Horsham runner Kelvin Mills took the over warm conditions in his stride, streeting the rest of the field to win by over a minute in last Saturdays Horsham Telstra Shop Handicap.
Twenty-one runners tackled the 6.5km circuit along the banks of the Wimmera river, taking advantage of the low water levels to cross the river bed on two occasions, adding a novel twist to the course of recent years.
Front markers Carolyn Lehmann, Wayne Beddison and Gary Saunders set the early pace, with Phil Burns in hot pursuit. Mills wasted no time in starting to pick off the runners in front, while behind him Peter Blair and Ted Zgainski were also making their presence felt. At the back of the field Ray Scott and Adrian Tyler were also making up ground fast.
However Mills was unstoppable and hit the front with 1km to go, extending his lead to close to a minute and a half at the finish.
With only 300 metres to go, Phil Burns and Gary Saunders were still leading the rest of the field, only to be mowed down soon afterwards by a fast finishing Ray Scott, and then by Peter Blair, who finished second and third respectively, with Burns coming home fourth.
Adrian Tyler recorded the fastest time of the day with 25 minutes 4sec. Ilana Jorgensen was the fastest female with 30 minutes 53sec.
The juniors tackled a 3km out and back course. Ebony Darnell led the field away with Bianca Robertson hot on her heals.
Further back Emily Parnaby and Liam Scott were running hard but Robertson was too strong and held on to score a good win, with Parnaby second and Scott third.
Scott ran the fastest time of 14 minutes 44 sec, with Parnaby the quickest junior girl in 14 minutes 56 sec.
Somer Darnell ran a fantastic race to take out the sub-junior 1km event from Liam Burns second and Georgie Barnett third. Liam Burns was the fastest sub-junior boy with 4 minutes 53sec and Somer Darnell was the quickest sub-junior girl in 5 minutes 3sec.
A special thanks to the Howdens for the use of their house to stage the run.