Stawell Amateur Athletics Club held the Barham Insurance 8km Handicap last Saturday, in mostly fine but cool conditions. A field of 21 senior runners lined up for the start of the course through the ironbarks on the northern edge of town.
Gary Saunders lead the field off, followed closely by David Milburn, who took to the challenging and rough conditions to eventually capture the lead. As the race progressed, and with the backmarkers drawing ever closer, David dug deep and managed to hang on to take out his first race for the season by a good margin of 25 sec.
Peter Hilbig put in a good performance to come in second with the ever persistent Gaynor Radovic third.
The fastest senior male was Colin Barnett in 29 min 25 sec and the fastest senior female was Jacinta Collier in a time of 35 min 36 sec. Both continue to have good seasons and are excellent prospects to take out the club championships.
The junior field was again impressive, with numbers continuing to climb, almost weekly. Honours over the 2km handicap went to Naomi in 8 min 59 sec, her first win with the club, with Marcus second (7:49) and Alastair third (8:01).
Naomi has commenced running regularly with the club this year and is presenting well each time she runs. Aaron was the fastest junior male in 7 min 43 sec and the fastest junior female was Lucy Alexander in a time of 8 min 15 sec.
In the sub-junior race, again a 2km handicap, Jackson (9:53) ran an excellent race to hold off a hard finishing Harrison (11:11) with Tobias (10:34) in third.
Nathan was again the fastest sub-junior in a time of 8 min 52 sec, with Sophie the fastest sub-junior girl in a time of 9 min 28 sec.