Athletic year ender

By CPL Wayne Heath
Volume 49, No. 4, March 23, 2006

The track season finished with a bang as the 2006 ADF Track and Field Championships were held at the State Athletic Facility in Brisbane over the weekend of February 25-26.
This year, Defence had a lot of new faces competing, with a healthy mix from all three services.

The men’s 5000m was a highlight to finish competition on Saturday night. This year, without Navy’s Rowan Walker and Army’s Dave Whitehead, the ADF was looking to crown a new 5000m champion. Evergreen WO2 Richard Quirk 7 CSSB quickly took the challenge and started to lap consistently in 79/80sec laps.

Canungra’s Daniel Judd and Navy’s Andy Clowes sat with the pace early on and did look to challenge, eventually, however, Judd couldn’t hold the splits, and the 1500m race ran earlier by Clowes was starting to show. Quirk continued to run strongly to win the ADF title in 16.40.87.

CPL Stephanie Hall, Defence’s premier female distance runner made her debut at the championships and didn’t disappoint. She broke two ADF records in a fine display of even-paced running. Stephanie’s 4.56.43 in the 1500m and 10.37.70 in the 3000m showcased the class of the Defence team.

Alanna Phillips also broke two field records with 9.90m in the shot put and 27.23m in the discus for masters women.

The men’s team historically always has a hotly contested field in the 100m and 200m.

This year’s titles went to SPR Adam Lowmass.

He also won the 400m and the long jump, to finish with four gold medals to carry home on the red eye flight back to the west.

All results can be found at www.qldathletics.org.au

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