Athletics Victoria XCR08 Series
La Trobe Uni, Bundoora - Sunday, 1 June 2008
15 km Road Race

Cool conditions greeted running for the fourth round of the Athletics Victoria XCR08 winter series. It was the second running on this course and what a difference a year makes! Last season, the Coburg Harriers fielded six men's teams and two women's teams. In 2008, the club was just able to field three men's teams and a women's team

Senior athletes were to undertake three laps of a five kilometre circuit with juniors to complete just the one lap. The Coburg Harriers were represented in the junior section by four runners in four different grades, The club was very pleased to unveil a new recruit in Tahlia Dwyer. A region representative distance runner of note from her time at Coburg Little Athletics, Dwyer showed the benefit of her time spent with the Brian Delaney training squad at the Coburg Harriers with 25:34 and 23rd place in the Female U16 section

Of the other juniors, Josh Traine showed his star is set to continue rising with a fantastic 19:13 in a time that smashed his best at this course and was the best placed of all Coburg Harriers, recording 13th place in the U16 boys division. This runner has shown a marked improvement this season and all this correspondent can say is, "roll on track season!" Daniella Modesti did very well in the U18 girls section and her 22:48 was an excellent performance that saw her finish 16th. And Leah Polycarpou continued to show why she is a bright prospect for the future with 24:07 in her first effort over the distance and a creditable 17th place in the U14 girls division

To the seniors now, and a good even performance by Jeremy Grey saw him record 54:05 and finish in 77th place for the men. Grey had a point to prove after blowing up at least year's event and three even splits within 10 seconds of 18 minutes for the three five kilometre laps told the story

In a remarkable performance, second Coburg Harrier home overall was Stacey Van Dueren. Still on the long road to recovery from her long term injury, Van Dueren's performance was still good enough for 16th place in the women's event. Second home for the women's team was Carmel Taylor who debuted for the club last year at this event and recorded a top 50 finish with her 65:55.

First home for the club's second men's team was Edwin Cheung, who received good support from an improving Robert Virgona and super coach Brian Delaney who is in good form at the moment after a horrid run of injuries. All were considerably faster than last year. But none could beat the effort of Daniel Norris, who was an extraordinary nine minutes quicker than last season

Fastest for the Division Five side was Michael Jordan who led the team home in 87:20. Jordan was ably assisted by Bernie Goggin and Daryl Thomson who both recorded faster times than last year, with the latter in particular some twenty minutes quicker!

The next event is the Coliban Long Road Relays

SPEEDY GONZALEZ AWARDS

Division 3 Men - Jeremy Grey (54:05)
Division 4 Men - Edwin Cheung (66:31)
Division 5 Men - Michael Jordan (87:20)
Division 1 Women - Stacey Van Dueren (59:14)

BIG IMPROVER AWARD (from 2007 event)

Darryl Thomson : 20:52
Daniel Norris :       9:03
Josh Traine :         2:25 (note, 5 km event) 
Robert Virgona :   2:19
Brian Delaney :     2:02
Jeremy Grey :       1:51
Edwin Cheung :    1:40
Bernie Goggin :     1:02
Ken Souyave :      0:27

ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD

This one goes out to Ken Souyave who despite a long lay off from injury showed how much he loves these longer events byu recording a time nearly a minute quicker than last year. Well done Ken! 

And also to Rita Pana, who despite these days perhaps doing training more suited to the shorter events, still recorded an excellent 76:55 for or first women's team

BLOOPER OF THE DAY

To the person who forgot to bring the portable stove so that we could all have a cup of tea. Although this award could easily have gone to Jeremy Grey who like in Round 2, again arriving barely minutes before the start!