Great start to the Browne Shield Series 2025

Now that the summer season with track & field is over, the focus for the winter session is on the long distance events. While some of our members participate in the Athletics Victoria cross country series, others are going for the VMA Browne Shield Series as an alternative. The attraction of the VMA Browne Shield series is the friendliness and, compared to AV, the low starting fee with $15 for most of the events.

There were a few adjustments this year such as the cross country starting off proceedings instead of the 10,000m track. The date also changed, not having it anymore on the June long weekend.

Collingwood was the host as every year. To accomodate council regulations, the course has been changed to a more floating 1.5km loop. This was positively recognised by all participants. The other major change was to have electronic timing, so no more manual lap counting. What a relief!

All runners were welcomed by a cold, but dry day. In fact, mid way the sky was blue.

There were some records set at the event like the highest number of participants in a single Australian Master event with 120 starters. The target for Casey Masters is to get the Shield for a 3rd time in a row, and we had a good start with 37 runner lining up at the start line.

Thanks to the timing equipment everyone had the same starting time at two different starting points. You may think,  “Why would you not start all at the same spot?” The answer is easy. Age group 70+ had to run 6km, and younger competitors had to complete 8km. That meant to create a 1.5km loop, and an additional 500m for the 8km group.

Some of the age groups had a high participation rate, and a medal was not certain for Casey. But this was not important for many of our members. The knowledge that they contributed with a point to the overall success of the club by being on the start was enough reward.

Casey Masters managed to have participants in all age groups from 30 to 65 male & female, and with Neil even covering the age group 75.

Back at the Collingwood club room for a warm cuppa  and sandwiches it was nice to see how friendships started to form between the athletes of the various attending clubs. After a short period of time thanks to the new timing system it was presentation time. Let’s see if we can replicate this success at the 2nd Browne Shield Event.

See you all on the 29th of June at the Casey Track & Field venue for the 10,000m.