Veteran runner Axel Meumann notched up his first win for several years, with a solid perfomance last Saturday to take out the Stawell Curtains Sealed Handicap 10km Championship race.
Meumann credited his overdue win to his long-term training partner and race sponsor Ray Scott. Fittingly, the Stawell Amateur Athletic Club stalwarts fought out the placings over a challenging bushland course, with Meumann prevailing by just 29 seconds on adjusted times, after a determined surge up the Cosson Place hill to the finish. Charlie Jones continued his consistent form, finishing third on adjusted handicaps.
For Meumann it was his first win since the eight kilometre Lindsay Kent Memorial in 2007.
“I’ve been training with Ray for about 20 years and a bit of local knowledge helped me today,” he said.
Nathaniel Warren was fourth on handicap, a few seconds behind Jones, but again recorded fastest race time of 39 minutes and 54 seconds to wrap up the club championship for the year. He was, however, given a real fright for line honours by dogged invitational runner David McAllistar, who toughed it out all the way to fall short by 11 seconds.
Swifts footballer Karl Scott took advantage of a weekend bye to test himself on the dips and rises of the bushland trails behind the rifle range, to finish just clear of Rhonda Clark, who was the first female home. Also running as an invitational runner, young Scott waged a battle royal with fifth-placed veteran Keith Lofthouse for almost the entire trip, but in the end, youth triumphed over experience.
Final Championship placings for 2009 were:-
Senior Mens Open – Nathaniel Warren
Senior Mens Vet – Ray Scott
Senior Womens Open and Vets saw a draw between Susie Ellis and Ronda Clark.
Junior Boy – Tobias Blair
Junior Girl – To be finalised (runners need to complete a certain number of races to qualify for championship points).
Sommer Darnell won the sub-junior division of the race over a shorter 1000m distance.