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Kate Smyth1972-
Kate Louise Smyth (nee Harris) was born at Cowra on 22nd. September 1972 and moved to Orange the following year and remained in Orange until 1994. During that period, Kate was at Orange Public School and took an early interest in cross country running, winning her first 2500m event at the age of 12. Kate joined the Orange Runners Club in 1985 and met immediate success with wins in the Western Schools Cross Country championships, under 15 and open women's groups in the Orange Fun Run, under 14 Grenfell Fun Run, Molong 6km Cross Country Fun Run and Bathurst Queen of the Mountain age & open Championships as well as being the first woman to complete the daunting "Scotsmans Hill" mountain race in Lithgow.. While attending Kinross Wolaroi School Kate was the Female Distance champion from 1985 to 1990 and Athletics captain in 1990 as well as participating in every "A" age division Kinross Hockey team from 1985 to 1990. At University, Kate was the UWS Cross Country Champion in 1991, 1992 and 1993 and in 1993 won the University Sportswoman of the Year and the Chancellors Cup awards for performances in Cross Country Running, hockey, women's rugby, basketball and softball. Kate was also honoured in 2002 to be named in the famous Glenhuntly Athletics Club "team of the century" alongside greats such as Ron Clarke & Robert Decastella. Kate ran her first Marathon in Canberra in 1998 with a time of 3 hours 23 minutes but only started serious marathon training in 2000 after finishing 8th in the Australian Marathon Championship in Sydney, which was a trial for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Kate puts down her inspiration to watching Naoka Takahashi win Gold at the Sydney Olympics. Her serious work continued in 2003 and 2004 with back to back wins in the Bathurst 8km Fun Run and she also took out the 2004 Noosa and Sydney 2005 half marathons. Following her first International success was the New Zealand 10,000m track championship in 2005 and she was selected to represent Australia in the 2003 and 2005 Chiba Ekiden relay races in Japan and returning to New Zealand she took out the 2006 Half Marathon Championship. This was followed by great runs in the Chicago, Rotterdam and Japan international marathons with top ten finishes in each event, which led to her selection for Australia in the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Few will forget Kate's courageous finish in the Melbourne Games 42km event where she staggered across the line into 7th position after suffering acute dehydration. In her own words "the last 17 km were from here to eternity" but her courage carried her across the line and her courage was again to the fore after serious illness following the games. After the Commonwealth Games, Kate was named in "The Prime Ministers Five" of Australia's top marathon runners and appeared to have overcome her health problems after again winning the New Zealand half marathon championship. However, more problems arose in 2007 and in typical fashion the girl who uses the mighty Phar Lap as her inspiration, fought back with her usual determination. In early 2008 the window of opportunity was running out to qualify for the Beijing Olympics but after winning Melbourne's big "Run for the Kids" 14.4 klm charity road race, she travelled to Japan and ran the race of her life to come second in the International Nagano Marathon in Japan in 2 hours 28 minutes to become Australia’s fastest marathoner for 2007/2008. As well as beating the former womens marathon world record holder, this time lopped a huge five minutes off her personal best and was to be the 5th fastest of all time for an Australian. Being an A qualifier she was rewarded with selection for the Beijing Olympics. Kate lives in Melbourne where she owns and manages her own Marketing Consulting Company and is studying for her Masters in Marketing at the University of Melbourne.
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