Dugdale Dash (relays)
Relay team Charlie’s Chumps set a cracking pace from the start to dominate the Stawell Amateur Athletic Club’s annual cross country relay challenge, the Dugdale Dash.
A good field of 40 senior, junior and sub-junior runners made up the 8 teams of 5 runners each. The sub-juniors led off over the 1900m bush course circuit, with Charlie’s Chumps Stacey Faravoni establishing a handy lead at the first change, in a snappy time of 8min 39sec.
Richard Dugdale was next for Barnett’s Boomers, with Elly Barnett of Watson’s Wanderers not far behind. Then the junior and senior runners took over, completing 2 legs of the course each.
Charlie’s Chumps remaining runners Charlie Jones, Kieran Ryan, Thomas Blair and Marcus Scott put in a scorching performance, stretched their lead to over six minutes at one stage, before being pulled back to the final margin of just over 5 minutes by Barnett’s Boomers team members Col Barnett, Jacinta Cameron, Karl Scott and Daniel Faravoni, who came in second. Charlie’s Chumps winning time was 63min 27sec.
The battle for 3rd and 4th was close throughout the race, with Watson’s Wanderers leading Howden’s Hounds until the final stages when Gary Howden and Alastair Dugdale both put in strong final runs to turn the tables enabling Howden’s Hounds to carry off third placing.
The remaining 4 teams, Dugdale’s Dashers, Pumpa’s Pounders, Steggall’s Stayer and Scotts Stragglers also had a close battle, all finishing within about 2 minutes of each other.
Fastest individual time for a single lap was 5min 51sec by Kieran Ryan. Fastest junior runner was Alastair Dugdale in a time of 6min 57sec.