2023 AGM Photos

The 2023 Annual General Meeting was held on the Monday the 18th of September in the AFL Dining Room at the MCG with around 200 members and their guests attending. Our speakers were Nikki Wynd and David Eadie who enthralled us with their stories of distance running, especially Nikki’s win in the 2015 Badwater Ultramarathon which is a 217-kilometre race through California’s Death Valley in temperatures up to 52 degrees.

If you would like a higher resolution copy of a photograph, email [email protected] with the details. And, if you have a photograph or two from the evening suitable for inclusion, please send it to us.

Download the PDF of the meeting agenda and reports from the President, secretary and treasurer.

Hall of Fame Entrants

Spartans qualify for Hall of Fame membership after completing their 30th Melbourne Marathon. The presentations were made by John Dean after an introduction from Peter Ryan, who like John, is a Hall of Fame member, a past president of the club and a life member.

Francis Kaszmarek

Trevor Marsh

Greg Payne

Brenton Ponza, 15 Year Singlet

Brenton is the first Honorary Spartan to have 14 finishes and therefore is going to wear a blue singlet in 2023 in his 15th event.

Brenton with guest speaker David Eadie

Brenton with president Jay Fleming

Fastest Spartans, 2022

John Dobson presenting the Shirley Young award to Meta Vincent who was fastest female in 3:25:22 (nett time). The Young family was unable to attend to make the presentation.

Jason Daye was fastest male Spartan and overall 13th male in the time of 2:26:55. Jason was unable to attend to accept the Jack Gubbins award.Photo from the Warrnambool Standard.

Singlet Queen Presentation

The photograph above shows just some of the singlets to be presented to Spartans during the evening. The job of ensuring we have a stock of singlets, in male and female cuts, in appropriate sizes, is performed by Helen Bayley with some help from husband Rod.Helen has managed this challenging task in an exemplary fashion for several years, and has earned the title of “Singlet Queen” as a result. The committee decided to honour her work by this presentation.

Membership Secretary Felicity Doolan presenting Helen with certificate and flowers.

Original Spartan Legends

In 1987 88 runners ran their tenth consecutive Melbourne Marathon and were the original Spartans. This number has decreased ever since, and the remaining runners were dubbed “Gold Spartans” in the early 2000’s. By 2007 there were just 13 remaining, recognised as “Legends”. Just three of this group will start in 2023, and sadly, three (Shirley Young, Jack Gubbins and Manny Karageorgiou) have died.

Incoming Spartans, Running their tenth in 2023

Our guest speakers, Nikki Wynd and David Eadie are pictured with recipients in the following photographs.

Scott Anderson

Andrew Barlow

Kara Brooks

Matt Brown

Teena Buskens

Deborah Christie

Peter Coulthard

Steve Davis

Frank Di Pierro

Linda Dugina

Jeremy Dusi

Emmeline Fisher

Nick Harper

Anishka Jayasinghe

Simon Lawlor

Sean Leith

Ashley McDowall

Chris McSwain

Jarrod Mullavey

Kristy Myers

Dharmesh Patel

Neil Styles

Jeff Wright

Vanessa Young

Matthew Ciavarella

Peter Bartlett

15 Year Spartans

Donald Bailey

Candida Baskcomb

Ruth Fantozzi

David Harrison

Andrew Mott

Damien O’Connor

Grant Padula

Frank Pupic

Catherine Roberts

20 Year Spartans

Simon Byth

Chester Lennon

Robert Virgona

Greg Wright

40 Year Spartan

45 Year Spartan “Legends”

John Dobson

David Foskey

Wayne Thompson

Random Photos

Bruce Hargreaves

Paul Basile, with Nikki and David, at the other end of the camera.

At the front desk before the start of the meeting. Colin Silcock-Delaney, Pamela Young, Candida Baskcomb, Patty Thompson, Gavin Criddle, Wayne Thompson, unknown (signing), Chester Lennon.

Kai Ooi photographing merchandise?

Ray Cilia with Jay Fleming