On Saturday, 8 September Coburg Harrier Deanne Nobbs represented her club and country with pride and distinction when she competed in the 2007 International Association of Ultra-Runners (IAU) World 100 km Road Championships - also known as the IAU 100 km World Cup.

Participants, including athletes and team managers, were expected to number more than 300 and come from at least 40 countries all over the world. There were three Australian males in the race, which meant that Australia had enough to qualify for the men's teams event. Regrettably, with only one other Australian female in the race, Deanne was consigned to run for only individual glory

The venue for the event - Winschoten - is a little city in the north-eastern part of The Netherlands. Known as "The city of Roses" as its large Rose-garden has more than 350 kind of roses. Beside this, the town is an important shopping and entertainment centre for the whole region of East Groningen. Elsewhere in the region a complete new residential area called "Blauwe Stad" (blue city) is under construction and in Nieuweschans you will find a Spa Resort. Fortress Bourtange is a fortified town (1742) in which time appears to have stood still

The course consists of a 10 km traffic free and completely flat loop. Organisers hoped the fast course would enable runners to achieve excellent performances (such as the 6:16:41 by Jean-Paul Praet in 1992 and the 7:10:32 by Tatiana Zhyrkova in 2004, two performances which were achieved on this course and which are currently under consideration by the EAA to be ratified as European 100 km records)

Deanne's race was very well executed with barely twelve minutes between her strongest and slowest ten kilometre splits. After thirty kilometres, she was averaging 50 minute splits for each loop.

It was between through the middle of the race that Nobbs started to drop off the pace, albeit only slightly. At the 40 km and 50 km marks her split times were beginning to blow out by a couple of minutes. However, Deanne still went through the halfway mark in excellent shape with 4:26 on the board. No doubt, this could be attributed to the six weeks enforced layoff through injury in the six weeks leading up to the event

From this point, Nobbs began a remarkably consistent run of splits, with each only 60 - 90 seconds slower than the one before it. And in a very strong finish to the race, Nobbs negative split her last lap, with her final loop the quickest in the last half of her race. This helped her to record a seventeen minute personal best time over the distance. And you can't ask any more of an athlete to achieve their personal best at the ultimate event for your sport. For ultra runners, this can only be at a World Championships event.

By race end, Nobbs had finished as the 43rd place female, which is a fantastic achievement, given that her preparation for the event had been hampered by injury. Deanne is the first Coburg Harrier to be in the top fifty of open age world rankings since Lachlan Jones made the 2000 Paralympics. For her age group, Deanne was good enough to finish in 16th place. This sits very well with Stacey Van Dueren who was ranked 42nd in the world in her age group last year for the Marathon.

Deanne's personal best performance did not come without a cost, however, losing the majority of her toe nails. Deanne all but collapsed over the finish line, with officials having to carry Nobbs to a chair after she began to sway as she crossed the line. Of the incident, in the Shepparton newspaper, Nobbs was reported as saying : ""It was the first time at an end of a race where I lost my legs. You could see the blood coming though my shoes because it was raining all day on and off and I got blisters. I had to be escorted to a chair by three officials and given a sweet drink, but I'm tough and I was okay after that."

And of her injury in the lead up to the event, Nobbs said she was lucky to get through the race as well as she did. "(Fellow Australian runner and former Shepparton resident) Tim Cochrane, he actually lapped me at one point at the 40 km mark and he lent over as he went past and said `keep going.' It really hurt but the crowd really loved the Aussies. The Dutch children were lining the streets with their hands out to touch as you went past and they were saying things like `Vegemite on toast' and `kangaroos' so you could never forget you were running for Australia. And the Dutch people stayed all day in the cafes along the side of the road. "They said `Deanne, we will wait for you' and they did."

The men's team, headed by Tim Cochrane - who finished in 21st place overall - finished in seventh place, which would be one of the best results ever recorded by an Australian team at the World Cup. And the overall men's winner from Japan completed the course in 6:23 with only one second separating second and third place some seven minutes further back. For the winner, he averaged an incredible 3:49 mins per kilometre.

Nobbs now earns herself a well earned break as she takes this ideal opportunity to travel around France before returning to the country in November. We wish her all the best and look forward to catching up with her when she returns to the country.

2007 Australian 100 km World Cup Team