Runnerboy22

Hurricane Irma Shifts Dunn’s focus

The devastating forces of Hurricane Irma in the US, not only displaced half the population of Florida but also derailed the comeback plans of Aussie Super Middleweight Zac Dunn.

Training in Miami for the past month, Dunn was due to fight Romanian Ferenc Albert last weekend.

With Irma bearing down on Florida, the show was cancelled.

Dunn is now rescheduled to fight in Merida, Mexica, on October 7^th when he steps into the ring against Argentinian Louis Edwardo Paz.

With a record of 12 wins, 3 losses and one draw, Paz will be no pushover, and fighting in the hotbed of Mexico will make the task no easier.

Training with renowned trainer Pedro Diaz, in Miami’s Mundo Gym for the past six weeks, has given Dunn a new perspective on the sport.

After his defeat at the hands of Scottish fighter David Brophy last March, Dunn took time off to recharge the batteries.

“Getting away has been good for me”, Dunn said.

“I have had a great time in Miami. I feel good, the people are great and I have been welcomed with open arms”.

“I am fresh and I am really looking forward to getting back in the ring again”.

Dunn has been in good company in Miami, with Diaz training the likes of WBO Super welterweight champion Miguel Cotto, world rated Guillermo Rigondeaux and heavyweight Ruslan Chagaev.

Rigondeaux fights two time Olympic Gold medalist and WBO Super Featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko at Madison Square Garden in December.

For Zac Dunn, October 7th is the start of what he hopes will be a climb back up the rankings and the world title shot he has always dreamed about.

Zac Dunn is back……

Zac Dunn was on his way. He had a record of 23 wins without defeat, and he had sharply KO’d 18 of his opponents.

He had built up a solid following of fans in his home town of Melbourne, had debuted in the US, and was rated in the top 10 Super Middleweights in the world.

He had a US promoter, he had won the IBO Super Middleweight title in addition to numerous regional titles and he was positioning himself for a world title shot. The world was firmly at his feet.

And then he lost. It was sudden, unexpected, and a shock to many that follow boxing in Australia.

Dunn was halted by Scottish fighter David Brophy in March 2017 defending his Commonwealth Super middleweight title, in what was the Scotsman’s biggest win to date and a shock to Aussie fight fans.

“I couldn’t believe it happened”, Dunn said in disbelief.

“It was like I had a bad day at the office, and you can’t have a bad day at the office in this sport”.

Brophy entered the ring with a record of 18 wins and only one defeat, and was a five to one underdog.

With his only loss coming to WBA Super Middleweight champ George Groves, the Scotsman started the fight strongly, and displayed unexpected punching power.

Despite having only stopped two fighters inside the distance, Brophy was throwing bombs and hurting the normally rock solid Dunn.

It appeared to be a different David Brophy than the one the Dunn camp expected to step into the ring.

In round seven with Dunn absorbing blows to his body and head, his corner threw in the towel, saving him from further punishment.

Honest in his review, Dunn gave the Scottish fighter full credit.

“Brophy had done his homework and he hit me with some body shots that really hurt”.

“They had seen something in the way I fought and worked on it. I do give him credit, he was tough and he came to fight but he didn’t see the real Zac Dunn that night”.

The 26 year old spoke honestly about the fight and reflected on the loss with clear thinking.

“I was disappointed for sure. I was disappointed for the people that had supported me, that’s what hurts me the most”.

“I don’t want to give any excuses and I certainly didn’t take him easy but I would love another chance to fight him, I have learned a lesson”.

After the loss Dunn took a couple of months away from the sport and for the first time in four years he didn’t set foot in a gym.

“Having some time away has freshened me up. I feel really good and I want to use the loss to be better.”

“It’s not the end of the world, I have learned a lot about myself and now I am even more determined to be world champion”.

Escaping the Melbourne Winter for the warmth of Costa Rica for a short time, Dunn is now in Miami training for a fight against Romanian Ferenc Albert, on the 23^rd of September.

“The fight is in Miami and I am really looking forward to getting back in the ring. I am excited and ready to go”.

“I really like training in the US. The weather is great and the sparring and training is world class. I am right in the mix and I feel fresher and relaxed”.

“I know people might have been surprised with the loss but I am ok and I am now looking forward”.

“The fight on the 23^rd of September is my first step back up the rankings and I am really excited about it”.

Perhaps it was a case of the loss he needed to have, but if attitude has anything to do with winning in the world’s toughest sport, then Zac Dunn is well on his way to bigger and better things.

Authors note – In July this year David Brophy was removed from the WBC world ratings, for failing to enrol in the Clean Boxing Program administered by VADA (Voluntary Anti-doping association).

Anna Pasquali and women in the pro’s

Professional athletics, like most of the sporting world, took a while to catch on.

Female sport is a hot topic. With the AFL women’s league, Women’s Big Bash cricket and a revamped national netball competition grabbing prime time TV coverage, women in sport has taken center stage.

From an athletics perspective, society has come a long way since the heady days of 1967 when Katrine Switzer ran the Boston marathon. With women banned from running, Switzer was attacked by race officials in an attempt to stop her finishing.

Switzer made it to the end and in the process ended the ludicrous thinking that females couldn’t run 42 kilometers.

Long the domain of men, professional athletics in Australia has seen very little in the way of female participation. Until the mid-90s, it was rare to see a female run.

Long-time stalwart of the Victorian Athletic League, Barry Milligan, was forced to think long and hard to find any reference to females starting in the sport.

“There was a lady by the name of Nicky Coughlan that ran for a while in the 80s. This of course is only in Victoria, I have no idea what may have happened in the other states”, Barry said.

“As best I know, Anne Fiedler was the first to win an open race at Stawell, when she won the Frontmarkers 400m in 2001. Kendra Hubbard was also the first to win an open Gift (Melbourne Gift) in late 2008”.

Whilst Anne Fiedler and Kendra Hubbard continue to race on the circuit, the retired Nicky Coughlan is considered the pioneer for women running professionally in Australia.

She was an oddity. Lining up against the men in the late ‘80s, she was a lone female flying the flag for women in pro sprinting.

“I trained with Neil King and a lot of his group ran pro. I asked whether I could try”, Nicky said.

The 57 year old teacher has fond memories of the sport, with this year’s Stawell Gift marking the 30^th anniversary of her first race at Central Park.

“I first ran at Stawell in the ‘87 season and I loved it. I was on the limit and didn’t do very well but it was a great weekend”.

Not wanting to become the pin up girl for feminism in pro running, Nicky is matter of fact about the sport and her involvement.

“I must admit I didn’t really think too much about it. I just wanted to run”, she said.

“Most of the men were really good but I did have a few issues with some runners who thought I shouldn’t be running, it was nothing serious”.

“I didn’t have a lot of success against the guys but I did win a heat of the 70 meters at Rye which was a highlight”.

Coughlan breached the frontier that was the male dominated Victorian Athletic League, and whilst not celebrated, clearly led the way for women racing pro today.

“At first the only women you would see at race meetings were the girlfriends or wives of the athletes. When more girls started racing they introduced women’s races, so I didn’t have to run against the men. I ended up winning a few ladies races and it was a great time in my life”.

Women’s races were finally introduced into the Stawell Gift program in 1989 with female sprinters forced to run on the novice or “alternate” track, and for a pittance.

Things have changed. This year, 131 women, racing in 17 heats, bolted down the premier ‘Gift’ track. A long way from the lone female who took to the blocks in 1987.

The Stawell Gift often throws up great stories. It’s been the same for over 135 years and 2017 was no different.

You only need cast your eyes to Men’s Gift winner Matt Rizzo as an example. Perhaps even Kendra Hubbard coming second in the Open 200 metres might take your fancy. What about the win by evergreen Evan King in the 100m Masters as a terrific tale?

All three are great yarns no doubt, but one story from the 2017 Stawell Gift stands out.

Wangaratta’s Anna Pasquali is a mother of three. Married to the sport, and husband Wally, she epitomizes professional athletics.

Tall and slender, with a classic running style, the 38 year old balances life as a mother and a career as a physiotherapist, with professional athletics.

I am sure she won’t mind me saying, that amongst a generation of teenagers that now dominate the sport, she is almost a dinosaur. With 18 professional wins in a 20 year running career, she has had her share of success, a win at Stawell had eluded her though.

With little time for anything else, Anna is popular, easy going and always up for a chat. She has been trying to crack a win at Stawell since 1997.

Stawell, the small quant town in country Victoria, has a habit of leaving the bitter taste of disappointment to most who race. Until this year it was the same for Anna.

“I have two losses I still struggle with. In 2004, I crossed the line with Kimberly Meagher in the final of the women’s 400m. I knew it was really close. Immediately the TV crew came over to me, put the sponsors hat on my head. Wally was there with my training squad congratulating me. Within a minute, they had decided Kim had won it, so off came the hat and away went the TV crew”.

“The other big disappointment was of course running second to Grace O’Dwyer in 2015. In some ways I shouldn’t be, but how could you not be somewhat upset in the first ever 120m women’s at Stawell, where equal prizemoney was at stake”.

2015 was the first time that women had parity, and with prizemoney increasing from $6,000 to $60,000, competition was fierce.

For Anna, her cool reflection of the race is probably the best indication of why she is so well liked on the circuit.

“If I was going to come second to anyone, I’m glad it was Grace. Wally and I both have the upmost respect for Peter O’Dwyer, her father and coach”.

Two decades in the making, when she finally breasted the tape first in the women’s 400 metres, it was stylish, classy and downright inspiring.

“To win this is like a dream come true. After 20 years and eight Stawell finals, I had finally reached my goal”, she said.

Trained by Stawell Hall of Famer, Greg O’Keeffe and in an event that takes a touch over 50 seconds, it was a dominant performance.

Running off the mark of 40 metres, in a race that went perfectly to plan, Anna took control early and finished almost two seconds ahead of second place runner Kim McDonough.

The Pasquali family, in many ways, sum up professional athletics.

Anna met her husband Wally in the sport, and his rather romantic courtship, proof that this was the picture perfect pro couple.

“We met on Easter Saturday 2002 when a girlfriend and I ran at Stawell. In typical 23 year old style we had nowhere to stay. Wally and his mate Clint Youlden, also a pro runner, had a spare room in their two bedroom cabin. So we bunked in with them, and the rest is history”, she said.

It was a pro running love story with a fairy-tale ending.

“He proposed to me three years later on good Friday 2005, out the front of the Central Park gates”.

Now with three kids in tow, for the popular couple, it has been a match made in heaven.

Almost like a rite of passage, the Stawell Gift is about family and tradition.

Like the Pasquali family, generations make the trek to Stawell every Easter to celebrate a sport engrained in Australian culture. For Anna, its life.

“An Easter without Stawell is like a Christmas without Santa! We love the build-up, the excitement, the betting, the Friday night drill hall and the memories we have accumulated since Wally and I met in 2002”.

“Now the kids get to race, that only adds to our excitement”.

With the first page written by Nicky Coughlan, Anna Pasquali is another chapter in the growing story about female professional sprinters in Australia.

Things have changed for females in the sport no doubt, and with a long apprenticeship served, Anna, like Nicky Coughlan before her, has earned a place in Stawell Gift history.

Darcy Ritchie – One that got away

As a youngster growing up in Shepparton, I had heard many a Goulburn Valley sports fan describe Darcy Ritchie as a great boxer.

While researching this article what became clear, was not just how good he was but how good he could have been.

Naturally funny, light-hearted and as tough a concrete, Ritchie had a stellar career.

With a record of 26 wins, five losses and three draws across three decades as a professional fighter, he is widely considered as someone who should have won a world title.

Former super featherweight world champion Barry Micheal described the ex-Shepparton fighter as one of the best fighters he has ever faced in the ring. Not that they actually fought against each other but they sparred hundreds of rounds together.

“If I was sparring Darcy and I threw a left hook, he could actually catch the punch and hit me straight down the middle with a right hand before I could bring my left back to my face”, he said.

“No other fighter in the world, including Lester Ellis could hit me with that punch. He was super quick and it’s a shame he didn’t take the next step as he was as good as anyone I have seen”.

Frank Ropis, another of Australia’s boxing greats described being personally hurt that the aboriginal boy from country Victoria didn’t get the title he deserved.

“He is the first bloke you would want in the trenches with you, he is very selfless and just a champion guy”, he said.

“He had amazing reflexes and looked as if he had all the time in the world, it was just a joy to watch him fight. If they had of taken him over the America he would have blitzed them”.

High praise from two of Australia’s all-time greats, throwing weight behind the argument that in many ways, Darcy Ritchie was the one that got away.

Born in Shepparton in 1955 he was abandoned by his mother as a baby and his father died of a brain haemorrhage when he was nine years old, leaving him to be raised by his grandparents.

“I didn’t know my mother and I only knew my dad when I was really young. He fought in the boxing tents a lot, Ritchie said.

“When I started fighting as a professional, blokes would say I wasn’t as good as my father and I agreed with them”.

“Although I haven’t lived in Shepparton for 25 years but I have good memories of the town and I owe my grandparents everything”.

Now 62 years old and working for a council somewhere between Rockhampton and Alive springs, his early memories of boxing include him watching his father in the tents and seeing boxing on television.

“I like bike racing initially but at about 16 years of age boxing took my fancy”, he said.

With his mates playing football for Lemnos or Shepparton United in the Goulburn Valley Football League, he convinced local lightweight champion Max Carlos to teach him the finer points of the sweet science.

Max Carlos was a local boxing legend. The 1956 Olympian was well known for his three legendary fights against the great George Bracken in the 1950s.

“Max trained me for months and months before he even let me spar in the ring. He was a perfectionist. He taught me how to hit and not be hit and was the reason I did ok as a fighter, he said.

Fighting only seven amateur fights he turned to the professional ranks after being “robbed” in the senior state championships fighting as a junior.

“Max taught me too well, I was fighting like a pro and the officials didn’t like it, so I turned professional”, he remembered.

“I even had to get permission from my grandparents because I was under the legal age to fight professionally”.

Turning to pro boxing in 1971, he remained undefeated for 23 straight fights over 13 years, and played a major part in a boxing institution of the time, TV Ringside.

From 1966 through to 1975 TV Ringside was broadcast on channel seven from festival Hall in West Melbourne every Monday night.

“Boxing was big back then. There were a lot of fighters around and you really had to fight your way to the top, Ritchie said.

“I didn’t have a driver’s license and I was living and working in Shepparton at the time. My old pop would pick me up at work on Monday lunchtime and take me out to the drive in and I would hitch a ride to Melbourne to fight that evening”.

“Pop would write down the registration number of the car that picked me up and Max Carlos bought me back that night. I was back at work in Shepparton the next morning”.

In typical Carlos style, Ritchie was said to have a water tight defence and a toughness that couldn’t be taught.

Carlos declared to fight fans at the time that Ritchie had more natural ability than Rocky Mattioli, who won a world middleweight title.

After leaving the Goulburn Valley and Carlos, Ritchie trained with Reg Johnson in Preston. He eventually moved back to Shepparton and worked with Ray Styles. He also conceded he also had 300 tent fights just to earn an extra quid.

“I fought all the best fighters of the time when I could actually get them in the ring”, Ritchie said.

“I sparred with Lester Ellis, Barry Micheal, Rocky Mattiolli and Hector Thompson. I didn’t have any problems with them”.

“I retired a few times because nobody wanted to fight me. I got sick of it. It wasn’t just small time fighters that avoided me, fighters like Baby Cassius Austin, Frank Ropis and Russell Sands all pulled out of Australian title fights with me, often only a day or two before the fight”.

Former journalist Noel Hussey remembers Ritchie having to take fights against bigger opponents towards the end of his career just to get a pay day.

“He called it quits a few times because he just couldn’t get anyone into the ring”, Hussey said.

“He spent months training for a fight only for the opponent to pull out. I remember him being bitterly disappointed with the sport at stages throughout his career.

As far as titles Ritchie laughs about the time he “won” the Victorian welterweight title.

“The officials came up to Shepparton and gave me a trophy. I didn’t even fight for it because they couldn’t get anybody to fight me. What a joke, so I threw the trophy in the Goulburn River”.

Hampered by a lack of fights in the ring Ritchie was also dogged by problems outside the ring that took him from the sporting back pages, to the front page.

Two stints in prison and numerous “runs ins” with the law added to the frustration of a career that could have gone anywhere.

“I got 44 months jail somewhere between 1985 and 1990 but I ended up only doing 28 months”, he said.

“I went to jail for stealing. We took a safe from a jewellery shop in Melbourne and strangely enough the police pulled us over and we got in a bit of trouble.

“I also went to prison for another smaller offence and yes I admit, I did have my troubles with the law over the years.

“I look back on it all and my only regret is for the people I may have hurt on the way through but most of it I wouldn’t change, even going to prison. I made some good friends in prison. A lot of the prisoners knew me from TV Ringside.

“I ended up becoming mates with a guy by the name of Mark Read, better known as ‘Chopper’. He was a funny bloke and he still had his ears in those days”, he laughed.

Touted as one of Australia’s best boxers, Richie sees only the positives. in a career that didn’t quite reach the heights that others expected.

“I have done ok with my career and do you know what, I would change anything”, he said. “I would do it all the same again if I had the chance”.

“I didn’t win an Australian title, but I am not punch drunk and broke like a lot of ex- fighters who did a lot better than I did. I am broke but at least you can talk to me”, he said matter- of- factly.

“I don’t live for the fight game anymore, in fact there is nothing related to boxing in my house – no photos, no gloves, nothing”.

“I look forward now and its one of the reasons I don’t go to the fights anymore, I don’t want to talk about the past. I live for now, the past is past”, he adds with no hint of bitterness.

Retiring from the fight game in 1994, and with plenty of funny stories to tell, the larrikin Ritchie now watches the career of his son from afar.

Now 15 wins with only one defeat, Dwight Ritchie is a star on the rise.

“He’s a good boxer, he still needs some work but with time he could win a big title”, Darcy Ritchie said.

“I hope he stays out of trouble, works hard and with a bit of luck maybe he can win the title I couldn’t.

My advice to him though is make sure he keeps a job and gets a trade away from the ring because it’s a tough sport and not many make it”.

The heartbreak of the Stawell Gift

True Colours – The people of Pro Running

Bill Sutton, Todd Ireland and Tim Mason.

As we inch towards the Easter Stawell Gift, thoughts of great winners come to mind.

George McNeil, Ravelo, Capobianco, Edmonson, Howard and Ross, are names that easily roll off the tongue as outstanding winners of the great race.

A source of constant debate, rarely will two people agree on who was the greatest winner.

Stawell Gift winners are immortalised. Even today when commercial sporting giants like the AFL dominate sport, the winner of the Gift is lauded on news broadcasts and broadsheets. People take notice of Stawell Gift winners, and rightly so.

It got me thinking. What about those that almost made it? The runners that were great in their own right but finished just short of the greatest prize in professional running. People like Bill Sutton, Todd Ireland and Tim Mason.

All three were super-fast, superb professional athletes, and all three men tell a story of heartache in a sport that gives you very few chances.

I can’t remember Bill Sutton not being at a pro race meeting. Most runners these days know him as a race starter.

The 75 year old is a jovial sort, the type that tends to calm runners before races with a well-placed joke and an easy word.

Bill Sutton was born to run and he has been in the trenches of professional footrunning for almost 60 years.

From Mendini near Broken Hill, in NSW, Bill ran in bare feet for his first 15 or 16 years. Running around a sheep and cattle station he didn’t know anything about running shoes, let alone spikes.

Back in the day, when men with money were on the lookout for anyone with speed, Bill was spotted after winning pro races at Gymkhana events in country NSW.

Asked to trial in Broken Hill against a local speedster, in bare feet and a standing start, Bill bolted in.

“I hadn’t trained at all before trialling with those guys. I ran in bare feet because I didn’t have shoes. I didn’t have a clue what Sweeny’s were or anything’, he said.

“I ran for fun but that day things changed for me”, he recalled.

Trained by Bill Botel and Henry McIntyre, Sutton moved to Melbourne in 1961 and took to pro racing like a duck to water, and it wasn’t long before he was raising the eyebrows of the handicappers.

In 1962 and running off a handicap of Five and 3\4 yards, and under instructions from his coaches, his performances were strangely up and down. Quick heat times were followed by slower semi finals.

After an inconsistent performance in the Bendigo Gift, in order for Sutton to keep his handicap mark, the stewards gave Sutton’s handlers some advice.

It was advice that they didn’t heed, and it’s a decision that irks Sutton to this day.

“There were a couple of races where I ran well in the heats but lost time in the semis and the stewards were a bit tired of that. They told my trainers to let me win a race and then wait for Stawell, and my mark will be held”.

“They didn’t want me to race everywhere, continue to do what I was doing and make them look stupid”, he said.

“Well my two trainers thought they knew better and raced me everywhere. I mean I was 18 or 19, how could I say anything, I was just doing what I was told.”

“I was badly handled by two guys who got excited that they had a good runner”, Sutton said, the disappointment still obvious.

“The handicappers thought I had shit on them but I was just a kid doing what I was told”

“I ended up getting to Stawell in 1962, and my mark was four and 1\4 yards. I had lost one and half yards.”

The Stawell Gift in 1962 was won by Leonard Beachley, with Jeff Thomson second and Bill Sutton an agonizingly close third. Sutton’s loss was measured in inches.

“It sticks in my guts to this very day”, he said.

Sutton ended up winning 31 professional races in distances from 70 through to 400 metres. In 1963 he won both the 200 and the backmarkers 120 yards at Stawell, and some say he still holds an unofficial Australian 300 metre record, in a time somewhere south of 30 seconds.

Bill’s blistering speed saw him get a contract to play Rugby League with North Sydney before injuring himself in a trial game, and whilst having a running career others envied, it’s the Stawell Gift that haunts him, 55 years later.

Melbourne athletes Tim Mason and Todd Ireland both fell short in the same race, 28 years after Sutton.

In a Stawell final said to be one of the best ever, Dean Capobianco launched himself into athletic immortality with his win in the 1990 Gift.

Much has been said about Capobianco but very little has been written about those that lost that day.

Todd Ireland is a legend of the sport. He has made a record 14 Stawell semi-finals and three Stawell Gift finals.

1990 was his best chance, and like Sutton, he finished third.

A member of the Stawell Gift hall of Fame, Ireland grew up with visions of winning at Stawell. Whilst others looked to amateur success, he had a firm focus on Central Park in the small Victorian country town.

“When I was 16 or 17, I was training with guys who wanted to win national titles. For me, nobody remembers who won national titles but everybody remembers who won the Stawell Gift”.

In 1990 after running 12.07 in his heat, the Gary Barker trained Ireland, went into the 1990 final as equal favourite with Tim Mason.

The lightly framed Ireland faced a headwind in the final which seemed to suit the big striding, well-built Dean Capobianco.

“I was trained to the minute but it was unlucky that perhaps the conditions didn’t suit me. They probably didn’t suit Tim as well”, he recalled.

“I liked a wind blowing behind me and in the final we faced a headwind. A headwind suited a big strong runner like Capo”.

“Sometimes the running gods are with you and sometimes they aren’t, that day they weren’t with me”.

Ireland went on to win 15 or 16 pro races, with wins in classic’s like Bendigo, Burnie, Wangaratta and Maryborough Gifts. He also won the 200 Metres at Stawell in 2011.

“Looking back, I became a better athlete because of the loss. In reality I was beaten by a better runner, although I admit it did hurt. I couldn’t watch the replay for 12 months afterwards”, he said.

Currently on the board of the Victorian Athletic League, Ireland still runs when he can but his focus is the future of the sport and coaching a squad of young athletes, which include his sons Jake and Darcy.

“I don’t have any real regrets, sure I wanted to win but I don’t think about it much, my main focus is on the runners I coach and maybe I can help them win a few big races”.

For the easy going Tim Mason, he remembers the money that they didn’t get, after the 1990 Stawell Gift.

Trained by current Sprint handicapper Graeme Goldsworthy, Mason strangely laughs when he recalled that close to $50,000 in winning bets went begging after running second to Capobianco.

“It wasn’t just the prizemoney that we missed but it was what we lost in the betting ring. Goldy gave me the betting slips a while ago and they are now filed away in the scrap book. I will look at them if I ever want to get depressed”, he said with a chuckle.

“Initially you are disappointed, it’s something you think about when you’re young. You train hard and it becomes your focus for a few years”.

“There’s a photo in book called Capturing the Moment by Bruce Postle. It has Capobianco crossing the line with his hands in the air. Myself and Todd Ireland look devastated. That sums it up”.

For Mason, pro athletics gave him a unique view on sport, and something not many individual sports can provide.

“I enjoyed the thrill of the punt. When you and your stable think you’re a chance, it adds to the mystique of the sport. I also really loved being part of a stable, the mates and everything that comes with pro running”.

In a career that saw him make two Stawell Gift finals, he eventually won four pro races and he has fond affiliation with Bendigo.

“I made the 1992 Stawell Gift final as well but I wasn’t really a chance. My highlights both came at Bendigo. The Bendigo Gift was my first win in the pros’ and the Bendigo 400m was a highlight because of the circumstances, and the 50 minute inquiry by the stewards after the race”.

Similar to Ireland, Mason sees his future in helping the sport. With daughter Georgia just starting out in professional athletics, Mason has also started work on reigniting the Parkdale Gift for season 2018 and looking to give up and coming athletes more opportunity to race.

There have been some fantastic races at Stawell over the years and usually the winner of the gift is a memorable one.

There can only be one winner and for the others there is always next year. For Bill Sutton, Todd Ireland and Tim Mason, there is no next year, and whilst losing on the biggest stage, unlike most of us, at least they were there.

True Colours – The people of Pro Running (Sean Quilty)

Terang is a small town in country Victoria, about 215 km from Melbourne. Home to 2400 people, Terang’s claim to fame lies in its peat beds, former Collingwood player Ronnie Wearmouth, and trotting champion Gammalite.

It’s a nice town, but unfortunately, like a lot of smaller Victorian towns, it’s now a good coffee stop on the way to bigger towns like Warnambool, just up the road.

There was a professional athletics meeting at Terang not too long ago ,where the mile race was won by 50 year old Sean Quilty.

Quilty also represented Australia at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Two great memories, 20 years apart, in a running career lasting 38 years and counting.

Quietly spoken, modest and easy going, 50 year old Quilty was a champion runner. Years ago he was world class with a personal best of 2.13.20 for the marathon. He admitted his best is behind him though.

As far as the pro circuit goes, he is most likely the most credentialed athlete going around, and I am willing to bet most don’t even know it.

Young runners, new to professional athletics, probably don’t give him a sideways glance. He doesn’t care, he runs because he loves it.

When you get chatting to him, you realise that he is very measured when he speaks, probably the result of his job as an insurance underwriter. Or is it simply because he is a no fuss type of guy?

Watching him win the mile at Terang, it’s clear he loves running.

On an oval surrounded by trees, amongst the casual atmosphere of a well- organised country race meeting, he reminded me of a man addicted to the sport. Somewhat like Forest Gump, he just keeps running.

He does what a good pro runner does, and turns up each week.

“I get a buzz from it”, he said.

“I really like the sport, the social aspect of it and I love the competition”.

He started running at age 12 and with an Olympic and two Commonwealth Games appearances, three world championships, a world cross country championship and two Australian marathon titles, his record speaks for itself.

He finished 34^th in the Atlanta Olympics and won a silver medal in the Alberta Canada Commonwealth games marathon. Like the modest person that he is, he seems more comfortable talking about how his elite career finished.

“My body started failing in about 1999. I put my worst performance in at the Seville world championships where I ran 2.56 for the marathon. I would get to about 35 kilometres into a race and start cramping up. I tried to run after 1999 and get back to the world championships but my body was failing and I called it quits”.

Aside from the Olympic Games, his silver medal at the Commonwealth games is a career highlight.

“I was lucky to get the silver to be honest. I thought I was in the right place at the right time. I remember I came back from the Commonwealth games and I was having a run with a friend and I said that same thing to him. My friend disagreed and said I was the right bloke, in the right place, at the right time. I often think back to that, maybe he was right”.

“It was interesting, in that race I was 10^th with 12 km to go. I just seemed to run the perfect race for the last 10kms. I drew everybody in, and ended up running 2 hours 14 minute and 57 seconds, which was a two second PB at the time”.

Quilty doesn’t look fast but he is. He has a distinctive, shuffle type style that comes from running efficiently. His technique doesn’t have a thousand moving parts, perfect for longer distance runner.

Trained by John Hurst for many years and now Marteen Beer, it’s said that Quilty is a great motivator, an inspiration to many. These were comments from his own stable, people who look up to him.

His wife Laura, a typical athletics ‘widow’ has been following what has been a permanent fixture on the professional running circuit for the last 15 years.

Continuing what is now a family tradition, his son Donovan (named after sprinting sensation Donavan Bailey) had his first professional race at Sandringham in 2016.

Quilty thinks he might have won around 15 pro races but he is just guessing.

His highlight on the pro circuit came in 2006 when he won the Frontmarkers mile at Stawell.

“To win was great but I never really went out to try and win a race at Stawell”.

“I am pretty laid back and reserved and if I was to sum up my own career, it was more on the basis that I never thought really big about achieving things but I feel I achieved more than I set out to achieve”, he said.

He is almost bashful when talking about himself. Modesty is a great trait.

There are many on the Pro circuit with a good story to tell, but the story of Sean Quilty is one for the ages.

Without any shadow of a doubt he is one of Australia’s best athletes still pounding the track, and like most pro runners, he is always on the lookout for “a lift”.

True Colours – “A photo that defines a sport and an athlete” – Les Williams

In the first of a series of stories about professional sprinters called “True Colours”, we explore a photo and uncover an athlete.

With hands held aloft, this is the story of Les Williams.

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Great photos, like great athletes, are timeless.

A photo, taken at the right moment, gives meaning to that moment and conveys a mood, romance and raw emotion with no need for words.

Famous US photographer Annie Leibovitz, built a career around taking iconic photos that tell stories.

In a sport considered one of Australia’s most historic, there is a photo that sums up not only the sport, but the passion and emotion of the athletes that inhabit it.

It is an extraordinary professional athletics photo, taken not at the famous Stawell Gift as you would expect but at the finish of the Keilor 300 metre masters final.

Somewhat like explaining religion to a non-believer, explaining professional athletics to non-runners is frustrating at best and long the subject of clumsy conversations.

Taken by Irene King, the photo captures the last moments of a professional footrace perfectly and from my perspective defines the sport.

Almost like lining up at your local take away restaurant at dinner time, nine runners finished a race packed together, straining for the tape and the win.

Professional athletes, Neil Brennan, Martin Barrow, Mark Howard, Les Williams, Scott Shillito, Jamie Johns, Shane Buckingham, Mandy Emmett, Dale Jones and Richard Wearmouth, are now part of folklore.

Like an Annie Liebovitz picture, the photo reads very well and presents a rainbow of colour strewn across the track.

From the outside and within a blink of an eye, the backmarker in red, Brennan, was almost parallel to the ground after having crashed past a heaving Martin Barrow in Blue. The yellow of Mark Howard seems resigned to his fate as the grey of Les Williams, arms held aloft, takes the win in front of the fast finishing pink runner of Scott Shillito.

It was everything we like to see in a ‘pro’ race. A bunched final 30 metres, physical toughness, hard running back markers pushing wide, and front markers using their handicap to force the ‘backies’ to dig deep and get around them.

It was a race in inches but magnificent by any measure.

You could argue that there are more famous professional running photos. Chris Perry crossing the line ahead of Mick Guilieri in the 1982 Stawell Gift is a good example. Maybe even the picture of George McNeil crossing the finish line at Stawell is another. Both magnificent photos no doubt but none convey the meaning of professional athletics, quite like this photo.

For the winner, Les Williams, it was his 64^th win on the professional running circuit, and his first in seven years.

Williams says he is about 6ft tall but I am sure he is giving himself an inch or two. He has to be 5ft10 if anything.

He has a slight frame decorated with a few tattoos and there isn’t an ounce of fat on him.

An easy going guy he is always up for a chat and to use Aussie lingo, he is a ‘good bloke’.

A serious competitor on the track, he is a delight off it, and is known by everybody on the circuit.

His memory of the race itself was hazy but he clearly recalls the moments after his win.

“I didn’t really know what was going on but as soon as I hit the line people came from everywhere, it was amazing. It was an incredible race”.

“How good was the picture, I mean you have people in sixth spot throwing at the line, it was that competitive”, he said.

With a rugged earthy look and a tanned complexion, Williams has been running professionally since 1972.

16 years old at the time and with the grand old stager Charlie Booth by his side, he remembers his first race like it was yesterday.

“It was at Keilor funnily enough and Charlie entered me in the mile. I was a sprinter and I am not sure why I was in the mile. Everybody was in the showers when I came in, I was that far last”, he laughed.

“In those days, pro running was a long process and I got thrashed early on”.

“Charlie was the inventor of the starting blocks and the bloke who got me into pro running. He is really responsible for me being in the sport”.

Other than Charlie Booth, he was trained by the likes of John Bell, Fergie Speakman, John Hawke, Wally Meacham and Marteen Beer.

Now 60 years old and with 44 years of experience in his legs, he has some great memories of a sport that has been good to him.

He rates his win in the 400 metres at Stawell, his Zatopek mile win and his two Bendigo 400 wins, as career highlights.

“I was lucky with the blokes that trained me. I won 46 races with Wally and we won in events from the 70 metres through to the mile”.

Now a grandfather, he could be forgiven for sitting back and relaxing at his home overlooking 90 mile beach and reflecting on a great career. Those that know him know that this couldn’t be further from the truth.

“I love the sport, it has been my whole life and I can’t see myself changing”.

“Not many people get a chance to run in front of big crowds at Stawell and also in front of 80,000 people at the cricket”.

Once Williams starts talking about professional athletics, he gets on a roll and is tough to stop.

“In the 70s and 80s the sport was huge and every week you were running in front of big crowds. You not only had the Stawell Gift but there were races like the Dandy Dollar Dash which had prizemoney of $10,000 and a car”.

With far ranging opinions on the sport, he admits the modern day version is somewhat different to what it used to be.

“It is still very competitive but there isn’t as many runners or race meetings around these days and the prizemoney isn’t the same”.

“In the past pro running was always in the major papers, now it hardly gets any publicity”.

With a son that has also run in the ‘pros’, it appeared to be a real family affair.

Dismissing the thought, he laughed and said, “my son ran a bit but the last time my wife Debbie watched me run was in 1983, when I won the 400 at Stawell”.

A character on the professional running circuit, Les Williams doesn’t need a photo to underline his contribution to the sport, it was simply appropriate that someone like Les was in that race, and in front when the photo was taken.

Almost like a movie script, the photo tells a unique story about a sport and an athlete, both of whom should never be forgotten.

The Forgotten Sport

There is a league in Australia that is elite in every sense of the word.

Our Women’s National Basketball League or the WNBL, has been at the top of its game for a decade but you would never know.

Make no mistake, our female basketballers are world class performers in what is a world class league but unless you go to a game you don’t get to see it.

Surprisingly there is no free to air coverage on television, in addition to a distinct lack of promotion by the WNBL themselves.

With team’s starting taking action and live streaming games, it has certainly taken a step forward in the publicity stakes but fundamentally it’s the forgotten women’s game.

Led by the Women’s Big Bash League and the gamble taken by channel 10 in televising women’s cricket, women’s sport is a hot commodity.

With extraordinary TV ratings and games attracting over 400,000 viewers, the newly minted queen of women’s sport, outperformed A-League soccer and the state based Men’s cricket Cup last year.

In what must be a bitter pill for the WNBL, Women’s cricket or least the twenty- twenty version, leads the way for female sport in Australia.

Add into the mix the emerging AFL women’s league which kicks off in 2017 and further pressure is applied to women’s basketball in Australia.

The new AFLW will surely attract attention and carve up an already shrinking television pie.

Following the ABC’s axing of its WNBL coverage two years ago and with television channels multiplying like rabbits, it’s astonishing that the second best women’s basketball league in the world doesn’t have a broadcast partner.

With the Men’s national competition, the NBL, being run privately and not part of the Basketball Australia equation, the WNBL is Basketball Australia’s premier national competition.

With basketball in the top bracket of participation sports in Australian and just under half of those participants being female, it begs the question, what are the WNBL or more particular, Basketball Australia doing?

For Justin Nelson, General Manager of WNBL club The Melbourne Boomers, it’s a sense of frustration and a growing concern.

“Basketball Australia manages the WNBL and some dedicated focus on promotion wouldn’t go astray. The league needs to better promote itself. For example, I’ve spent time with V8 Supercars and everything is flat out promotion, you can’t just expect people to turn up. You have to work hard for your audience and then even harder to keep them. That’s what competition is about right now in the sporting world.”

Nelson believes that more work needs to be done at the top level to help not only the WNBL clubs but the game itself.

“I want basketball to fully realise its demographic and successfully gain a piece of the sponsorship pie, because if we don’t drive this game commercially it will fall further behind the football codes, and the likes of netball and cricket”.

With the Australian women’s basketball team, the Opals, in the top bracket of teams across the globe coupled with the success of the WBBL and the fact we have arguably to second best female basketball league in the world, surely the time is right for the WNBL or basketball Australia to pounce……or not as seems to be the case.

Australian boxing and the rise of Super Middleweight Zac Dunn

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The Super middleweight division is arguably world boxing’s best.

With a history of highly skilled, tough champions, breaking into the top echelon of this division, is not only difficult but damn near impossible.

Not considered a traditional weight division, it’s home to those fighters that are too big for middleweight and too small for Light Heavyweight.

Household names like Sugar Ray Leonard, Joe Calzaghe, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, Roy Jones Jnr and Iran Barkley have held Super Middleweight world titles.

Some of those fighters are pound for pound the greatest names in the sport, and some of the fights, the best the world has ever seen.

For 25 year old undefeated Aussie boxer, Zac Dunn, the weight division is perfect, and he leads a wave of Australian Super Middleweight fighters knocking on the door of world boxing.

Jake Carr, Blake Caparello, Renold Quinlan, Rowan Murdock and former world Middleweight boss Daniel Geale are all campaigning at Super Middleweight and are rated in the top 50 fighters in the world.

They are supported by a string of up and comers, that include Sydney fighter Bilal Akkawy and Victorians Ryan Breese and Jayde Mitchell.

Like standing on the rarefied space that is Mt Everest, to be a world boxing champion is a view only the very best can see. With 22 straight wins, Zac Dunn is climbing the mountain that is elite boxing.

Being Australian in many ways is a blessing, in boxing it’s almost a curse. Dunn carries with him not only rarefied talent but he is burdened by the weight of 13,000 kilometres of ocean.

That’s the distance from Australia to the USA, the heart of world boxing.

In a sport that cares little for its own, it seems to care less for those not in the inner sanctum of the US or European boxing markets.

Zac Dunn has to force his way in, and he is.

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Australia is world boxing’s backwater, and at its most basic level, without the support and income of mainstream television, it struggles.

Limited to internet streaming, and infrequent recognition in local papers and pay TV, boxing is stuck on the ropes, struggling against a barrage from commercial power sports like AFL, the A League and NRL.

TV brings money and the advertising dollar, without it, sports wither on the vine.

In Australia, boxing plays out in front of small boutique audiences around the country, with fighters themselves charged with selling tickets to fill venues.

Mainstream TV tends to shy away and the broadsheets remain focused on the ‘old’ tried and true formulae of AFL footy, soccer, NRL and horse racing.

Boxing doesn’t pay they say, and apart from the random curiosity of an Anthony Mundine fight, mainstream media gives it scant attention. It’s about eyeballs, and the thinking is that boxing doesn’t attract many of them.

Rather comically, the Australian media seem more interested in a bout between two NRL players throwing wild swings at each other, as opposed to a fight between two well schooled, skilled boxers.

At an individual fighter level, the costs associated with boxing are astronomical. To beat the best in this sport, you must travel to fight the best, which costs money.

To bring first rate fighters to our shores takes even more money. As incentive, good foreign fighters are paid ‘overs’ to get them to travel. Add in the potential for a loss, and the motivation to come to Australia decreases even further.

To the casual observer, fighters like Floyd Mayweather make millions every time they grace the ring. The difference between the remuneration of the very best and the rest, is light years.

Make no mistake, Australia has produced some great fighters over the years. Jeff Fenech, Lionel Rose, Barry Michael, Lester Ellis, Fammo, Carruthers, and Russian expat Kostya Tszyu were larger than life characters and great Australian world champions.

Years ago those fighters, and others, were front page news and it was common to see them fight on television. TV ringside was beamed weekly into lounge rooms and the fighters of the day became celebrities.

For an Australian fighter these days, times seem tougher, or is it we just need another hero.

Zac Dunn started boxing at age 11, after playing Australian Rules football. He liked the team atmosphere but enjoyed fighting more. He was good at it. He had his first fight at age 14.

He wasn’t what you would consider a ‘rough’ kid and he attended one of Melbourne’s best private schools, St Kevin’s College.

It’s not that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, far from it, it was simply that his parents wanted to give him the best they could.

He is polite and understated and whilst somewhat shy and guarded, he is welcoming to people he doesn’t know. A sure sign of a good bloke.

He has a big smile and laughs a lot, particularly around people he trusts and cares about.

His Facebook page is full of beaming smiles and friends. If you didn’t know any better you wouldn’t guess he was a fighter.

It’s only on closer inspection that you can tell. He has a deep nasal tone when he speaks, courtesy of a broken nose, and when he takes his shirt off, he epitomizes an athlete. A rippling torso highlights zero fat and years of exercise. He is supremely fit.

What you can’t see on the surface, or on his Facebook page, is a ferocious appetite for battle. He is a fighting machine intent on destruction.

His has a natural aggression that ignites the very moment he steps between the ropes, and he hurts people who dare challenge him.

In the days leading up to a fight he can barely look at his opponent, let alone shake hands with him. He doesn’t want to like his opponent, he wants to hurt him, he wants to win.

It’s almost as if the ring is the place where he is free, unstifled and unrestricted. It’s the place he works best.

When the bell sounds, he stalks his opponent, waiting for the right moment to explode. When that moment arrives he throws vicious punches to both the head and body.

It’s said he could be the best body puncher Australia has ever produced, and his stopping power is unquestioned. 18 of his 22 opponents can attest to that.

For those confronted by this description, put simply, it’s boxing. It’s a sport that feasts on the weak. It’s a hurt sport that by its very definition is the world’s toughest.

Honing his craft with long stints in the fighting cauldrons of Thailand and Cuba as a teenager, Dunn was away from family and friends, sometimes for months at a time. Being forced to live in conditions close to poverty, he focused on two things, becoming a better fighter and a world boxing title.

Historically the greatest fighters come from an underprivileged life. The slums of Mexico City, Thailand, and the ghettos of New York and LA are where boxing champions are made. Fighting is a way out, it’s money to support a family, and you fought to survive.

With a middle class upbringing, there was nothing to suggest he would become a world class fighter. Dunn is from middle class Brunswick, in middle class Melbourne. On the surface it appears a contradiction. Maybe that’s what his past 22 opponents made the mistake of thinking.

Zac fights like his very life depends on it. For him it is survival.

As an amateur representing his country, he was self-funded. Not one to take a handout, his mother and father supported his entire boxing career, world championships and all.

Zac Dunn’s only debt is to his family and himself.

The journey to a world boxing title is strewn with broken dreams and heartache. At the very top of the game deception hides behind every corner, and for an Aussie its worse.

Top level boxing starts in whispers behind closed doors, with fighting the last part of a jigsaw puzzle. The opponents you can’t see are sometimes more dangerous than the ones you can see.

Zac Dunn is well supported, so he needn’t worry about what lurks in the shadows, and the tyranny of distance is offset by a memory of fighting in far off places, away from the comfort of home.

Born to fight, Dunn has trained his entire life. His will to overcome an industry on its knees, and sit centre stage as our best ever, is testament to him, his desire and his family.

This is the story of Australian boxing, and the rise of Super Middleweight Zac Dunn.

The Exum you may not have heard about…..

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After playing a full season in his rookie NBA year, Aussie basketball star Dante Exum, spent the entire 2015\16 season watching from the stands with a knee injury.

At the same time as he was sitting on the sidelines reading the game day program, another Exum family member took the spotlight.

Tierra Exum, took centre stage and exploded onto the sporting scene in 2016.

The 21 year old twin sister of the Utah Jazz star, burst onto the professional athletics scene on New Year’s Day, by winning the Open 70 metre sprint at the Maryborough Gift meeting.

She finished the season in spectacular fashion when flashing home to get second in the rich Stawell Women’s Gift last April, missing the winners cheque by a mere 0.02 seconds.

Tierra is easy to like. She laughs a lot and has an open demeanour.

Strong, athletic and determined, the daughter of former National Basketball League Star Cecil Exum, is forging a name for herself away from basketball, in one of Australia’s oldest sports.

With personal goals that involve more field than track, Tierra sees triple jump as her preferred option but admits to loving running as a ‘pro’.

The former gymnast, turned triple jumper\sprinter, has set her sights high, and is using professional athletics as a springboard to further her triple jump career.

“My goal is to one day make an Australian Commonwealth Games team and represent Australia in the triple jump”, she said.

Introduced to professional sprinting by her coach, she sees ‘pro racing’ as an important step in her development as a triple jumper.

“Pro running is great for my speed, it’s helping me with my triple jump and I really enjoy the racing”, she said.

With a history borne from the goldfields of Victoria in the 1800s and raced mostly on grass, under handicap conditions, ‘pro’ sprinting is unique to Australia and Scotland.

As is the case for successful professional athletes, winning in the Victorian Athletic League has its benefits.

Opposed to amateur athletics, where winners are awarded medals, professional athlete’s race for prize money.

“The money is great and it not only helps me with all the expenses associated with being an athlete but it helps pay for my mobile phone bill”, she laughed.

Like most ‘pro athletes’, early in the season she took aim at the worlds richest professional sprint race, the Stawell Women’s Gift. Unlike most pro athletes though, she almost took home the win.

History says she came a close second in the event to 15 year old Talia Martin.

In one of professional athletics most controversial victories, Martin from Ballarat, had to face the stewards after her rapid improvement.

Said to have improved more in two weeks, than most athletes improve in a lifetime, Talia was given a $2000 fine.

Racing under handicap conditions, it’s a requirement that all athletes run to their full potential in every race. With starting handicaps based on race performances, handicappers judge an athlete based on times and results.

Like the Melbourne Cup in horse racing, poorer performers are given improved handicaps, or better chances to win.

For Tierra it was exciting to be placed in the biggest female race of the year but admitted that the eventual winner was somewhat unexpected.

“It was a great race and I almost got there. Talia had a great race but usually you know who will be your main competition and she was a surprise for sure”.

With money being wagered in the bookies ring, the Stawell Gift has thrown up many ‘smokies’ and surprises over the years.

Offering equal prize money of $60,000 for both the men’s and women’s Gift, Stawell remains a much sought after ‘jewel’ in the professional athletics crown.

For Tierra Exum, the Stawell Gift will continue to be a goal, and at only 21 years of age, she has time on her side.