Athletics Victoria XCR08 Series
Geelong - Saturday, 12 July 2008
10 Mile Cross Country Championships

Under grey clouds and cool conditions, your Coburg Harriers descended on the spectacular Eastern Park in Geelong for the Victorian 10 Mile Championships. In the women's section, athletes were to complete one lap of the four kilometre course

First off was the women's race, which was a combined event with the junior men. The club's top women's team would field one of their strongest sides for the year, with three time club cross country champion joined by Australian 100 km Road Champion Deanne Nobbs, along with promising junior athlete Leah Polycarpou and the super talented Carmel Taylor

Van Dueren was again outstanding coming in first for the Harriers, but behind her Polycarpou - bravely stepping up into senior competition - performed admirably to come in second for the Harriers, just edging out Carmel Taylor. Deanne Nobbs completed the team that eventually finished ninth and their best performance for the season

And the club was delighted to be able field a second women's team with Jo Francken recording a super fast time, finishing not far behind Deanne Nobbs. Johanna Hayes was next in, having recently announced her engagement to club stalwart and legend Luong Dao.  And Griea Taylor completed the team. This was a courageous performance, given this was also Taylor's first hit out in senior competition. It was through her efforts that by race end, the team finished in fourth place and are now in the promotion zone on the Division 4 women's ladder

In the junior section, Josh Traine finished only seconds behind Stacey van Dueren in the U16 men's section

To the open men and Jeremy Grey was fastest for the Harriers with four consistent laps and a creditable 60th place in 58:36. This was arguably a better performance than Grey's personal best time over the distance recorded at Frankston - a far easier course. And proving that wedding planning was no distraction - nor the month long trip to Canada - Luong Dao again showed his value to the Coburg Harriers, coming in second with 65:36.

Barely ten seconds behind Dao was captain Philip van Dueren in one of his best performances for the season. A minute further back was the ever improving Ken Souyave while Rohan King showed his liking for endurance events by being the fifth fastest Coburg Harrier home, only fourteen seconds further behind Souyave

Men’s Division Four was led home by John Braszell, with Mark Kelly putting in an excellent performance trailing Braszell by barely twenty seconds. Warren Burke – who had hurt his knee just days prior to this race – was with Kelly to the halfway point, started to fall off the pace through the third lap. Coach Brian Delaney was next home with Len Hallett anchoring the team home to seventh place

Unfortunately, the club was one runner short of completing a third team and in so doing set yet another unenviable record of fielding one of their smallest men’s teams for several years. Nevertheless the effort of Daniel Norris could not be faulted, nor that of Bernie Goggin and Daryl Thomson

Thank you to our hardworking officials Ken Carter and Diane Brimacombe. The latter in particular provided a wonderful afternoon tea that revitalised and re-energised a tired group of runners

SPEEDY GONZALEZ AWARDS

Division 3 Men (16 km) – Jeremy Grey (58:36)
Division 4 Men (16 km) – John Braszell King (70:46)

Division 1 Women (4 km) – Stacey Van Dueren (15:28)
Division 4 Women (4 km) – Joanne Francken (18:49)

BIG IMPROVER AWARD (from 2007 event)

ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD

This one goes out to Warren Burke who put his body on the line for the club. After running with some discomfort for the first two laps of the four kilometre circuit, Burke’s knee finally gave in to the relentless pressure and gave out on the big fella. Burke struggled through the last two laps and did exceptionally well even to finish. Great stuff Burkey and hopefully you’ll be back striding out from the gun again soon

BLOOPER OF THE DAY

The award for this round goes to John Braszell, although admittedly rather unkindly given “Brazza” gave three of this fellow Harriers a lift to the event. Braszell was concerned that he had arrived at the venue with only half an hour to spare before the start of the men’s race. That is, until he was informed that the race in facr started at 2:30 pm and not 1:30 pm as he had thought. This gave the boys the opportunity to walk the course and still have plenty of time to prepare for their race. Well done, Brazza!