This was the last round of XCR ’19.
All runners, male, female, open, masters and juniors ran one 3.8km
lap of the iconic Tan course.
We had twelve relay teams starting the event, six open men’s teams, two junior men’s
teams, three open women’s teams and one junior women’s team.
Women Div 1 finished eighth of 10 teams
Women Div 3 finished sixth of 9 teams
Men Div 1 finished seventh of 10 teams
Men Div 3 finished eighth of 13 teams
Men Div 6 finished second of 11 teams
Men Div 7 (1) finished tenth of 27 teams
Men Div 7(2) finished twenty-fourth of 27 teams
Men Div 7 (3) had one runner place vacant
Men U18 finished seventh of 9 teams
Men U16 finished twelfth of 16 teams
Unfortunately we had a few runners who became unavailable due to illness and this meant we were unable to fill some of the vacancies.
Our fastest open female runner was Charlotte Wilson (13:02). Only four female runners
ran faster with the best time of 12:15 by Lisa Weightman (Melb Uni).
Our fastest open male runner was Liam Adams (11:11) with just eight male runners faster,
Liam is in his final preparations for the 2019 Berlin Marathon on Sunday 29 September.
The club wishes him all the best in his race and hopefully he can produce another Tokyo 2020 Olympics marathon qualifying time.
A regular in our open women’s team this winter, in her debut season with our club,
Samantha Gates will also be taking on the 2019 Berlin marathon this Sunday.
Our fastest junior female runner was Aimee Jungfer (U18) time to be confirmed
Our fastest junior male runner was Aidan Roberts (U18) 11:48
For the Div 1 men, seventh was the best finishing place for the season for the team.
Unfortunately, as they have finished last on the ladder, the likelihood is that they will be relegated to Div 2 next year.
The open women finished in fourth place this season.
A great debut season back up in Div 1, after being promoted from Div 2
With wins this year at Bundoora, Anglesea and Sandown and second place at Albert
Park, the open women just need everything to go right in 2020 and they will be pushing
up onto the podium.
With those three wins proving that our best women are up with the top teams, we just need to consistently get our fastest runners at more rounds.
We welcomed back Sarah Connell for her first AV race in quite a few years. She has been
training hard at the track through winter and after doing well on the Tan she will be
looking forward to some racing on the track this summer.
Sarah joined younger sister Lauren Connell (13:59) and dad Geoff Connell, for a very successful morning’s racing for Team Connell.
Lauren was our third fastest open female runner just behind Emelia Eagling-Every (13:58), while Sarah was our fifth fastest open female runner.
We had a number of Tan P.B.s, including Justin McLaren (12:54), Don McLaren, Damien Bruneau (12:21), Glenda Morris, Mason Scott (11:55) and Lauren Connell. Special mention to some of our junior runners; Aidan Roberts (11:48) running in Div 1, Brody Thrum (12:38), Archie Noakes (12:59) back in Essendon colours, Brodie Andrews (13:50), back from injury and illness and Dylan Rowbottom (14:27).
Many thanks to our club helpers; Brian Anderson, Tara Attard, Daniel White and Kathy Jungfer, who arrived long before the racing started and were there until the last runner crossed the finish line.
Also thank you to our on the day junior team managers, Chris Jackson WU20,
Rae Andrews MU16 and Duncan Knox MU18.
Chris and Rae also helped out many other times throughout the XCR’19 season.
In the AV winter individual awards we had eight runners finish in the top ten in their
respective age categories.
AV Champion Athlete – Open Women 3rd Charlotte Wilson
AV Champion Athlete – Open Women Equal 6th Makda Haji Harun
AV Champion Athlete – Open Men 4th Liam Adams
AV Champion Athlete – Open Men 40-44 2nd Damien Bruneau
AV Champion Athlete – Open Men 40-44 8th Bouchaib Chefnaoui
AV Champion Athlete – Women 55+ 10th Linda Rosa
AV Champion Athlete – Under 18 Men 5th Aidan Roberts
AV Champion Athlete – Under 18 Women 4th Bianca Puglisi
Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the XCR’19 winter presentation afternoon
starting at 1:00pm on Sunday 20 October 2019 at the Union Hotel, 252 Union Road,
Ascot Vale.
Entry is FREE, food and drinks available at bar/bistro prices.
And as this was the last round of ten of this winter’s XCR’19 competition, we now look
forward to AVSL track and field competition starting at Aberfeldie track on Saturday 5
October.
Make sure you get yourself registered for summer and purchase the track and field
package, to help our club achieve success in Div 1 in this debut season of the brand new
AVSL competition.
Report by Steve Murphy
