MattyB DEPT. (MBD)

Cole claims Albury 400m Gift

Matt Beckenham — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:10:49 +0000

BJ Cole has again provided the crowd with an amazing display of 400m running to take victory in the Albury Gift off the backmark of 7m. Cole made a decisive move down the back straight to get himself into striking distance and then showed great strength to hold off the rest of the field to claim victory by 2 metres.

This victory comes off the back of his victory in the Burnie Gift over the Christmas period in Tasmania.

“Today’s gift was a fantastic carnival and I really felt good out there today. I know I am biased but I think my training partner Tom Burbidge did a great job in setting up and running the Albury Gift.” Cole was the ambassador of the Albury Gift that has been put back on the calendar by 2010 Stawell Gift winner Tom Burbidge.

Cole will now firmly shift his focus towards running the Olympic qualifying standard in the 400m Hurdles with races in Hobart, Perth and Sydney in the next 3 weeks leading into the Olympic trials on the 2-4th March in Melbourne.

In other squad results Kevin Matthews took victory in the frontmarkers 70m and also the Vets/Women’s 300m. He was also third in the vets 120m

Rachael Carnegie also made the final of the 300m and finished 8th in the Women’s Gift final.

Brandan Galic ran strongly for 4th in the 70m final off the back mark of 2.25m He also ran 2nd in the Backmarkers final with training partners Brendan Matthews 3rd and Ollie Wurm 6th in the same race.

Luke Storta and Jesse Matthews made the final of the Men’s 400m to finish off a great day for the MattyB DEPT.

Footage here including Men’s Gift final won by Joel Bee

Congratulations also to Jesse Matthews for taking victory in the 70m at the Wangaratta Gift meeting the day earlier.

My nephew Lleyton Hails made a video of Hunter TC

Matt Beckenham — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:12:22 +0000

My 12 year old nephew Lleyton sent me a movie trailer “The Run” he created based on video footage he filmed with his new camera at the Hunter Track classic recently.

Great job Lleyton look forward to seeing some more movie trailers soon

Love Uncle Matt

BJ and Boden shine at Hunter Track classic

Matt Beckenham — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:58:34 +0000

Brendan Cole and Lauren Boden took the 400m Hurdles double on a windy night in Newcastle at the Hunter Track classic. Despite having to wait over 10 minutes at the start line for missing hurdles Brendan Cole executed a solid race in his first for the season over the barriers.

“To open up with my fastest ever 400m Hurdles like Lauren did is exciting but I really want to take my times to the next level quickly now and get that qualifier out of the way.”

Cole finished in a time of 50.41 wich is only 0.91 off the A standard of 49.50 which is something he will look to run well under in the next 6 weeks.

Lauren Boden continued her great early season form knocking another 0.5 seconds off her season best with a 56.12. Lauren used the tail wind down the back to run some 14 stride hurdles which is something only a few girls in the world do.

“Matty basically told me just before the call room that the wind has got up a bit so let’s do 14′s. I went with his judgement and they felt really comfortable in the race so that is a good sign”.

Training partner Chloe Jamieson continued her return to racing with a time of 62.34 for 6th and Rachael Carnegie finished 5th in the under 20 400m in her first ever appearance at a major domestic meet.

Video footage available