Jacinta Collier, after finishing 4th in the National Triathlon Championships in Perth last month, was too good for the rest of the field, taking out the Sportspower 5km Handicap on Saturday in cold but sunny conditions.
Club founder Keith Haymes set off first over the tough, hilly course, followed by Gary Saunders, who is showing good early season form. Fiona O’Brien also looked a good chance early on.
Back marker’s Colin Barnett, Jade Merrett and invitation runner Ashley Roberts ran side by side for much of the way to make up ground on the front markers
However it was Jacinta Collier who proved in the end too strong for the rest of the field, and hit the front with less than 500m to go. Patrick Ellis, after his third place last week, hung on to finish second with Fiona O’Brien coming in third.
Col Barnett just held off Jade Merrett by half a second for fastest time, running a great time of 17mins 51sec. Jacinta Collier ran 19mins 34sec to be fastest female, her time being the fastest female time for many years.
A good field of twelve Juniors lined up for the 3km run. Karl Scott, after finishing 2nd last week, set a sizzling pace right from the start, to just catch Lochie Ellis in the final stages of the race and take out a good win. Marcus Scott ran ran well to take out third place and also ran the fastest Junior time of 11mins 58sec. The fastest girl was Naomi Jamieson in 14mins 14sec.
A field of twelve Sub-Juniors set off on a 1500m handicapped race with 5 year old Kathryn Op de Coul first off the mark. However, it was back marker Jack Butler who outran the field to overtake Liam Scott and Tobias Blair meters from the line, in a very exciting finish, to take out a well deserved win.
Jack also produced the fastest Sub-Junior time of 7mins 13sec.