Stawell Amateur Athletic Club staged their first combined Aggregate and Championship race for the season with the Chris Blake Sealed Handicap 3km Championship, held in the Iron Bark Reserve north of Stawell. Dry but ideal conditions greeted the nineteen senior runners who lined up to battled for line honours over a very challenging, hilly course.
The field soon sorted itself out with Col Barnett forging to the lead, closely followed by Ashley Roberts, Tim Schneider and Karl Scott.
However, nobody could match Barnett’s pace up and down the hills, and these positions remained constant for the entire race. Col Barnett crossed the line first to claim the Championship win, and the fastest race time of 10min 43sec.
Winner of the handicap section and fastest female was Susie Ellis, who couldn’t quite catch her hubby in the championship stakes.
Her time was 12min 35sec. Last weeks winner Karl Scott ran another great race to take second with seasoned campaigner Peter Steggall finding good form to run third for the second week in a row.
The juniors also ran the same 3km course, and left many of the senior runners in their dust, with Nat Watson taking line honours and the Junior Championship in 12min 48sec. Watson is showing good form and is running consistently fast times. He also beat his dad, Stan, by 4 seconds.
Naomi Jamieson put in a good run to claim the win on handicap, with Emily Parnaby second and Nat Watson coming in third. Fastest junior girl and Female Junior Champion was Ilana Jorgenson with the good time of 13min 45sec.
Ten sub-juniors competed over 1000m sealed handicap, with Jack Butler just pipping Liam Scott for line honours. Winner on handicap was Mackenzie Ellis, with Liam Scott second and Jack Butler third.
The fastest sub-junior time was Jack Butler with the quick time of 3min 44sec. Stacey Faravoni was the fastest sub-junior girl in a time of 4min 6sec.