Richmond Harriers

It is with sadness  that we advise that Ray Smith passed away on June 3^rd.  Ray was a close and loyal friend to the Richmond Harriers and kept in regular contact with the club’s activities.  He was an outstanding athlete in his day, representing Australia in the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games in the 50km walk finishing 6^th.   He will be sadly missed by many of our members, he regularly attended “Thursday nights at the pub” where he was able to catch up with all the club news.

No details of a Funeral Service are yet known.

Results Wal Sheppard Mile 15/11/09

Name                                   Time                   Hcp.            +/-

Tony Dell                                5.39                      5.20            +19 (fastest time)

Liam Dell                                5.52                      6.00            -8

Rhys Coleman                         5.52                      5.00            +52

Blair Sheppard                         6.01                      5.50            +11

Austen Mates                          6.23                      6.30            -7

Bob Ellis                                  7.12                      7.25            -13

Moose                                     7.14                      6.45            +29

Laughlan Sheppard               7.23                    8.00              -37 1st Place

Phil Sheppard                         7.29                      7.45            -16

Barry Lynch                            7.57                      7.25            +32

Kieran Dell                             8.00                      6.30            +90 (late start)

Jay Dimitrov                           9.14                      8.50            +24

Bill Nagle                               9.16                      8.20            +56

Thanks to our officials and helpers Dennis Blandy, Max Giblett and Mal Cother, as well as to the Sheppard family for their continued support of this event. Next year is the 25^th anniversary of the Wal Sheppard Mile.  We plan to make this a memorable event and look forward to participation by all club members.

The Social Committee is arranging a barbeque lunch as a fundraiser for the club following The President’s Run around Lysterfield Lake.  The details are as follows:-

The picnic area is located bottom right hand corner – see map at http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/resources05/05_1413.pdf Zoom into map for details. Enter from Horswood Road, and head towards main picinic area (near toilet block).

The run will commence at 11.00a.m. and will include a Junior 2kms. race and a senior race of approximately 6kms.  Winter Presentations will follow the President’s Run after which the Social Committee has arranged a barbeque lunch – food (includes vegetarian) $2.50, drinks $1.50.  Raffle tickets will be sold during lunch.

Calendar of races for Winter 2010

Any race that starts with AV means this is an Athletics Victoria event and you must be a registered runner with Richmond to enter. Anyone can join in the Richmond Club races

Richmond Harriers has won AV Club of the Year for 2008/9.  President Rhys Coleman accepted the award of $1,000 on behalf of the club. Some of the achievements of the club in 2008/9 which contributed to the winning of this award are listed below:

A major development has been junior recruitment – for the first time in the club’s history we have been able to field both winter and summer junior teams in AV competition, resulting in a winter premiership and representation in the summer AV Shield final.

Over 2008/9 the club has arranged for the training of additional coaches (Tony Dell and Robert Caldwell),  introduced beginner and intermediate groups, and provided more AV officials (John Coleman, Christine Dell and Tony Dell).

The image of the club has been enhanced throughout the year with new material, design and colour of shorts, singlet and warm-up uniform, a new tent for competition days, an upgraded website, a ‘tiger cubs’ MySpace site for juniors and club business cards.

The passing of our club president of 25 years, Brendan McVeigh, has been marked by the introduction of a new club track award across 400 and 800 metre events; and recently the unveiling of a photograph of Macka at the club rooms.

Socially, the club conducted end-of-season dinners, a Trivia Night, Christmas Dinner and the 95th Celebration.  A re-developed Tiger Tales Newsletter keeps members informed.

An exciting development for the year has been the inclusion of three athletics stories, covering jumps, steeplechase and race walking, on Network 10 children’s television program ‘Totally Wild’.  This excellent coverage of athletics has now been handed to AV for continued involvement.

Organisation of the Advanced Freight Half Marathon continues to be a major contribution of the club to the AV winter season, with about 500 participants again this year.

Congratulations to the under 16 boys Richmond Harrier team who took out the XCR’08 Winter season in  style at the tan relays. This is a tremendous effort, congratulations guys!