championship Women
1 Michelle Thompson VIC 12:56:13
2 Marnie Zakis VIC 17:55:58

RWA 100km Walk Championship Men
1 David Billett SA 13:45:51
2 Arie Kandelaars NED 14:11:54
3 Christer Svensson SWE 16:56:51

The meet also included 12 Hour and 6 Hour Run and Walk and Marathon Run Championships. The Marathons started at midday on Saturday, the 12H races started at 6PM on Saturday while the 6 Hour races started at 6AM on the Sunday morning.

The Marathon Runs were won by Fiona Smeaton (VIC) and Sean McGrath (VIC). With 21 marathon runners overall, this was our best entry list so far in that event which has now got some critical mass behind it.

Marathon Run Women
1 Fiona Smeaton VIC 4:01:08
2 Felicity Beasley VIC 5:11:29
3 Lindy Yap VIC 6:08:33
4 Marion Isobel VIC 7:45:16

Marathon Run Men
1 Sean McGrath VIC 3:28:49
2 Martin Buden VIC 3:36:57
3 Samuel Raiz VIC 3:39:56
4 Michael Collins VIC 3:40:40
5 Barry McManus VIC 3:56:21
6 Nikola Mandic VIC 4:02:16
7 Gavin Ma VIC 4:19:42
8 Paul O’Brien VIC 4:34:28
9 John Kaparelis VIC 4:34:58
10 Bruce Venables VIC 4:40:00
11 Kevin Barry VIC 4:52:44
12 Brendan Bonell VIC 4:57:29
13 Dimitrios Tsironis VIC 5:06:00
14 Ben Fleisner VIC 5:06:26
15 David Scott VIC 5:26:55
16 Ben Moore VIC 5:46:53
17 Stephen Lewis QLD 7:45:15

The 12 Huur runs were won by Corrina Smith (126.818km) and James Inwood (110.464km) and the 6 Hour runs were won by Kirstin Bull (a new Australian record of 79.915km) and Dominic Bosher (83.236km).

12 Hour Run Women
1 Corrina Black QLD 126.818km
2 Martine Nield VIC 103.057km
3 Kylie Irshad VIC 80.813km
4 Kirsten Mazaraki VIC 75.257km
5 Chloe Skewes-Weir NSW 52.034km
6 Allicia Heron ACT 43.863km

12 Hour Run Men
1 James Inwood NZL 110.464km
2 Heath Hocking VIC 95.925km
3 Graeme Cook VIC 86.378km
4 Dan Symonds QLD 80.416km
5 Tim Hood VIC 71.028km
6 Mark Kani VIC 57.592km
7 Glenn Membrey VIC 42.573km
8 Gerard Santamaria VIC 33.972km
9 David Williams TAS 30.532km
10 Jonathan Au VIC 27.522km
11 John Nuttall QLD 24.081km

6 Hour Run Women
1 Kirstin Bull VIC 79.915km
2 Donna Urquhart VIC 62.361km
3 Rebecca Cowie VIC 59.345km
4 Diane Nicholls VIC 58.240km
5 Carmel Pardy VIC 52.443km
6 Haley Keating VIC 49.562km
7 Melissa Debnam-Smith VIC 36.122km
8 Mia Incerti VIC 13.187km

6 Hour Run Men
1 Dominic Bosher VIC 83.246km
2 Pramesh Prasad VIC 75.485km
3 Mark Beddell VIC 68.656km
4 Adam Bryce VIC 62.995km
5 Stuart Hughes VIC 62.523km
6 Stephen Redfern VIC 61.663km
7 Oliver Deacon VIC 60.570km
8 Patrick Maple VIC 56.313km
9 Jon Lim VIC 55.529km
10 Matteo Fulchiati VIC 55.516km
11 Francis Cosson VIC 55.424km
12 Bill Bardsley VIC 55.314km
13 Shaun Moore VIC 53.369km
14 Stuart Boardman VIC 50.314km
15 Andrew Hewison VIC 45.861km
16 Karl Koeleman VIC 36.125km

The shorter walks were won by Elizabeth Smith (NSW), Bruce Watt (VIC), Karyn O’Neill (VIC) and Rohit Sharma (VIC). Our challenge remains to attract bigger fields for these events, which continue to be under subscribed.

12 Hour Walk Women
1 Elizabeth Smith TAS 65.409km
2 Susan Fitton VIC 61.263km
3 Elise Hess VIC 54.279km
4 Lorraine Billett SA 34.293km

12 Hour Walk Men
1 Bruce Watt VIC 73.580km
2 John Timms VIC 58.017km
3 Anubhav Tewari VIC 25.391km
4 Tony Wilms VIC 12.024km

6 Hour Walk Women
1 Karyn O’Neill VIC 42.972km

6 Hour Walk Men
1 Rohit Sharma VIC 40.797km
2 Albin Hess VIC 39.582km
3 Akshat Sharma VIC 31.773km
4 Kev Johnson VIC 30.499km
5 Steven Haverly VIC 28.086km
6 Ken Carter VIC 22.660km

The perpetual trophies were awarded as follows

Victorian 24 Hour Track Champion: Joe Ward (NSW)
Coburg Endurance Award: Sean Bell (VIC)
Jim Gleeson Trophy: Michelle Thompson (VIC ) and David Billett (CSA)
Gordon Smith Trophy:  Arie Kandelaars (NED)

The dreadful conditions meant that nearly all record attempts fell short. The exception was in the 6 Hour Run where Melbourne runner Kirstin Bull stormed through to a new Australian 6 Hour Record of 79.915km.

2023 was the 36th annual staging of this iconic event. We will be back in April 2024 for another exciting weekend of racing. See you all then.

Tim Erickson
Race Director
Wednesday 19th April 2023