Athletics Victoria XCR08 Series
Sandown - Saturday, 17 May 2008
10 km Road Race

Billed as the fastest and best 10 km road race in the country, conditions did not quite come to the party for Round 3 of Athletics Victoria's XCR08 winter series. At the 2:30 pm race start, the temperature was just eight degrees and rain had been falling continuously since early that morning

The junior race kicked off first and competing for the Coburg Harriers were Leah Polycarpou (U14) and Joshua Traine (U16). Polycarpou recorded the club's best result for the day, finishing in 16th place with 12:10 for her three kilometre event. And Traine was similarly impressive, his 10.58 a new personal best and was good enough for 22nd place

The senior race was up next. In the women's section, the Coburg Harriers had arguably their strongest ever teram in Athletics Victoria winter competition with Stacey Van Dueren, Carmel Taylor and Deanne Nobbs. This race also marked the return from injury and season debut for Jo Francken, whose absence has been keenly felt

Leading home the Coburg Harriers men was Jeremy Grey who ran 35:07. Grey was disappointed with his time, having run 34:24 the previous year. Liam Magee showed he will be one to watch with 35:30. Magee ran conservatively through the frst half of the race and was 18:00 at the five kilometre mark. From here Magee finished very strongly with 17:30 through the last half of the race and he will be one to watch as the season unfolds

In fact, remarkable performances came from four of the topfive runners, Both John Braszell (39:09) and Ken Souyave (39:48) would have been pleased with their runs, given that both have been plagued by injury in recent times. Hoever, one of the most eyecatching performancesa of the day went to Josh Persson whose 39:29 was an excellent performance from this emerging talent. This was Persson's most impressive run for the club in his career to date

For the third consecutive race, Rohan King (39:55) was fastest for our second team in Division Four, Edwin Cheung was in great shape as he recorded a personal best 40:36, Warren Burke would have been satisfied with 42:52 given his continiung battle with a knee injury while Mark Kelly was also in sparkling form, recording a personal best 41:11

Unfortunately, as in Round 2, for the second consecutive time the club was one runner short of compleint a Division Six men's team

In the women's section, Stacey Van Dueren showed her return to top form is not far away with 38:43 and remarkably this would be the third qiockest time foer for the club overall. What our top men's side wouldn't give to have Stacey in their team at the moment!

Deanne Nobbs had an excellent run with 43:09, Rita Pana earned a spot in the Division One women's team with 48:17, while Jo Francken did well to record 48:50 and Jackie Steel ran an encouraging 61:59

The next event on the XCR08 calendar is the L1 km road race at La Trobe University on 1 June 2008. Some good results are expected there, with the longer events tending to suit the Coburg Harriers more

SPEEDY GONZALEZ AWARDS

Division 3 Men - Jeremy Grey (35:07)
Division 4 Men - Rohan King (39:55)
Division 5 Men - Robert Virgona (43:45)
Division 1 Women - Stacey Van Dueren (38:43)
Division 4 Women - Jo Francken (38:50)

BIG IMPROVER AWARD (from 2004 event)

Daryl Thomson          -6:44
Daniel Norris              -2:54
Rohan King               -2:05
Brian Delaney            -0:44
Mark Kelly                 -0:35
Edwin Cheung           -0:26
Len Hallett                 -0:24
Ken Souyave             -0:07
Deanne Nobbs           -0:01

ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD

Well done to Daryl Thomson who, as indicated above, took seven minutes off his time from last season. Thomson has obviously worked hard at his fitness over the summer and it is definitely showing with much improved performances. Last year after this event Thomson looked a shattered man, but to see the way he has bounced back is fantastic. Thomson continues to be - for me, at least - a source of inspiration

BLOOPER OF THE DAY

This one goes out to Carmel Taylor who brought her daughter Griea to run in the junior event - only the race had already started! In the end, not a huge blooper as the club did not have enough runners to fill a junior girl's team, but nevertheless for rocking up after the event, Carmel - this one's for you