Athletics Essendon’s Makda Harun Haji provided the highlight of the night for her club with a bronze medal in the feature 10,000m event at the Zátopek:10 on Thursday at Lakeside Stadium.
Battling difficult windy conditions, the locally based Ethiopian runner clocked 33min 5.73sec in the historic race to be narrowly pipped for the silver by New South Wales’ Bridey Delaney (33:04.72), in the process claiming both the state title and second in the national championships as a registered Victorian athlete.
New Zealand’s Camille Buscomb was unchallenged at the front of the field, taking a dominant outright victory and her maiden Zátopek title in 32:34.41.
Also lining up for Essendon in the 10,000m events was Mitchel Brown, who finished fifth in the men’s race in in 29:14.21.
In other highlights for the club, Max Mischenko took out the men’s pole vault with a clearance of 5.00m, while the men’s 4 x 400m outfit of Greg Mitchell, Tom Sullivan, Dominic Hoskins and Andrew Boudrie narrowly missed a podium spot in clocking 3:20.11.
The Zátopek program also provided an opportunity for the club’s junior stars to shine. Sixteen-year-old Catherine Mendes stepped up to the open ranks to finish fifth in the women’s long jump (5.60m), while Emilie Guy (9:56.74) finished seventh in her Ondieki under 20 3000m and Lachlan Attard (4:44.84) finished 13th in his under 15 1500m.
Full results from the 2016 Zátopek:10 are available at www.athsvic.org.au
