The Victorian Track & Field Champs took place on the weekend of 23-25 February 2007 at Olympic Park

In Day One action were two Coburg Harriers. First up was Jeremy Grey in the 1500 metres. The event was split into two heats with the fastest four from each heat, and the next two fastest times going through to the final. Several of the slower runners in the field were in the first heat, with Grey to line up in Heat 2. At the gun, a pack quickly formed at the front with Grey taking up position at the rear of the field, trying to hang on to their tail. At the 300 metre mark, the clock showed 47 seconds

The second lap Grey tried valiantly to stay in touch but the main pack were maintaining their fast start. A spurt in the back straight yielded little result as the pack continued their steady pace. This probably contributed to a fast lap of 64 seconds with two full laps to go. Grey went past the 800 metre mark in 2:12 and was on 4:11 pace. However, after such a fast second lap, the pace couldn't be maintained and the third lap blew out to 73 seconds. Despite this, Grey was making ground and with a lap to go, he was on track for a personal best time, with 3:07 on the clock

Grey passed a local NW Region opponent from Melbourne University in the back straight, and coming around the home straight could see the finishing clock. With the promise of a PB, a big kick over the last 100 metres saw Grey cross the line in 4:17.58 for 24th place overall. A surprise result given it is six seconds quicker than Grey has done for 1500 metres this season, and shaved almost four seconds off his personal best.

Also competing was Stacey Van Dueren in the women's 5000 metres. In a very large field of 25, all standard of runner were represented from Australian representative Lisa-Jane Weightman, three elite women from South Australia through to girls hoping to set personal bests and challenge themselves against the best

At the gun, the girls bolted! Stacey placed herself in fourth-last place through the first 200 metres. This did not alarm those who know Stacey's race tactics well, as she will often sit and then move through the field, not uncommonly negative splitting. Despite sitting comfortably, Stacey still went through the first kilometre in 3:33 against a race km goal pace of 3:45. Perhaps realising the pace was a little hot, Stacey dropped back to her race goal pace for the second kilometre and was twelve seconds ahead of her goal of 18:45

It was from the 2000 metre mark, that the girls in front of Stacey began to drop off. Keeping a steady pace, Stacey began picking up runners and after 3000 metres had 10:59 on the clock with a third km split of 3:41. Its worth noting Stacey recently broke the club's F45-49 3000 metres age group record with 10:55!

We were now just past the half-way point and fans wondered whether Stacey could keep up this cracking pace. She showed she had no such worries with a fourth kilometre split of 3:43 and still 15 seconds ahead of her goal time and partner Philip's 5000 metre PB of 18:32 was very much under threat. With much encouragement from the sidelines, Stacey went to another level over the last kilometre with a dazzling display of quality distance running. Stacey - who thought to herself I have nothing to lose by pushing her last few laps as much as she could - put in a last kilometre of 3:33, as quick as her first kilometre!

With a time of 18:15, this smashes her own age group record of 19:13, was a good 30 seconds inside her goal time and now becomes the second quickest 5000 metre runner at the club, behind Jeremy Grey and ahead of the likes of Luong Dao, Luke Langley and Carl Kennedy. And once again, Stacey did negative split her race to go from fourth last at the start to a very creditable 16th place in what was a quality group in front of her

The third and last day of the Athletics Victoria Track & Field Championships was a day meet, with the preceding two days being night meets. This was to be the only day program of the competition, with five Coburg Harriers in action across two events

One of the first events for the day was the 4 x 1500 metres 40+ relay race, in which Coburg was represented by John Braszell, Warwick Erwin, Ken Souyave and Philip Van Dueren. While three of the athletes were competing in their age range, Ken Souyave made a valuable contribution to the team despite being in the above age group of 50 and over

Leading off for the team was John Braszell, with a season’s best time of 4:52 over the distance in AV Shield competition. Braszell did not disappoint with another strong performance to have the team well placed after the first leg. Next up was Warwick Erwin. While not having competed over the summer season to date, Erwin had been training very strongly and did not let the team down when it came his turn to run

Next up was Ken Souyave. Despite being the oldest of the group, Souyave earned his place on the team with a seasons best performance of 5:00 over the distance and a recent best of 4:55. With injury concerns and little preparation leading into the event, Souyave surpassed all expectations and placed the team in an excellent position leading into the last leg

Bringing the team home was Philip Van Dueren, who has been performing very strongly over the summer season to date. As he took the baton, the team was in sixth position with seventh placed Keilor St Bernards bearing down hard. It became apparent the latter was in no position to challenge and it was fifth placed Knox who began to lag. As Van Dueren came into the home straight he swent past the tiring Knox runner to finish the stronger and bring Coburg home in fifth place. It was a remarkable performance, underlined by Philip’s fastest time for the season

At the finish, the Coburg Harriers M40 4 x 1500 m team finished in a creditable fifth place with 20:24 and not only established a hard to beat M45-49 club record but also easily eclipsed the M40-44 club record by some 36 seconds. A fantastic effort and one that will be hard to beat by future Coburg teams

Next up for your Coburg Harriers was the “B” Grade 5000 metres. Entered into this event was Philip Van Dueren, Warwick Erwin, Jeremy Grey and John Braszell. As the race approached, it was apparent that Braszell had not recovered sufficiently from his earlier relay effort and regrettably scratched from the event

While the temperature was a comfortable 22 degrees at race start, a strong wind developed in the home straight which was likely to make very fast times difficult. As the large field of runners lined up at the start, Grey and Van Dueren found themselves in the first flight, with Erwin in the small group forward of the pack

Much like the women’s 5000 metres on Friday night’s competition, the leading men went out hard and Grey was caught up in the excitement with a 3:15 first kilometre (equating to a 16:15). Indeed, Erwin recorded a fast start with a first kilometre of 3:35 with Van Dueren only just behind in 3:38

The game plan for your three Coburg Harriers became clear. Grey was happy to sit behind the frontrunners and was looking very steady with very consistent lap ratings. Indeed, at one stage Grey was eight seconds ahead of his goal time. Van Dueren, on the other hand, seemed quite happy to use Warwick Erwin as his pacer and they stayed together for the majority of the race

At the three kilometre mark, Grey was on 9:52 and on track for 16:27. However, it was from this point that Grey started to fall apart. No such worries for Van Dueren and Erwin who continued to work very well together and with two kilometres to go only one second separated the two runners. With the head wind starting to freshen and conditions being made more difficult for competitors, runners were starting to struggle in the home straight as they came through to complete each lap. Underlining this, Grey clipped the heals of the runner in front of him, as did Van Dueren although in the latter’s case this was with his Coburg teammate Warwick

With a kilometre to go, Erwin and Van Dueren were still working beautifully together with just a second separating the two. However it was from this point that Van Dueren began to pull away from Erwin and, showing the experience of a full season’s track racing, Van Dueren (18:55) edged ahead a little more each lap to finish ten seconds ahead of Erwin (19:05), who perhaps could have done with more recent race experience. Nevertheless, it was an excellent time by Erwin who has not run a track race for almost two years

Grey continued to work with the Athletics Essendon runner in front of him throughout the last two laps, but began to pull away in the closing stages. While the last laps had been hovering around the 80 second mark, Grey was able to finish strongly with a 77 second last lap and bring it home in 16:36, a one second personal best.

So at the conclusion of the Victorian Championships, several records were broken, including : 

• F45-49   5000 metres : Stacey Van Dueren – 18:15 (now the Open Age record)
• M45-49  4 x 1500 m Relay: Braszell / Erwin . Souyave / Van Dueren – 20:24 (also M40-44)

Well done to all Coburg Harriers who competed and represented the club with pride

And last but not least, thank you to those who supported your Coburg Harriers including Philip Van Dueren (Friday night) and Diane Brimacombe (Sunday). It is worth noting that Diane kindly drove the entire crew (Philip, Stacey, Warwick and Jeremy) home on the Sunday. Thanks Di!