Aug 2004

Newsletter Highlights

the Australian team’s experiences and results at Unicon XII in Tokyo;
the Bachelor of Circus Arts auditions at the National Institute of Circus Arts;
the 12 hour Muni ride held at Kooralbyn Valley (Qld);
a unicycle group going places in the Blue Mountains.

Unicon XII results, by Karen Martin-Stone and David Buchanan.

The Australian team that attended Unicon XII in Tokyo from July 23rd – August 3rd produced amazing results (and had a great time as well!). Our medal tally at the end was a whopping 23 medals (10 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze). Everyone competed to the best of their ability, and did us proud. By the end of the 10 days, the whole crowd was joining in chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!”
The Japanese Unicycling Association did an outstanding job of organizing such a huge event. There were almost 1500 people attending, and although some events did run over time, all events were catered for. The competition facilities were excellent and transport very easy. We stayed in the National Olympic Memorial Youth Centre, and used a lot of the facilities built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

I would like to make special mention of our medal-winners. Congratulations to:

Sebastian Hogan: 1 silver, 2 bronze;
Debbie Hyder: 9 gold, 1 silver, 4 bronze;
Kon Kudo: 1 gold;
Phoebe Martin: 1 bronze;
Dale Newbery: 1 silver; and
Simon Wells: 2 silver.

Also, while attending Unicon, Karen Martin-Stone was elected vice-president of the International Unicycling Federation. It reflects the growth of the sport in our country and our recognition internationally, that we are now represented on this committee.
Pictures from Unicon will be uploaded to our website as soon as I get a chance. Meanwhile:

Debbie Hyder stealing the ball from the Swiss Power Team in the basketball;

Roger Davies explaining one of the sections in the amazing trials course;

The finish of the expert 100m final – very close!

Bachelor of Circus Arts auditions, by Bianca Faber

RIDE INTO THE CAREER OF A LIFETIME!

Audition for the Bachelor of Circus Arts at NICA

The National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) is Australia's only professional training centre for contemporary circus arts, and they're currently looking for new talent for the full-time degree program. Based at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, the course offers intensive one-on-one tuition with world class trainers and a chance to develop awe-inspiring circus and performance skills.

If you'd like to turn your hobby into a career, contact NICA today. Visit NICA's web-site or call (03) 9214 6975.

Kooralbyn 12 Hour Muni Ride, by Rockley Boothroyd, Andrew Carter and Wayne van Wijk:

The 12 hour Mountain Bike Challenge at Kooralbyn Resort, Beaudesert was a great success and probably the most gruelling unicycling many of us had done. With a great sponsorship deal from Gary Land of Unicycles.com.au we were able to field 3 teams of mountain unicyclists to race around the 7 km circuit.

We set up our unicycles.com.au "corporate tent" at the trackside and our superbly rowdy supporters cheered every unicyclist, rousing our flagging energy reserves as we approached the finish line. I think we really gave the mountain bikers something to think about and they were universally supportive of our efforts. The race announcer was raving about our efforts all day.

The track was not very technical as such but the combination of long climbs, flattened grass (with hidden pot-holes!) and bull dust made for some challenging riding. The night riding was not as good as I had hoped, our helmet mounted lights were bright enough but were hopeless at casting shadows on the bulldust track and most of us fell many times , the sight of our bleeding bruised disgruntled bodies persuaded the rest of the guys to stop!

The results:

First:- Unicycles.com.au Team A (Rockley Boothroyd, James Boothroyd and Andrew Carter) 14 laps.
Second:- Unicycles.com.au Team B (Chris Finn,Gabe Holmik, Wayne van Wijk) 13 laps
Third:- Unicycles.com.au Team C (Torin Stewart, Mark Syme, Adrian Wharton and Mark Wharton) 9 laps.
Fastest Laps: 33 minutes by Andrew Carter closely followed by our only Junior, James Boothroyd, with 36 minutes.
Furthest travelled, Gabe Holmik all the way from Armidale.

The organisers of the race very generously gave us our own category and every rider received an engraved clock as a prize. They were very keen to see us race again. Many of us easily rode our unicycles further that day than we had ever ridden in one day before (and this was offroad!) consequently we were all pretty stuffed the next day (I did hop back on my MUni the next morning just to see what it would feel like - my legs screamed and my posterior felt like I was sitting on a boil. Well what do you expect after 35km of muni?).

There are a few photos from the 12hr (which was a heap of fun!) available online.

Once again a big thankyou to our sponsor, unicycles.com.au

Blue Mountains unicycling group, by Alison Wheeler:

The 'Blunicyclists' (unicyclists of the Blue Mountains) are emerging. We had a great start to our muni events last summer, when we took on the Wonderland track & the Charles Darwin trail. More outings will be held this summer. Visitors welcome! Our budding unicycle hockey team are training hard and will soon be ready to compete. Any offers for a friendly meet?

Cheers,