NEWS

Race Report – XCR’18 round 9 – Burnley 21km & 5km Road Race Championships. Sunday 2nd of September 2018.

Athletics Essendon Race Report, Results and Photos.

Athletics Victoria XCR’18 Round 9 of 10.

Burnley 21km & 5km Road Race Championships.

Sunday 2 September 2018.

Race Report

by Stephen Murphy.

As has been the tradition for some years on Father’s Day, our distance runners have headed to Yarra Boulevard in Burnley for the Half Marathon Championships, to run on a closed road circuit along the Yarra River bank.

The course consisted of an initial 1.1km run and then 4 x 5km loops. The juniors completed one 5km loop in their event.

With this being the longest individual race of the XCR’18 winter series, a few of our regulars were missing due to the slightly longer distance and a few injuries, after a long season of distance running.

In ideal conditions, the fast flat course produced quite a few P.B.s for our athletes, Damien Bruneau, Justin McLaren and Don McLaren and a probably a few more got P.Bs as well.

We had eleven female runners, two of these were juniors.

And we had sixteen male runners, five of these were juniors.

In the open women’s team, Liselle Atkin got her very first top ten finish in an XCR event when she finished seventh, which was a great result for her and the club. Liselle has a great season and she is improving in every race.

Liam Adams finished third, this was his fourth top ten finish from four starts. With the completion of the six individual races, Liam will finish equal second in the Champion Athlete – Open Men award.

In the open women’s team, two teams of three were totally filled. Div 2 came second and Div 4 came second as well. This was a great result for the open women, with so many runners absent and to still get two second places is a remarkable achievement. All six runners played their part to perfection. Great to see Emily Mizis (U20) and Lauren Connell team running together so well, the clock couldn’t separate them at the finish, their times were identical!!

The open men’s results were not too bad, a little better than the last individual race at Ballarat. With eleven male runners racing, the Div 1 and Div 3 were both filled, but the Div 6 team was not filled. Div 1 finished ninth and Div 3 finished fourteenth.

With our open men’s teams not doing fantastic, individually our male athletes continued to excel.

In the M40-44 category, Damien Bruneau in a P.B. was third and he was our second fastest runner on the day and he will finish in third place in his category in the XCR’18 six individual race standings.

And in the M60+ category, Karl Augustin came home in second place and he will finish in sixth place in his category in the XCR’18 six individual race standings.

Similarly, in our junior club ranks our runner numbers were very well down, with only one team filled.

All juniors of all ages ran in the 5km event.

Fastest junior female on the day was Sienna Andrews and fastest junior male was Mason Scott.

The men U20 team of Mason Scott, Max Taylor and Zach Mottram, finished third in a very competitive race.

Thanks so much to all of our helpers Lisa Gunn star photographer, Amelia O’Reilly and Duncan Knox for again bringing along the club tent.

The last of ten XCR’18 races is on Saturday 15 September and it is round 10 at the Tan Track in the Kings Domain around the Royal Botanical Gardens. This event is the Tan Relays, with all open and junior athletes running one lap of the 3.8km circuit.

Relay team entries close with AV on Monday 10 September @ 11:59am, so contact your respective team manager before noon on Sunday 9 September and confirm that you will be racing and to be placed in a relay team.

We are looking forward to a massive number of team entries for this event, as this the very last race of XCR’18. And being the shortest distance race, it will be a perfect lead-in for track and field season starting on the first Saturday in October. Maybe a few of our middle-distance track runners will be tempted to come along and test themselves on a quick lap of the Tan Track.

The club very generously will be paying your relay entry fees to AV for this event, so support you club and race for FREE in this event and help our open men’s and women’s club teams, to be promoted or to avoid relegation.

Results

Copy of 18 08 06. Burnley Results.

Photos.

Courtesy of Lisa Gunn.