Sport

The country’s racing-elite return to our region for Round 5 of the Australian Superbike Championship this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Motorcycling Australia CEO Peter Doyle expects that the event will be a much anticipated and welcome highlight for both spectators and riders.

The Ultimate Festival of Wheels, Red CentreNATS returns to the stunning heart of Australia in September, and this year’s program takes things up another notch with the inclusion of a Thursday evening qualifying program at Alice Springs Inland Dragway (ASID). The additional evening is to cater for the ever-growing program, and will see ASID open for qualifying for both Round 1 of the 2022/2023 Burson Auto Parts Australian Top Fuel Championship and Top Doorslammer Australia. This means the fastest cars on earth will be heading to the Red Centre.

The Tom Quilty Gold Cup is a tough challenge for any endurance rider, yet Wyreema’s Roy Barsby, at 71 years of age, not only completed the course but won the heavyweight division. Riding Dumaresq Suleiman, a horse he saved from being turned into dog food, Mr Barsby completed the 160 kilometre (100 miles) course in 13 hours and 40 minutes, over an hour quicker than second place.

Rodney Stevens. "It now not only has such a diverse range of new obstacles, ramps, stairs, rails, flats, and lots of fun, creativity-inspired skateable elements, but also  boasts a super advanced and fast three-metre-deep clover-style bowl to rival any skate park on the east coast of Australia": Clarence Valley Council Manager Open Spaces and Facilities Peter Birch.

Pony Club in Australia has moved on from the days of routine sports like jumping, games and dressage (‘flat work’). Nowadays you could see members doing tetrathlons, tentpegging, polocrosse, horse archery, quiz, vaulting, horse ball, working equitation and more.

Five records were broken at the Weipa Running Festival on Sunday, a fitting result in the events fifth year ... The men’s marathon was taken out by Weipa’s Ross Dawson, who finished in 3:41.59, while Karen Inglis was the women’s winner in 4:36.09.

The Repco Supercars championship returns to The Bend (July 29 – 31) with event organisers promising the biggest weekend of racing and entertainment yet in the OTR Supersprint’s five-year history. The jam-packed, three-day event is South Australia’s largest ticketed regional sporting event with all ticket holders getting paddock access to enjoy the once in a lifetime experience.

Wayne Winchester’s love of surfing began in his early teens and he’d live for the weekends when he could head to the coast to spend hours in the surf. He never dreamed that his hobby would lead to a lifetime career and the creation of a world class surfboard gallery. “I started fashioning my own boards when I was a teenager and I then started making them professionally in the mid 1970s,” Wayne says. “It was an exciting time as I shaped all sorts of boards just to see how they performed.”

Set on 22 acres in Shelbourne, Equine Healing Centre Bendigo was established in 2019, as a place to help people to recover from trauma or for those suffering from emotional and physical burnout to practice restorative self-care, through experiential learning. Owner, Tracey Kenny-Dive, studied at the Equine Psychotherapy Institute in Daylesford as an accredited Equine Assisted Learning Practitioner.

After a two year wait the Laura Geitz Statuette was finally unveiled on Saturday with the help of Tracy Dobie who was Mayor in 2020. A gust of wind arrived just as the unveiling was about to happen, hence the fun photo. The super coach and local Allora hero Wayne Bennett sat by in his comfortable arm chair.

Gary Hoey. Blessed with fine sunny weather for a change, The Downs Polo Club hosted the annual Cooke O’Leary carnival which has been running since the year 2000. The fields were in tremendous condition thanks to a joint effort between the club and Rec Reserve groundsman, Bruce Gilbert ... After a tremendous Match going into extra time the winning A Grade team was Downs Webster Cavanagh ... Champion A Grade pony was awarded to James Hoey’s “Polly”.

Samuel Davis. Pacing across treasured destinations isn't anything unusual for distance runner Jamie Candler. But for some reason, every euphoric stride through Yarraden Nature Refuge felt unlike any trundle he'd been on before ... the mad dash between the remote communities was just a small part of a monumental 1000km journey for the Cairns-based youth worker.

Horses are in Ruth Pattie’s blood and her love for equines has blossomed into a full time, not-for-profit sanctuary. Along with her husband Marty and their six daughters, Mrs Pattie runs the Helenvale Horse Sanctuary and Therapeutic Centre at their property near Kalkajaka National Park, half an hour from Cooktown ... The sanctuary currently has 14 horses, most of them elderly, who found their way from all over Far North Queensland.

Five new state junior  surfing champions have been crowned in Geraldton over the  weekend, as the final event of the 2022 Woolworths State Junior Surfing Titles presented by SunSmart, wrapped up yesterday in clean and contestable wavs at Back Beach.

Mount Rascal resident Tom Campbell is off to Perth this weekend as part of the Queensland Under 21 team to contest the National Under 21 Hockey Tournament. It’s a great feat for any local player to be included in a State team, but Tom’s selection is even more impressive when you consider that he is just 16 years of age. He is the youngest member of the Queensland team.

Patricia Gill. The Denmark Environment Centre is lobbying to block the building of a network of nine mountain bike trails in 68ha of Mt Hallowell’s lower south eastern slopes ... Speaking on behalf of DEC, Murdoch University sustainability lecturer Nicole Hodgson says the high physical impact of building mountain bike trails is not compatible with sustaining the conservation and cultural values of a precious Class A Reserve.

Kendall Jennings. Koondrook teenager, Alethea D’Silva, has been selected for an inaugural under 14 girls football development game against Sunraysia at Tooleybuc on Sunday, August 7 ... a great discussion about what Alethea has overcome to play any sport with girls' participation low.

You can be a part of this history making event at the Allora Sports Museum from 11.30am. Laura Geitz and Wayne Bennett will officially open the park that has been dedicated to them.

Hepburn Shire Council is working in partnership with the City of Ballarat on advocating for a mountain biking program to be included in the 2026 Commonwealth Games and for competition to be held at the Creswick Trails. With this week’s State Government announcement that the games will be held between the 17-29 March 2026 both Councils are calling for both Mountain Biking to be included in the Victoria 2026 program, the Commonwealth’s first Regional Games and for the Mountain Biking program to be conducted at the Creswick Trails.  

Shire of Gingin residents disappointed with the council’s decision to not re-establish a working group to undertake a review of the Upper Coastal sporting facilities master plan say they are now looking at the options available to them. A petition with 376 signatures was presented to the council and 21 people including Lancelin Community and Sporting Club president Norm Skoglund as well as golf, bowling, hockey and netball representatives attended the shire’s June 21 ordinary meeting in the hope councillor Frank Peczka’s motion on the issue would be successful.

Vandals have struck again, this time breaking into the Tennant Creek Speedway Club’s canteen and causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage by destroying doors and locks, smashing fridges, electrical boxes and bain maries and tipping bins over ... The not for profit club survives on entry nominations and fundraising with some support by grants.

Narrandera is playing a huge part in the fresh water fish stocking season. NSW Department of Primary Industries is in the final stages of the 2021/2022 fish stocking season, which has so far seen more than 4.8 million fish, produced at NSW DPI hatcheries, released throughout the state.