Stawell Amateur Athletic Club held the McDonald Hairdressing Handicap on Saturday at the Rifle Range Reserve, on the outskirts of Stawell. A good field of 23 senior runners lined up for two laps of the 4km undulating course.
Right from the start it was the front marks who set the pace, with Fiona O’Brien, Steve Baird and new member Kevin Mills teaming well to give the rest of the field no chance to catch them.
Well into the second leg, Kelvin Mills had broken free to established a handy lead, which he held to the finish, winning by a good margin of 33 seconds from Baird, with the clubs aggregate leader Fiona O’Brien again finishing third.
O’Brien has had a great start to the season, and seems to be in top form after a summer of triathlon racing.
The fastest male was Colin Barnett in a smart time of 29min. Jacinta Collier produced the fastest female time of 32min 13sec.
The juniors ran a single 4km lap with 10 runners lining up for the start. Harry Steggall ran well all the way to almost claim victory yet again, but Aaron van den Hoek, showing a great improvement in form, produced a strong finish to hit the front with only 200m to go, to claiming his first win for the season.
Karl Scott ran the fastest junior time of 15min 54sec, with Naomi Jamieson the fastest girl in 16min 58sec. Naomi is starting to produce some very good times of late, under the care of coach Keith Haymes.
A small field of six sub-juniors lined up for a 1500m handicap race. Heidi Sudholz, another new club member, ran well to notch up her first win by 9 sec over Daniel op de Coul, with Fraser Steggall coming in third.
Heidi also produced the fastest sub-junior time of 6mins 30sec. The fastest boy was Daniel op de Coul in a time of 7mins 9sec.