End of an era – King of the Mountain

End of an era – King of the Mountain

With great sadness we learnt in early March that Pomona’s King of the Mountain (KOM) race will no longer be run. The main race – the Bendigo Bank International Mountain Challenge – was a 5.2km steep, almost vertical climb up and down Mt Cooroora. The event will now be replaced with a Pomona Family Fun Day on 28 July organised by the Pomona Cooroy Lions Club. The first person to run to the top of Mt Cooroora was Bruce Samuels in 1958. Astonishingly, he made the run as a personal hangover cure. There was no fanfare and afterwards his mates at the pub didn’t believe him when he said he had done it inside the hour. The following year Barry Webb decided he could better Samuels’ time and made it to the top in 35mins.

From 1959 the race became a regular event but no one knows how many times it was held until 1979 when the Lions Club took over its organisation. To promote the town they called it the Pomona King of the Mountain Race. Crowds gathered to cheer the runners and Mt Cooroora became known as one of the toughest shortcourse mountain races.

Over the years the race developed into a family fun day. In addition to men’s and women’s races, trails were developed for children who could claim the titles Prince and Princess of the Mountain. In 1984 Cliff Young – winner of the first Westfield Ultramarathon from Sydney to Melbourne – participated and was a big hit with the crowd.

In 1985 Rosalie Hyland from NZ competed, accompanied by her husband Howard who was the race organiser for the Tasman Mountain Race held on Mt Edgecombe in Kawerau, NZ. Rosalie was Queen of the Mt Edgecombe race and won the women's category in a record time of 31:17mins. The seed for a trans-Tasman challenge was sown and since 1986 Pomona and Kawerau have exchanged teams to compete in each other's event.

In 2021 Queensland Parks and Wildlife service (QPWS) advised the Lions Club that the track from the base of the mountain up to Checkpoint A would be closed. The 2022 King of the Mountain course became 1km longer and other courses shorter. In 2023 Jorge Hernaez Navarro crossed the finish line in a record 31.15mins as the King of the Mountain, with Lachie Hudson as Prince in 11.45mins and Charlotte Reed as Princess in 12.20mins.

The continued deterioration of track conditions prompted the QPWS to impose stricter conditions for permit approval. The Lions Club felt the new permit conditions required the race to be adjusted in a way that would compromise its essence and decided to no longer hold the event.

Rhonda Piggott