NEWS

Round 3 XCR ’19

Round 3 of XCR’19, had our distance runners heading out to Bundoora and Bundoora Park and the selection trials for the Victorian teams to represent Victoria at the National Cross Country Championships at Wollongong in August 2019.

Open men and women ran 10km, while juniors ran either 3km, 4Km or 6Km

The race conditions were very good for early winter; not too cold, not too windy and the course was fairly firm and fast with not too many soft spots to negotiate.

This cross country course is challenging as it is fairly undulating, with very few flat sections to regain your form and a quite steep section at the back of the course which runners had to negotiate twice.

The highlight of the day was Makda Haji Harun’s second place in the open women’s 10km race, only 5 seconds behind first place. Makda led the field a few times during the race and to be just beaten by a quality athlete from Geelong in Ellie Pashley is a great result. Makda currently sits in 2nd place on the Individual Women’s Champions ladder.

Not far behind in seventh place was Charlotte Wilson who ran despite a heavy cold. This gave Essendon a great team result.

Two of our juniors also excelled; in the F U18 4km schools race, Bianca Puglisi finished in third place while Aiden Roberts finished in second place in the M U18 6km schools race.

Adam Hackett was 8th in M U14, while Charlotte Jackson was also 8th in the W U14.

We also had club debuts by two new runners. Danielle Stasinowsky (Red and Black Running Team) and Michael Martello (M U20) who was our first finisher in his event. Danielle helped her open women’s division 3 team to finish in fifth place, a great start to her club distance running career.

Club champions, Mitch Brown and Liam Adams made every effort for their teams. Mitch played football in the morning while Liam is preparing hard for his assault on Tokyo 2020, and was our first male home in 27th place. Damien Bruneau split Liam and Mitch to finish in 74th place. He currently sits in 4th place on the M 40-44 Individual Men’s Champions ladder.

Team results to date are not super impressive with our Premier Div Women in 2nd place on the ladder after 3 rounds the club’s best. Div 1 Men are languishing at the bottom of the ladder and at risk of relegation.

Finally, these AV events would not be possible without our club members and family and friends, volunteering their valuable spare time to ensure that our club provides the mandatory number of club helper / volunteers to assist AV at each XCR’19 event. So many thanks to our three club helper / volunteers, Roslyn Roberts (Mother of Aiden Roberts), David Jones and Don McLaren.

Many thanks to our three race day team photographers, Mel Hardiman, Glenda Morris and Lisa Gunn, for all of their great action and team photos. Also massive thanks to Lisa Gunn, Glenda Morris and Robyn Coyne for their team support on the day and for providing post-race afternoon snacks for our hungry athletes.