Horsham runners squared the ledger with their Stawell counterparts when Daryl Scollary converted three straight seconds into a maiden win in the five kilometre Run For Ray in the Ironbarks Forest last Saturday.
It was a clean sweep for Horsham with four of Dayl’s “neighbours” – Col Barnett (the unofficial 2011 club champion), Selina Heard-Price, Rick Price and Patrick Ellis – next to trail him in.
The win was the ninth by an athlete from the western capital this season equalling the number of wins landed by Stawell runners after eighteen races. However, in a curious quirk of circumstance, the only three races run in Horsham have all been won by runners from Stawell!
The inaugural Run for Ray celebrates the memory of esteemed former club president Ray Scott whose life was tragically cut short when he collapsed and died while on a training run in the Ironbarks in May of last year.
A small memorial in the forest marks the place where he fell and members of his family stood there on Saturday as the runners saluted a symbolic white cross on the track as they passed.
Daryl, a newcomer to the club, didn’t know Ray Scott but understood the sentiment. He plans to run the Melbourne Marathon in October in tribute to his uncle, Russell Forestall, who will contest the event for the 14th time, having recovered from a stroke he suffered last year.
“I took up running with Horsham only last year and set a goal to get fit for a marathon,” the 38-year-old Daryl said. “When I ran the Sydney marathon I thought it would be my last, but it’s been inspirational the way Russell has picked himself up after his stroke and I thought that if he could do it (run another marathon) I would too.”
The flying Luca O’Flynn, who ran five minutes faster than his father, Sven, won the junior division of the race, but fittingly, first across the line was Ray Scott’s teenage son, Liam, who, showing much of his dad’s old talent, ran on invitation and scorched around the course in a personal best of 20 minutes 13 seconds.
In the Sub-Juniors event over one kilometre, Oriana Panozzo earned bragging rights over her sister Pia with a decisive win.
By Keith Lofthouse