Gold rush
Medal haul for Air Force at ADF champs

By Ruth Duffy
Volume 48, No. 5, April 6, 2006

SGT Troy Dawson feels the pain as he sprints toward the finish line in the men’s 100m race at the ADF Athletics Championships.

Photo by LAC Mike Lucas

WITH a swag of medals and a collection of games records under their belts, three of Air Forces’ best athletes shone at the recent ADF National Track and Field Championships.

FLTLT Luke Poli took home two Gold in throwing events and RAAF Base Amberley’s physical training instructors SGT Troy Dawson and CPL Gary Ewart performed outstandingly with four Gold and three Silver between them at the annual event, held on February 25-26 in Brisbane.

CPL Ewart also broke three records and was awarded the Male Champion Athlete for the meet.

During the first day of competition he threw a massive 54.05m in the discuss and 14.11m in the shot put to win Gold in both events.

Fresh from winning Gold at the Masters Oceania Games in New Zealand, Ewart won three Gold and broke ADF records in the Master’s 400m, 800m, and 1500m events with times of 53.77secs, 2.02.69mins, and 4.16.27mins respectively.

Ewart credits his wins to more than 30 years of running, although the highlight of his career was his Gold medal win at the Oceania Games.

“I was really happy with my performance [at the ADF championships] and there were some quite good athletes competing this year, so it was a great preparation session for the big competitions coming up, like the Australian Masters being held at Easter,” he said.

Dawson, one of Air Force’s best all-round athletes, performed well in the long, triple and high jumps as well as the 100m sprint, taking home Gold in the triple jump and three Silvers in his other events.

He said “I jumped the same height as the Gold medal winner in the high jump but as it took me three attempts as opposed to the winner’s two, I just narrowly missed out on a second Gold medal for the games.”

Medal tally on track

DAWSON described the PTI duo as a collective package, with training skills that complement each other.

As a jumper and short distance runner, Dawson focuses more on strength training and Ewart concentrates more on endurance and recovery.

They both use training methods learnt from the field in physical fitness training sessions with personnel at Airfield Defence Wing (AFDW).

“I’m training to go to the Australian champion-ships this year and some of the training I utilise myself I’ve been able to incorporate into the Wing, but at a level that I believe the [personnel] can handle,” Ewart said.

He said the pass rates for fitness tests have increased and the number of people in rehab has dropped since he and Dawson introduced these training methods.

“A lot of the success at AFDW is through periodised training. Our programming is very structrured considering all energy system constraints and recovery methods,” Dawson said.

“Additionally, our specific military PT focus prepares our guys for field environments with limited injuries.

“To compete at a good level, you definitely need to structure the program to incorporate all modalities of training and get the maximum benefit from it, and also to reach your maximum potential as an individual.

A lot of time people train too much and don’t give themselves enough recovery time, so they’re in an overtrained state. It’s all about planning; if you don’t plan, you fail.”

The next athletic competition on the calendar was the Queensland championships held on April 1 and 2, and the Australian Masters championships are scheduled for April 14-17 at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.

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