ASHGROVE RANGERS

Don Wallace (second from left), Jan Fedrick (third from left) and Bruce Arnold (fourth from left), receiving their Hall of Fame awards from Club Vice Patron Cr Steve Toomey (far left) at the club’s 60th Anniversary Dinner in October 2022

Hall of Fame

In 2022 (the year of our 60th Anniversary as a club) The Ashgrove Rangers announced a ‘Hall of Fame’ to provide additional recognition to club athletes and coaches who have been outstanding performers and contributors to the sport. Specifically the criteria for selection includes:

  • Nominees should have generally retired from competing in high level athletics.
  • Nominees should have competed at a high level at state, national or international level.
  • Athletes from any discipline of athletics can be nominated for membership.
  • Athletes should have achieved high level performances over a period of several years.

For its inaugural year, three members were admitted.

Jan Fedrick

Jan joined the Ashgrove Rangers in 1979 and competed in distance running events achieving a marathon best time of 2.49.50. She was the first Ashgrove athlete to win a national open marathon championship and the first club member selected to represent Australia. This was in the Indian Independence Day international marathon in New Delhi in 1989. Her marathon successes at the Gold Coast and Moreton Bay marathons in 1990 saw her given a 1991 Brisbane City Council’s Australia Day Sports medallion award.

Jan also won three consecutive state marathon championships (1989-1991). In addition, she competed in cross-country events as well as the club’s Caboolture-Maleny road relay teams. Initially she was a member of men’s teams and later competed with the women’s teams when that division was created.

Jan has had multiple International, National and State performances – many resulting in spots on the podium.

Bruce Arnold

Bruce joined Ashgrove Rangers in 1972 as a specialist pole-vaulter. In his first season he established a state record in the U19 pole-vault with a performance of 3.37m. In doing this he became the first Ashgrove athlete to set a state record in a field event. During his career Bruce represented Queensland in both National Championships and in the annual Queensland versus New South Wales meet.

In 1975 Bruce established an open state record of 4.05m which broke a long standing seventeen-year-old record and followed this up with another state record of 4.20m in 1982. In total Bruce won four open state pole-vault championships.

Don Wallace

Don joined the club in 1985 and had a remarkable running career covering marathons and ultra-marathons. He is a former Australiasian 100km Champion and broke national records. He also ran Comrades ultra marathon south Africa multiple times with 2 x 8th place positions and 1 x 12th place of which the first 10 places get a gold medal. To this date, and to our knowledge, no other Australian has achieved a gold medal from this event. Comrades is arguably the world championship of ultra running and the toughest, attracting over 16000 competitors each year. To achieve this feat Don ran under 4 minutes a kilometre. Don has also been an Australian Marathon representative and has had multiple sub 2.30 races.