Stawell Amateur Athletic Club held the Charlie Jones sponsored 16km handicap last Saturday with an impressive field of 17 senior runners lining up for the longest cross country of the year.
With many of the runners training for the Adelaide Marathon in August, it looked as if they would dominate the field and battle out the top placing’s.
However, in the closing stages of the race, Ray Scott rose to the challenge, overpowering the rest of the field to take out the event by a clear 54 seconds, a great come back after a knee operation earlier this year. Susie Ellis came home second with Ivan McDonald, following his win last week, in third place.
Col Barnett ran the fastest time of 1 hour 2 minutes 39 seconds, beating the rest of the field by a clear 3 minutes. Fastest female was Susie Ellis in a time of 1 hour 11 minutes 31 seconds.
This was the first 16km race for many years, and was deemed a great success by all runners, who are looking forward to another one next year.
An 8km senior race was also staged for those who did not wish to run 16km. Meg Parnaby showed the rest of the field a clean pair of heels, to cross the line first with Stephen Baird coming in second, and John Collins third. Stephen Baird clocked the fastest time of 32 minutes 40 seconds.
A large field of 16 runners lined up for the junior 4km event. The ever improving Nathan Watson ran a strong race to fend off the fast finishing Naomi Jamieson, with Karl Scott coming in third. This is Watson’s second win for the season.
Karl Scott produced the fastest time of 20 minutes 20 seconds. Naomi Jamieson was the fastest girl in 21 minutes 12 seconds.
The sub-juniors ran a 2km race, with new club member Stacey Faravoni leaving the opposition in her wake. Jack Butler was second and Heidi Sudholz third.F
astest sub-junior was Jack Butler in a time of 11 minutes 3 seconds. Fastest girl was Stacey Faravoni in a time of 11 minutes 34 seconds.