Meggy Boan cast aside an old enemy and ended a frustrating sequence of second placings when she led yet another all-girl charge to win the eight kilometre Stawell Toyota Handicap in the Ironbarks Forest last Saturday.
Warned in advance that the Stawell Amateur Athletic Club event would not be easy, the irrepressible Meggy, already a winner this year, steeled herself for the anticipated hills and attacked them with relish.
“Hills have always been an enemy to me. I once found them daunting, but now I turn them into a challenge and I have beaten the enemy,” the club’s most enthusiastic athlete gushed.
Unlike her club-mates in Stawell, the Rupanyup nurserywoman hasn’t the advantage of being able to train on hills to improve her stamina, and does most of her preparation on Jack’s Track, a flat but scenic spin through native plantings close to town.
She does, however, make the most of her weekly visits to Stawell to teach Chinese at St Patricks by training at Big Hill and on the rises and falls of Centre Road in the Ironbarks.
After four seconds from her previous five starts, Mighty Meggy was due. In wet and blustery conditions, her spidery frame was effectively blown round the undulating course with the long uphill run home. Despite its difficulty Meggy recorded a personal best of 34.44 minutes but such is her rate of improvement she seems to record one of those most weeks.
Leggy Meggy always had the race under her control, steadily reeling in the front-markers and holding a 25 second margin at the finish over last start winner Matilda Iglesias who might have caused the handicapper some palpitations.
Third was Rhonda Clark who cracked 40 minutes for the first time in over five years in making a bold bid for her third win of the season and fourth was Sandra Casey, completing the all-girl quartet.
In the Sub-Junior division of the race, Atalia Chaplin made it a whitewash for the girls when she came from behind to defeat a determined Alex Boan.
The club has a bye this weekend, but travels to Horsham on August 31 for the five kilometre Andrew Darnell Memorial river run starting from the Horsham Rowing Sheds at 2pm. Keith Lofthouse 53562493 / 0458830034