THE fourteenth running of the Washpool World Heritage Trails was held on Sunday 24 March by Coffs Trail Runners.

The event features a nine kilometre (km), 25km and 50km course through the Washpool and Gibraltar Range National Parks in the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area west of Grafton.

The event sold out within 72 hours of opening entries with a total of 150 runners taking part in a great weekend of community-centred trail running.

Event Director Keelan Birch spoke about the success of the event.

“Our 2024 event sold out super quickly and it was fantastic to see so many people loving the event and the beautiful National Parks we run through.

“Coffs Harbour featured strongly across all distances with over 50 runners travelling from Coffs Harbour for the event.

“It is great to see the Coffs Trail Runners community grow from strength to strength.”

Some of the top performing runners from Coffs Harbour include Daniel Stein (first male 50km and new course record), Ben Lambert (third male 50km), Seabastion Toast (first female 50km), Annabelle Swainston (second female 50km), Jesscia Loader (first female 25km), Keelan Birch (first male 9km) and Elize Strydom (first female 9km).

The event organiser extended a special thankyou to the National Parks and Wildlife Service as well as Trail Brew and X-Press Print and Signs for supporting the event.

A big thankyou to all the volunteers of the event: Bryan Ries, Keelan Birch, Sam Birch, Peter Birch, Jessica O’Leary, Brad Bryan, Maaike Veenkamp, Ross Donoghue, Malachi Donoghue, Jasmin Donoghue, Lucy Stackpole-Moore, Tim Wilson, Darren Bow, Elize Strydom, Matt Fox, Jodi Willet, Shaz Maccrone, David Waugh, Peter Hancock, Graham Glover, Sarah Willow, Annabelle Swainston and more.

The Coffs Trail Runners next event is the inaugural Coffs Backyard Ultra on Saturday 1 June 2024 at Coffs Harbour Showground.

More information on Coffs Trail Runners can be found at https://coffstrailrunners.com/.