Do you want the good news or the bad news? Good new is that a new April 2009 trail run on the World Heritage Trail in Washpool/Gibraltar National Parks, northern New South Wales, looks like getting the go-ahead from the parks service. Bad news is the outstanding ”Run the Whitsundays Great Walk” event has had to be downgraded to a social run this year - we hope they’re back again for 2009.  Plus an important date change - the Lamington Classic has been shifted to October 25-26 to accommodate parks service concerns about holding it during the busy school holidays. 

One of Queensland’s very best places to walk, run and camp, Carnarvon Gorge is about to get even better with a new 90km Great Walk planned for completion in July 2009. “Great Walks” provide formed tracks and campsites over multi-day routes in some of Queensland’s best parks. Other new Great Walks in the pipeline are Cooloola, Conondale and a canoe-walk combination trail in the Whitsundays.

pic: Boowinda Gorge

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Runners in Seward on Saturday faced the toughest conditions in race history — rain, hail, wind and fog, and some terrain still covered by winter snow.  “You couldn’t see but 100 feet in front of you, and on the snowfields everything looked white,” first male Brad Precosky of Anchorage Alaska said by cell phone. “It was the worst conditions I’ve ever raced in, maybe even trained in,” first female Cedar Bourgeois said. “I started laughing.”

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It has been the dream of Sydney’s recreational walkers for decades - a walking track spanning the Sydney coastline from Palm Beach to Cronulla.

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The Australian in one of the 20th century’s most famous images is a mystery to many of us. The image referred to is of two black Americans giving the Black Power salute on the victory dias at the 1968 Olympics. Salute is now showing at the Palace Centro. Philippa Hawker talks about her meeing with the nephew trying to tell the story.

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Provisional results from the weekend (26 July 2008) can be found on the Glasshouse trails site, discussion on Coolrunning here www.coolrunning.com.au/forums, pics will be posted on the Glasshouse site (a few reduced-size shots shown below)

pic: Part of the 10km field just after the start

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This year’s Kokoda Challenge was won in record breaking time – 11 hours and 54minutes – by Team Nike Hammer, shaving nearly 5 minutes off their winning time last year. “It’s been a record breaking Kokoda Challenge all round – we had a record number of competitors, with close to 1200.  We had a record number of volunteers working across the weekend – manning the 14 checkpoints, helping support crews, marshaling and ensuring things went smoothly,” Kokoda Challenge Chairman Doug Henderson said. 

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The ‘Flinders Tour’ event of the Glasshouse Mountains trail series is coming up fast - Saturday July 26th - and on-line entries can be submitted here, with lots more information on the Glasshouse website

“I just took it one mountain at a time. I just said I’m going to get to the top of the next (rise). You can’t look beyond that,” winner Kyle Skaggs said after finishing this incredibly tough 100-miler (33,000 feet elevation gain) in under 24 hours.

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Hail Comrade Shvetsov: Two years, two records for the King of Comrades. Leonid Shvetsov is a name few in SA took notice of before last year. He’d run Comrades before - a second place in 2001, where he pushed SA’s Andrew Kelehe all the way in one of the great races. But then he kind of disappeared, and was remembered as one of many Russians to run the race, nothing spectacular.

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