Queensland star Hugh Coogan - winning The Landy Trophy for the fifth time

The amazing Hugh Coogan, the Black Caviar of Australian Masters’ Athletics, has won The Landy Trophy, Australia’s most prestigious single event for Masters’ athletes, for a fifth time.

Coogan, 76, from Queensland, broke the race record running an astounding 43.00 seconds from his Age-Graded Percentage handicap mark of 121 metres, taking nearly half a second off his own race record of 43.45, set in his first win in the event in 2006.

Coogan led throughout to score from the 2009 winner Bob Wishart, 70, who ran 44.53 from the 102m mark to become only the second runner to break 45.0 in the 13 year history of the race.

The brilliant Kathy Heagney, 60 (112m), the only woman to make the final, finished third in 46.29 to add yet another placing to her prior record of three seconds.

The Landy Trophy, named in honour of Australian athletics icon John Landy, is run at the Doncaster venue of Victorian Masters’ Athletics as a heats and final event from handicaps based on the internationally recognized Age-Graded Percentage Scale, which makes allowance for age and gender, thus enabling all athletes over 30 to compete on ‘a level playing field’.
All runners contest two rounds of heats, over 200m and 1000m, with the top points scorers going into the finals over 400m.
Age-graded standards are used to show how a typical person’s performance corresponds to world record marks for his or her age and gender in a particular event.
Coogan, a multiple world champion and world record holder, has now contested 15 events at The Landy for 14 wins (nine heats and five finals) and a second. His only defeat came in the long heat last year when he had only to run second to qualify for the final. He was run down by Heagney, who had to win the heat to get through.
On this occasion, however, Coogan left nothing to chance, breaking the event records in both his heats, running a scintillating 20.97 in his 200m heat and 2:17.30 in the 1000m.
While the final was all about Coogan, there were some great performances in the heats with ACT star John Lamb and newcomer Andrew Egginton winning both their heats, Lamb making his fourth final, ultimately finishing fourth, as he did last year, following two thirds.
Reigning world 800m and 1500m champion Rob Schwerkolt made the final, as did two former internationals, six times world champion Colm Rothery, from Ireland, and South African star Hendrick Dreyer.
Ron Arthur, 72, runner-up in two previous Landy finals, narrowly missed qualifying despite a brilliant sprint heat win but made a one-act affair of the Consolation, running 48.09 from 102m in scoring from Andrew Watts and Max Brook, while Andrew Wilcox, 43 (13m) took the Young Guns final (for runners under 55) running 51.40 in beating Wayne James and Mark Crawford.
The Manningham Mile, for open class runners, saw the 2006 winner, US-based Ben Ashkettle, win in 4m 20.69s from 16-year-old Alan Vernal (49m) and Sam Mackie, while The Doncaster Dash, over 100m for members of Doncaster Little Athletics, went to the defending champion Conrad Coumaros, 16, who ran a dashing 11.78 from two metres behind scratch.
Trophies and giveaways valued at more than $8500 were distributed on the night, the presentations being made by dual Olympian, Commonwealth Games gold medalist and holder of the Australian women’s 800m record (set 36 years ago), Charlene Rendina.

• The Landy Trophy, 400m:
  Hugh Coogan (Qld) 76 (121m) 1; Bob Wishart, 70 (102m) 2; Kathy Heagney, 60 (112m) 3. Time 43.0sec.
• Landy Consolation, 400m:
  Ron Arthur, 72 (102m) 1; Andrew Watts, 56 (54m); Max Brook, 75 (121m) 3.
  Time 48.09sec.
• Landy Young Guns (Under 55) 400m:
  Andrew Wilcox, 43 (13m) 1; Wayne James, 48 (26m) 2; Mark Crawford, 52 (40m) 3.
  Time 51.40sec.
• The Manningham Mile (open class):
  Ben Ashkettle (Scr) 1; Alan Vernal, 16 (49); Sam Mackie (Scr) 3.
  Time 4min 20.69sec.
• The Doncaster Dash, 100m (Doncaster Little Athletics):
  Conrad Coumaros, 16 (–2m) 1; Isaac Buratto, 14 (2m) 2; Antony Baldwin, 15 (Scr) 3.
  Time 11.78sec.

* Black Caviar is Australia’s star sprinting mare who is undefeated in 19 starts.