How long have you been in business?

We started the business 2 years ago in 2009 

What got you started? 

Both my business partner and I are passionate athletes, Raf has represented Australia in Duathlon at an elite level, his best result to date being a #3 World Ranking. I have been lucky enough to race as an age grouper in Kona for the Ironman World Champs and represented Australia at the ITU Long Course and Olympic distance championships. The opportunity arose when my athletic coach and I were talking whilst running one day. I have 15 years retail and brand management experience, spending most of my time with Diageo, the world’s largest spirits company. Raf Baugh is also a skilled Physiotherapist and level 2 triathlon coach. Raf's background has given us valuable insight and credibility in the Australian market both with his athletic accomplishments and his successful running coaching business “Front Runner”. Both Raf and I had a real passion for starting a small business focusing on running in WA and our unique skills combined well to allow the Running Centre to be born.

What separates your store from other sports retail? 

Raf and I developed a very comprehensive plan that led to the creation of our unique fitting system and training of our staff in shoe fitting. We wanted to strive to be a running store set up by runners, with runners working in it all with a technical understanding of running. We wanted to make our business so different to anything currently offered In WA. Our market research showed that many consumers when making a buying decision in sporting footware fell into two categories:

1) Was aware of the need to correctly fit their feet to the right shoes and would actively search for retailers that provided this service and were willing to pay extra to get more technical running / training equipment if the advice they were given was accurate and consistent. Our main competitive advantage is we are a small business that only employees runners (all with degree level education and most in sports science or physiotherapy) who understand intimately the equipment we sell and are trained and monitored on-going by a qualified physiotherapist. Only having one shop allows us to maintain this consistency of service and level of expertise.

 2) The consumer who does not know about correct footware fitting and buys on price, our biggest opportunity is in the runner who has not been correctly fitted in the past, they are also our biggest challenge. We need to educate people about the importance of proper shoe fitting to ensure injury free kilometers, nothing is more frustrating for someone wanting to get fit, get past an injury or work towards a goal than being sidelined by incorrect equipment that leads to an injury.  We rely on our past customers to refer these people into our business through the positive experiences they have had with our shop, our customer referral based component of our business is a very important part of our business and a testament to our sales staffs knowledge and their fitting technique.

Who is your favourite international athlete (now and past)?

International athletes are a long way removed from our core customer of everyday walkers, joggers and runners!

That said, we do love running and I think Haile Gebreselassie is a hero for many runners around the world for his consistency of excellence and also endearing nature.

Of the current crop, our own Ryan Gregson has all the key elements to put Australian running back in the mainstream provided he can avoid injury and get to London without interruption in his preparation.

Who has been the most inspirational Australian runner & why?

Steve Moneghetti. Steve is a fantastic athlete with a proven track record of excellence over a sustained period. Due to the similarities between his performances and what we aim for as a company, we have an ongoing relationship with Steve through an annual training camp here in Perth each February.

What do you think of the 2011 New Balance Running product?

We have had an excellent response to the new season range particularly the performance aspect. We have found that New Balance is converting customers who are looking for a sharper, lighter and more responsive shoe and this has changed the perception that New Balance is largely for the heavier runner or those looking for durability

Brought to you by Edward Ovadia who is in Berlin with official IAAF accreditation covering the championships for Runnerstribe.com

Day Eight featured several big Aussie medal hopes: Fabrice Lapierre and Mitch Watt in the long jump final, and Steve Hooker in the pole vault final. Hooker was battling injuries and planned to only manage a few jumps, but still you can never rule out the Olympic Champion and second highest jumper of all time. Watt and Lapierre, on the other hand, were right on their game, and have been all season. Both are very capable of pulling out big jumps which, depending on the scenario, might be good enough for a medal.

Big jumps by both Watt (8.28m) and Lapierre (8.21m) put then in very solid positions right off the bat, and after four rounds, they were still third and fourth respectively. Dwight Phillips was dominating in the front, regularly jumping mid eight metres, with a best of 8.54m.

Defending champion Irving Saladino of Panama fouled three times, and didn't make the top eight - which made the job easier for our boys.

With one jump to go, Watt had improved to 8.37m, with Lapierre jumping a second 8.21m, and both boys still sitting in third and fourth. With Lapierre jumping fourth last, and Watt third last, Lapierre knew he had at least fourth position in the bag when he lined up for one more jump. Unfortunately he only made it to 8.20m, which kept him in fourth place, with Watt guaranteed a medal before his last jump. He launched himself to a jump which looked to be at least 8.60m, but unfortunately just stepped over the line, and was fouled. So Watt ended up with the bronze medal! Phillips got the gold, but what was a brilliant competition for the Aussies!

Watt: "I was walking out there earlier today and looking at the medal podium, and I didn't think I'd be up there in about 10 minutes time! It's just amazing. I was really happy with my first round jump, took the pressure off, I took a bit of a risk in the later rounds, it took a couple of rounds to get it, but 8.37m, it's not far off my PB, and I think it was into a headwind as well, so just awesome. Very happy!"

Lapierre: "I couldn't get the pop today, it just wasn't happening. But I tried my hardest, and just couldn't get it going. [Saldaino exiting before the final eight?] It was open, it was always open, all it takes is one jump, and I just couldn't get that one jump today. I felt great, everything was fine. That was the goal, just get the first one in, make the final, and then get a better jump after that. But it didn't work out that way."

In the pole vault, Hooker's plan was to pass until he was jumping for a medal, and he passed all the way up until 5.85m. He had one attempt, missed, and passed to 5.90m. Now the pressure was on. But Hooker took it in his stride, and cleared it easily! The look of shock and surprise on Hooker's face as he fell, having easily passed over the bar, is one I'll never forget. Steve Hooker is nothing if not a class act. The man had three jumps during his entire time in Berlin, including warm ups, training, qualifying, and the final - two of those cleared, and one missed - and he still managed to come away with the gold medal. He knows how to make the clearances when it counts. And he certainly made them here! If an injured Hooker can clear 5.90m in one attempt, what a fit one can do is beyond imagination.

The 4x400m relay team of Joel Milburn, Tristan Thomas, Ben Offereins, and Sean Wroe, made it through to the final tomorrow night as the fastest non-automatic qualifiers. Offereins put his body on the line in what was one of the gutsiest performances of the Championships, taking the Aussies from the back right up to the shoulder of the Americans, who were powering in the lead.

The race started at a pedestrian pace, passing one kilometre in 3:06, a two kilometres in 6:11, and three in 9:15. With one lap to go, it was Cheruiyot, Sylvia Kibet, and Defar, head to head. A 58 second last lap resulted in Defar leading into the home straight, but being overtaken right on the line by both Kenyans, and forced into third, with Cheruiyot first.

Next up was the womens 4x100m final, which was won by Jamaica after the Americans dropped the baton in the heats. Fraser set them up nicely down the back straight, and Stewart brought them home in 42.06.

In the womens 4x400m heats, Australia was well represented after the team qualified earlier in the year. Pirrenee Steinert, Madeleine Pape, Caitlin Willis-Pincott, and Tamsyn Lewis ran the stick around for the Aussies (in that order), and did admirably well - they just missed an automatic qualification for the final by 1.2 seconds in coming fourth. But they should hold their heads high for taking their place at the World Championships, after people didn't expect them to be able to qualify at all. The experience is a great one for next year's Commonwealth Games, where the team hope to claim the gold.

Willis-Pincott: "We're happy to be here, I don't think we've had a 4x400m team here for the last few World Champs, so just to start mixing it with them again. I think we've got enough talent in Australia to be in the 400m relay."

Pape: "I have to say that I was disappointed, because I thought we were capable of making the final, and I know we wanted to show the country and the rest of the athletics fraternity that we belong in the final, so we need to work hard for next year, and make sure that we can come home with a medal of the gold variety in Delhi. We couldn't have done anything differently because we all did out best!"

The mens 4x100m final was all about one question - would the Jamaicans run another world record? The answer was no, with the men in yellow and green running 37.31, missing the record of 37.10 set last year in Beijing, but claiming the Championship record.

 

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'Hills are speedword in disguise '
Frank Shorter