Olympians train in Highlands
By Lauren Wright
The Highlands had some special visitors over Easter with Olympic runners attending a five day training camp.
Based at the Santa Sabina campus in Tallong, a group of close to 60 with runners of all ages and abilities ran a number of routes in the area, as well as Wingello.
The routine varied between short and long runs with the group venturing into Wingello State Forest and also onto Bill O’Rielly Oval.
Camp director Sean Williams from Sean Williams Endurance and Training said they all had a great time in the new location, with previous camps held at Penrose.
London Olympian Ben St Lawrence attended the camp along with Beijing Olympian Victoria Mitchell.
Senior Australian representatives Harry Summers and Hugh Williams also made the trip down to the Highlands for the Easter long weekend.
“The camp’s been really good. They’ve put in some really hard work and they’ve been training three times a day, usually two runs and one other session like strength or technique work. They’ve had motivational speeches and a lot of good bonding,” Williams said.
“We love the really quiet dirt roads all around Tallong.”
Apart from the professional athletes, Williams said there were a number of recreational runners who were preparing for races and marathons as well as school children who were getting ready for the school season.
With previous camps held at Penrose, Williams said they moved to Tallong this year as they needed larger accommodation.
“I’ve driven by here many times over the years and the thing that caught my attention initially was the Penrose Forest. An old mate of mine, we stopped and had a run here and we really loved the trail and then we thought gee what’s beyond that and we found all these little towns along the Highlands Way.”
For a number of the professional athletes, this was their last chance for some serious training before the Australian Championships, which will be held from April 11-14 at Homebush in Sydney.
Lara Tamsett, who was also at the camp, has already achieved selection in the Australian team for the 10 000m run when they compete at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow in August this year.
Both St Lawrence and Mitchell will be vying for spots on the Australian team.
St Lawrence will be hoping to make the team for the 10,000m race and Mitchell in the 3000m steeplechase.
Mitchell will need to win a trial leading up to the world championships and post a qualifying time in order to make the team.
St Lawrence has already won a trial but has yet to achieve a qualifying time.
He will have until July 31 to achieve that time and said he was confident of gaining a spot on the Australian team.
“I’ve run 40 seconds quicker than the time I need to get so it’s just a matter of getting back into the shape I’ve been in before and hopefully nailing it. It can be tough nailing it on the right day and with good conditions, but I like my chances of getting the time and i won the trial for the 10,000m back in December so it means that now I just need to get the time and I’m on the team.”
“That’ll be the goal and it won’t be easy but I think I can do it if things go well.”
After the Australian championships St Lawrence will head over to America for five weeks for three races before returning to Australia for a six week training period before heading back overseas to Europe and the UK.
He said he hoped to get a qualifying time in either the 5000m or 10, 000m races and also wanted to finish the competition at Homebush with a national title.
“I’ll be trying to win but obviously there’ll be plenty of other guys trying to do the same thing. So just get in there, race really hard and hopefully come away with a national title.”
St Lawrence said the camp had been a good opportunity to make final preparations.
“It’s been hard work, training always is, but just the trails down here and the bush outlook and the peace and quiet really lets you just come down here train really hard and rest in between.”
“Doing it with a bunch of like minded people has been good as well.”
