Wet and wintry conditions greeted the runners at the start of the David O Jones Mitre 10 Handicap on Saturday. With the smallest field for the season, only 13 runners braved the conditions. Many club members were also absent as they were competing in the Adelaide Marathon the following day. The Senior 6.5km race was run over a course consisting of a 500m loop at the start and then three laps of a two kilometre circuit.
With lots of water and puddles on the track the day was suited to the wet track runners. Gary Saunders ran well early with middle markers Jacinta Collier and Kel Tyler gradually closing the gap. Jacinta Collier passed Saunders with 2km to go and stormed home to win. Gary Saunders dug deep to sprint to the line for second placing, just holding out the fast finishing Kel Tyler by 42 hundredths of a second.
The fastest time was Col Barnett in 24 min 7 sec. The fastest female was Jacinta Collier in a time of 27 min 47 sec. With not many runners in the race Stan Watson was able to collect extra points towards the Aggregate, and is now only 11 points behind the leader Gaynor Radovic.
Only 4 Juniors lined up for the 4km race which saw Emily win her 3rd race for the season by 3 sec from Karl. Hugh came in third. Karl was the fastest Junior in a time of 17 min 50 sec. Emily was the fastest girl in a time of 19 min 42 sec.
The Sub-Junior race was held over 2km with 6 lining up for the start. Liam quickly rounded up Fraser and Elly and was leading with 100m to go, victory in his eyes, when Nathan, who was powering along the wet course overtook him 10 metres from the line to win by 1 second. Jackson took out third place.
The fastest Sub-Junior was Nathan in a time of 8 min 33 sec. Hannah was the fastest girl in a time of 10 min 10 sec.