Grampians Physiotherapy Handicap
Home ground advantage saw Alexa Duke win the Stawell Amateur Athletic Club Grampians Physiotherapy Handicap on Saturday.
Halls Gap produced fine conditions for the 27 senior runners who lined up for the 6.5k event. Held on a new course to previous years, the race started along Mt Zero Road, then turned off downhill along various sandy tracks then back up to the main road.
The sand, combined with such a long uphill finish, was best suited to the stronger runners.
Alexa Duke used her handicap mark to good advantage and ran strongly all the way to win by only 4sec from Meg Parnaby, after a hard tussle on the home straight. Susie Ellis finished third.
The fastest time of the day was produced by Col Barnett with 24mins 50sec. Fastest female was Susie Ellis in 29mins 31sec.
The junior race saw a good field of 14 runners line up for the start of the 2.5km event. Shaun Parnaby ran well to cross the line first with Harry Steggall second, finishing in the minor placings for the third week in a row. Must be yours next week Harry! Sophie Alexander came in third.
Alastair Dugdale recorded the fastest junior time of 9mins 52sec. The fastest girl was Naomi Jamieson in a time of 10mins 21sec.
Both Alexa and Shaun seem to have a mortgage on this race, as both won it last year as well! N
ine sub-juniors lined up for the 1km dash. An excited Tobias Blair notched up his first win for the season from a fast finishing Liam Scott, with Richard Dugdale third.
Liam Scott produced the fastest time of 4mins 10sec. Fastest girl was Heidi Sudholz in a time of 4mins 23sec.