Press here to return to VRWC main page. State League pits our top men and women walkers against each other in a regular competition over distances of 3000m and 5000m. This year there are 8 rounds spread across the summer and most are on Thursday evenings - a timeframe promising optimal racing conditions. It is a competition not be be missed and I look forward to reporting the latest encounters each week.
Athletics Eastside and Essendon Athletics look set to dominate the walks from a teams perspective this year. Essendon boasts Chris Erickson and Mark Donahoo in the men and Erin Adamcewicz and Jessica Rothwell in the women while Eastside has Travis Middlemiss, Frank Bertei, Simone Wolowiec and Kellie Wapshott.
Chris Erickson and Frank Bertei had a great battle out front before Chris cleared out in the last lap to record a brisk time of 22:13. Mark Donahoo is also showing very good form considering his veteran status and easily beat 23 minutes while Travis Middlemiss was not far behind. But the pick of the performances must go to Michael Beaton-Wells who was only 2 seconds outside his PB and Stuart Kollmorgen who equalled his PB. Things look set to heat up in Round 2 next Thursday night.
1. Erickson, Chris Athletics
Essendon 22:13.19
2. Donahoo, Mark Athletics
Essendon 22:40.25
3. Middlemiss, Travis Athletics Eastside 22:49.09
4. Beaton-Wells Michael Aps
United 22:55.20
5. Barnes, Thomas
Glenhuntly
23:36.16
6. Kollmorgen, Stuart Ivanhoe -
Yarra 23:55.87 (eq PB)
7. Kennedy, Paul
Muu
24:35.17
8. Reid,
Ross
Glenhuntly
25:12.87
9. Evans, Simon Box
Hill
25:50.68
Blood, Andrew
Western Suburbs DNF
Bertei, Frank
Athletics Eastside DQ
Jessica Rothwell and Fauve Jacobs both had their first State League walks this week and easily beat the qualifying standard. Leading from the front was a very fit looking Simone Wolowiec who broke 23 minutes and had a good battle with Michael Beaton-Wells in the last lap.
1. Wolowiec, Simone Athletics
Eastside 22:57.16
2. Wapshott, Kellie Athletics Eastside
24:31.34
3. Muldoon, Wendy Box
Hill
25:06.45
4. Rothwell, Jessica Athletics Essendon 25:07.24
5. Adamcewicz, Erin Athletics Essendon
25:14.12
6. Bonney, Kylie Athletics
Eastside 26:26.04
7. Sansonetti, Nicole Box
Hill
26:55.29
8. Jacobs, Fauve Geelong
Region 27:10.08
Peters, Megan
Bayside
DNF
Walkers of the round: Jessica Rothwell and Stuart Kollmorgen
What a race with Nathan down from the AIS and having his first hitout since the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Any thoughts that he might have down on fitness were quickly allayed as he pushed out a first lap of 1:30. He then maintained this pace with monotonous (well, pretty exciting actually) regularity, stopping the clock at 1:30 or 1:31 for every lap, to record a sizzling 11:17. This was his first 3000m race since about 1998 and was only a few seconds outside his PB. Jared Tallent chased Nathan early and was rewarded with a sub-12. He was only 3 secs outside his PB of 11:54. Duane Cousins, having a rare appearance over the 3000m, started slowly and worked his way through the field to fly home in 12:13 for another excellent result. Behind these class walkers came the rest of the field and there were a number of PBs – Chris Erickson, Michael Beaton-Wells and Travis Middlemiss. Mark Donahoo was also spot on the pace with his best time for some years – a good omen with the WMA Titles coming up in New Zealand in April 2004.
1. Deakes,
Nathan Geelong
Region 11:17.91
2. Tallent,
Jared Western
Suburbs 11:57.76
3. Cousins,
Duane
Glenhuntly
12:13.97
4. Erickson,
Chris Athletics
Essendon 12:35.48 (PB 5 secs)
5. Bertei,
Frank
Athletics Eastside 13:00.18
6. Beaton-Wells, Michael
Aps
13:06.18 (PB 10 secs)
7. Middlemiss, Travis Athletics
Eastside 13:06.64 (PB 3 secs)
8. Donahoo,
Mark
Athletics Essendon 13:09.22
9. Barnes,
Thomas
Glenhuntly
13:20.56
10. Jamieson, Andrew
Aps
13:44.75
11. Kollmorgen, Stuart Ivanhoe -
Yarra 13:57.46
12. Reid,
Ross
Glenhuntly
14:11.65
13. Evans,
Simon
Box
Hill
14:49.44
It was a case of Athletics Eastside and then the rest as Simone and Kellie walked away from the field. Kellie shadowed Simone early but Simone was too strong and Kellie down on training with her Uni exams in progress. We can expect to see her challenge more strongly as the season progresses. Erin Adamcewicz did her best time for a couple of years and looks to be finally over the effects of her glandular fever. Nicole Sansonetti is having a very good State League season and her time of just over 15 minutes was an indicator of things to come. Young Sibon Fuzzard walked her first State League and was only a few seconds outside her PB. Things are looking good.
1. Wolowiec, Simone
Athletics Eastside 13:27.94
2. Wapshott, Kellie
Athletics Eastside 13:53.37
3. Adamcewicz, Erin
Athletics Essendon 14:24.11
4. Peters,
Megan
Bayside
14:26.80
5. Muldoon,
Wendy Box
Hill
14:34.05
6. Sansonetti, Nicole Box
Hill
15:05.60
7. Fuzzard,
Sibon
Athletics Essendon 15:18.06
Walkers of the round: Nathan Deakes and Erin Adamcewicz
Super hot conditions and a strong wind made for very trying conditions. In fact, the day looked so bad that many of the walkers obviously decided not to make the trip to Ballarat. Jared Tallent shot to an early lead but found the going tough (in exam mode) and decided to retire before the halfway mark after being passed by Chris Erickson and Tom Barnes. Chris and Tom walked together till the last lap when Chris kicked away to a good win. Pity Duncan Knox and Sarah Alexander who had their first State League walks for the summer and had the bad luck of encountering the Ballarat weather.
1. Erickson, Chris Athletics
Eastside 23:53.1
2. Barnes, Tom
Glenhuntly
24:03.4
3. Knox, Duncan Athletics
Essendon 26:07.9
It was a very tough walk also for the girls and the times do not reflect the effort involved. Megan, Erin and Nicole all walked well to qualify easily. Young Sarah Alexander had her first ever State League walk and we can expect to see her again soon.
1. Peters, Megan
Bayside
26:30.8
2. Adamcewicz, Erin Athletics Essendon
27:17.5
3. Sansonetti, Nicole Box
Hill
27:41.8
4. Alexander, Sarah Box
Hill
28:14.7
As Jim Leppik pointed out, there is some great young talent around. Jared, Chris and Tom are aged 19, 21 and 21 respectively while Jessica and Sibon are 14 and 15 respectively. Add in Erin (20) who was the first woman across the line and add in our other young walkers who are in the middle of exams and you have a strong mixture of young and old(er) walkers fighting out State League.
Jared Tallent celebrated the news of his AIS scholarship with an all-the-way win in a very good 12:08. Chris Erickson was dead last early but worked his way through the field in a very strong performance to take second with a big PB. Tom Barnes and Mark Donahoo had a good battle with Tom having to dig deep to take third.
1. Tallent, Jared Western
Suburbs 12:08.34
2. Erickson, Chris Athletics
Essendon 12:27.83 (PB 8 secs)
3. Barnes,
Tom
Glenhuntly 13:13.57
4. Donahoo, Mark
Athletics Essendon 13:15.96
5. Kollmorgen, Stuart Ivanhoe-Yarra
14:07.42
6. Reid,
Ross
Glenhuntly 14:08.07
7. Evans, Simon
Box Hill 15:20.17
8. Blood, Andrew
Western Suburbs 15:52.54
Sandra Geisler is the inform walker at the moment and continues to improve with each outing. Jessica Rothwell held out Megan Peters in another good walking display while Nicole Sansonetti broke 15 minutes for the second time in the week and is another big improver. Sibon Fuzzard walked a big PB and was unlucky not to break 15 minutes – next time! Erin Adamcewicz is also getting back into top shape and, although disqualified, will soon be able to control her new found speed and I look forward to seeing her break 14 minutes soon.
1. Geisler, Sandra Ringwood
United 14:19.65 (PB 16 secs)
2. Rothwell, Jessica Athletics
Essendon 14:34.03
3. Peters, Megan
Bayside
14:37.36
4. Muldoon, Wendy Box
Hill
14:44.68
5. Sansonetti, Nicole Box
Hill
14:53.82
6. Fuzzard, Sibon Athletics
Essendon 15:02.14 (PB 8 secs)
Adamcewicz, Erin
Athletics Essendon DQ
Athletics Essendon, with 5 of the 15 walkers (and Duncan Knox watching) is definitely the club with the most walking depth at the moment.
Walkers of the round: Chris Erickson and Sandra Geisler
Conditions were still very warm even with a 7PM start time. In the men’s event, Chris Erickson and Mark Donahoo led early to establish a good lead. However, Mark eventually faded, leaving Chris to record a comfortable win. Andy Jamieson came steaming home to pass Mark and recorded a fantastic second place time of 22.59 (at age 57!).
The women’s race was a good one with the first 4 walkers (Megan, Wendy, Sandra and Erin) within a few metres of each other with 500m to go. Sandra had the best kick in the end and got up to win in the last 30 metres to record another huge PB. She is certainly the big improver of the summer so far. It was a shame to see Simone, Kylie and Rachael all retiring early but we expect to see them bounce back soon.
1. Erickson, Chris
Athletics Essendon 22:29.68
2. Jamieson, Andrew
Aps
22:59.71
3. Donahoo,
Mark
Athletics Essendon 23:06.12
4. Beaton-Wells, Michael
Aps
23:20.73
5. Kollmorgen, Stuart
Ivanhoe-Yarra 24:45.31
6. Martin, Travis
Box
Hill
25:11.07
7. Reid,
Ross
Glenhuntly
25:25.42
8. Evans,
Simon
Box
Hill
25:45.61
1. Geisler, Sandra
Ringwood United 24:51.50 (PB – 29
secs)
2. Peters,
Megan
Bayside
24:52.44
3. Muldoon, Wendy
Box
Hill
24:52.75
4. Adamcewicz, Erin Athletics
Essendon 25:05.27
5. Sansonetti, Nicole Box
Hill
25:59.94
6. Jacobs,
Fauve
Geelong
28:52.00
Wolowiec, Simone
Athletics Eastside DNF
Bonney,
Kylie
Athletics Eastside DNF
Loone,
Rachael
Geelong
DNF
Walkers of the round: Andrew Jamieson and Sandra Geisler
It was a super hot evening and quite a few regular competitors took the night off after the 50 km trial only 2 days before. That left Mark Donahoo, Tom Barnes and Michael Beaton-Wells to battle it out. Mark ended up winning comfortably and is certainly in good form. Despite the heat, he was only some 8 seconds outside his season best.
1. Donahoo,
Mark Athletics
Essendon 13:18.81
2. Barnes,
Tom
Glenhuntly
13:31.80
3. Beaton-Wells, Michael
Aps
13:34.22
4. Kennedy,
Paul
Muu
13:51.81
5. Kollmorgen, Stuart
Ivanhoe-Yarra 14:07.69
6. Reid,
Ross
Glenhuntly
14:19.14
7. Heywood, Colin
Ivanhoe-Yarra 14:22.36
8. Knox,
Duncan
Athletics Essendon 14:25.47
9. Martin, Travis
Box
Hill
14:31.40
10. Jamieson, Andrew
Aps
15:04.18
Kellie Wapshott, back from a holiday in NZ, was too quick for Megan Peters in an interesting race. The other girls suffered in the heat but still held on well.
1. Wapshott, Kellie
Athletics Eastside 14:31.51
2. Peters,
Megan
Bayside
14:42.79
3. Adamcewicz, Erin Athletics
Essendon 15:02.99
4. Sansonetti, Nicole Box
Hill
15:27.42
Bonney,
Kylie Athletics
Eastside DNF
We had a very strong field for this first State League round for
January and ideal racing conditions and a great venue (Doncaster)
proved the right combination for fast walking.
Chris Erickson had an easy win with a very slick time of 21:52 and
behind him a great battle developed between Michael Beaton-Wells, Frank
Bertei and Simone Wolowiec. It’s pretty hard to beat Michael in a
last lap sprint and, true to form, he cleared away from the others in
the dying stages of the event for second overall and a big PB. Simone
then held Frank out to walk her fastest time in some years. Tom Barnes
was next in and was just outside his PB with a very good sub 23 minute
walk. Simon Evans and Travis Martin both gained their first points for
the season to help Box Hill in the final push for the finals. Travis
seems to have turned the corner with regards to his comeback this
season and he walked very evenly for his 23:52. Spare a thought for
Stuart Kollmorgen who thought it was a 3000m – and got to the end
to find he had 5 laps to go. He managed to hang on and just beat the
qualifying standard of 25 minutes! Roisin Gleich had her first
competition for the summer and easily qualified with a good first up
walk
1. Erickson, Chris
Athletics Essendon 21:52.7
2. Beaton-Wells, Michael
Aps
22:34.0 (PB – 19 secs)
3. Bertei,
Frank Athletics
Eastside 22:38.6
4. Barnes,
Tom
Glenhuntly
22:51.6 (only 1 sec outside his PB)
5. Jamieson, Andrew
Aps
22:54.1
6. Middlemiss, Travis Athletics
Eastside 23:19.4
7. Donahoo,
Mark Athletics
Essendon 23:22.1
8. Heywood, Colin
Ivanhoe-Yarra 23:25.9
9. Reid,
Ross
Glenhuntly 23:26.9
10. Kennedy, Paul
Muu
23:42.6
11. Martin, Travis Box
Hill
23:52.9
12. Evans,
Simon Box
Hill
24:54.4
13. Kollmorgen, Stuart
Ivanhoe-Yarra 24:55.4
1. Wolowiec, Simone
Athletics Eastside 22:37.7
2. Muldoon, Wendy
Box
Hill
24:55.0
3. Bonney,
Kylie Athletics
Eastside 25:07.4
4. Geisler, Sandra
Ringwood United 25:10.4
5. Peters,
Megan
Bayside
25:19.0
6. Adamcewicz, Erin Athletics
Essendon 25:40.6
7. Sansonetti, Nicole Box
Hill
26:46.3
8. Gleich, Roisin
Muu
26:53.1
Walkers of the Round Michael Beaton-Wells and Simone Wolowiec
Alas, washed out by the rain.
The awards have now been finalised and the winners are Chris Erickson and Megan Peters. Full points are as follows
Duncan Knox Award
1. C. Erickson Ess 108 points
2. T. Barnes Glen 100
3. M. Donahoo Ess
91
4. S. Kollmorgan Iva 88
5. M. Beaton-Wells Aps 76
6. R. Reid
Glen 49
7. A. Jamieson Aps 43
8. T. Middlemiss Es 40
9. J. Tallant
Ws 38
10. P. Kennedy Mu
38
11. F. Bertei
Es 31
12. C. Heywood Iva 26
13. N. Deakes Geel 19
14. D. Cousins Glen 16
15. T Martin
BH 13
16. D. Knox
Ess 12
17. S Evans
BH 9
Wendy Muldoon Award
1. M. Peters
Bs 86 Points
2. N. Sansonetti Bh 84
3. E. Adamcewicz Ess 74
4. W. Muldoon
Bh 70
5. K. Wapshott Es
42
6. S. Wolowiec Es
48
7. S. Geister
Rw 45
8. J. Rothwell Ess 29
9. K. Bonney
Es 22
10. R. Gleich
Mu 10
11. S. Fuzzard
Ess 7
12. F. Jacobs
Geel 7
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