(Updated Sunday 27th December 2009)
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Last year's record 160-plus athletes participating in a regular training session at Falls Creek may be broken!
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Numerous athletes who are training at Falls Creek such as Collis Birmingham have already been selected for our Commonwealth Games team.
Tim O'Shaughnessy Athletic Australia¹s National Distance Development
Manager said:"Some of our distance runners such as Eloise Wellings, the number two all time 5km athlete, Melissa Rowllinson, a silver medallist in the steeplechase at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Craig Mottram, Benita Willis, Collis Birmingham, who won the 10km Zatopek track event in Melbourne, will be training at Falls Creek
this week.
"There will be about 20 of our junior athletes, including Ryan Gregson who ran a credible race at the world titles in Berlin, at
Falls Creek for about eight days.
"As our national cross-country trials will be held in Melbourne on January 17, 2010 a number of athletes will come down from altitude training at Falls Creek a couple of days before they participate in what is a very important selection opportunity.
"The national trials for next year's Commonwealth Games will be held in mid-April (four weeks later than our usual trials) so I would expect athletes will be up at Falls Creek longer than other summers.
"We tend to send larger teams of distance runners to Commonwealth Games so the athletes do it as a better opportunity to make the Australian team."
O'Shaughnessy, the legendary supposedly retired, Steve 'Mona' Moneghetti, another living legend Chris Wairdlaw (who now trains
Craig Mottram) and Nic Bideau, a key player in the Falls Creek-based National Altitude Training Centre (NATC) all believe Falls Creek is an ideal environment for blocks of altitude training. For more than 35 years athletes have traditionally trained in the
cooler climes of the high country in the height of our hot summer. They also all
agree with (Mona's the group effect has been one of the keys to the success of the Falls Creek-based camps.
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(Updated Monday 23rd November 2009)
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Many of the elite athletes who are taking part in altitude training at Falls Creek will head to Melbourne this week to participate in the Great Australian Run.
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Well known top Australian runners such as Benita Willis, Craig Mottram, and Collis Birmingham, will take on some of the world's elite middle to long distance runners in the annual 15km road race.
Will they succeed?? We'll know after the race has been run and the medals distributed to the first, second and third placed contestants in what is one of the feature races of the 2009 runner's calender.
Two international runners Austrian Gunther Weidlinger and Bobbie Curtis from America, who have been training with Willis and Birmingham at Falls Creek, have also entered next Sunday's Great Australian Run.
Cathy Freeman, Australia's Olympic champion, who has made some unannounced trips to Falls Creek in the past (to motivate our up and coming middle long distance athletes) will also participate in the 15km event.
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(Updated Tuesday 10th November 2009)
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Joe Rodrigues Director of Rowing Brisbane Grammar School said: "The school has facilities based on the tidal Brisbane River and has one of the best fleets in Queensland, "Brisbane Grammar is one of the premier rowing schools in the country with a very proud rowing tradition going back to 1918 when the school competed in its first Head of the River competition.
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"Grammar has won the Open 1st VIII race 18 times, most recently in 2006, and the Old Boys Cup for overall premiership on five occasions. in fours and then in eights in 1955.
"We travel to Falls Creek to take advantage of the excellent water conditions, which is often difficult to find on the Brisbane River, and to escape the harsh Queensland summer heat.
"Each year the group of 45 athletes, ten coaches and three support staff, travel to Falls Creek with three trailers of boats and equipment including five rowing eights and five motorised coaching boats.
"In the 2008/2009 season, Grammar was ranked second in the overall premiership.
"Our rowing program has produced many State, National and World Champions, the most notable being dual Olympian Richard Powell (Seoul '88 and Barcelona '92), David Weightman (Atlanta '96), Shaun Coulton (Athens '04) and Sam Conrad (Beijing '08).
"Most premiership regattas are held at Kawana Waters on the Sunshine Coast.
Grammar also utilises the facilities of Falls Creek, Victoria and Grafton, New South Wales for camps throughout the season.
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(Updated Monday 9th November 2009)
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Some of Australia's elite runners including Collis Birmingham, Benita Willis (Johnson) and Ryan Gregson have returned to the alpine resort for altitude training with the Falls Creek-based National Altitude Training Centre (NATC).
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The first contingent of rowers from Brisbane Grammar School will begin training on Rocky Valley Lake in early December. Rowing coaches appreciate the opportunity to set courses almost 4km in length which is something they cannot achieve at sea level, particularly on rivers which have a high volume of multiple uses.
Athletic coaches also speak volumes about the benefits of altitude training at Falls Creek. Running legend Steve 'Mona' Moneghetti says it is the 'group effect'.
Mona believes this is the key to the success of the Falls Creek-based camps, On Boxing Day an influx of junior athletes, which includes some of our best up and coming runners, will join the more experienced runners who participate in regular training runs.
Collis, Willis and Gregson will be seen on numerous occasions around Falls Creek as they participate in regular sessions until 8 December.
The athletes appreciate the soft, tree-lined tracks, the crisp, clean air and the quite laid-back atmosphere Falls Creek, which it is renowned for.
And coaches relish the few distractions (for their charges) and the cross-training opportunities.
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Australia's elite runners including Collis Birmingham, Benita Willis (Johnson) and Ryan Gregson will be joined by Austrian runner Gunther Weidlinger and Bobby Curtis from America for a stint of altitude training with the Falls Creek-based National Altitude Training Center (NATC).
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Collis Birmingham won the five-kilometer Noosa Bolt road racing title (held last week) defending his road race title. Birmingham has now won this event twice and he's had his best-ever year including a start in 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters at the world championships in Berlin last August.
America's Bobby Curtis also had a 'good day at the office' finishing third. Curtis, Collis, Willis and Gregson will be seen on numerous occasions around Falls Creek as they participate in regular sessions between 6 November and 8 December.
Previous NATC training camps have had some very good outcomes for the athletes. Collis Birmingham ran personal bests over 1500m and 5000m. His win in the 5000m to take the Australian title was most impressive.
Ryan Gregson now holds Australian 1500m and 3k records junior records and Martin Dent (who Collis beat in last week's Noosa Bolt road race) was the best athlete at the World Cross Country trials.
On Boxing Day the annual influx of junior athletes will join the more experienced runners to take part in what running legend Steve 'Mona' Moneghetti says is the 'group effect'. Mona believes this is the key to the success of the Falls Creek-based camps.
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