Athletics Victoria XCR08 Series
Sandown - Saturday, 9 August 2008
6.2 km Road Relays Cool conditions greeted your Coburg Harriers as they competed in Round 8 action of the Athletics Victoria XCR08 series in Springvale at the 6.2 km Sandown Road Relays. The club would field three mens teams and a womens team
Leading off for the first men's team was Jeremy Grey who was only seconds outside his personal best through the first 3000 metres. Grey held on to record 20:45 and hand over to Liam Magee with the club placed third. Magee put in a blinder and with two very even splits for 21:55. At the handover, Coburg was in first place. Next off was Luong Dao who recorded 23:29 and at the handover to Ken Souyave the Harriers were still in podium position with third place
Souyave put in a good performance with 24:07 and as he approached the handover, Coburg was in fifth place. A changeover malfunction meant that Philip Van Dueren lost several seconds at the start of his run (more on that in Blooper of the Day), however a very good performance with 23:37 the recorded time, but 23:19 his unofficial time. In the end, Coburg finished in seventh place, just ten seconds adrift of the fast finishing sixth placed team. In the end, the team was two minutes slower than last year, but recorded the same placing so not a bad result
Our second team (Men's Division Four) was led off by Rohan King and his 23:53 placed the team tenth at the first changover, however only three seconds separated eighth from tenth. Next up and in a big test for this junior athlete, Josh Traine performed creditably in the second senior team with 24:30. Despite such a strong run, the team dropped to eleventh with lub President Mark Kelly was off next
Kelly's 25:07 picked up the lost placing and put the team back in tenth place as Warren Burke saddled up. Injury has plagued this brave athlete of late, and so Burke's 25:43 was a very encouraging performance and it was good enough to pick up another place as Burke handed over to anchor and super coach Brian Delaney. Showing that he is on the big improve, Delaney managed to hold off all comers and his 26:24 was enough to see the team finish in ninth position
To our third team and our Division Six men were led off by Len Hallett who ran in 30:37. Next off was Stephanie Modesti who bravely assisted the club by helping to fill a men's team and her assistance was much appreciated. And Modesti put in a great performance showing she can more than match it with these blokes by running in 30:58. Next up was sexagenarian Bernie Goggin and he recorded 37:39 before anchor Daryl Thomson brought the team home in 35:56
The women's team was led off by Stacey Van Dueren who handed the team over in ninth place with 23:33 on the clock.Next up was Australian world ultra champs representative Deanne Nobbs who ran 28:05. Nobbs handed over to Daniela Modesti - making the big step up into senior competition. Running the anchor leg was Jo Francken whose performance was almost a minute improvement on last year with 28:14. At the finish, the team finished eleventh
The nest run is now four weeks away with the penultimate round of the season - the Burnley Half Marathon. We will be looking to post a strong result here to hold us in good stead for the Tan Relays
SPEEDY GONZALES AWARDMen's Division 3 – Jeremy Grey (20.45)
Men's Division 4 – Rohan King (23.53)
Men’s Division 5 – Len Hallett (30.37)
Women's Division 1 - Stacey van Dueren (31.33)
MOST IMPROVED AWARD (based on 2007 event)Josh Traine (- 2:56)
Daryl Thomson (- 1:05)
Rohan King (- 0:57)
Jo Francken (- 0:50)
Brian Delaney (- 0:22)
Jeremy Grey (- 0:14)
Len Hallett (- 0:07)
ENCOURAGEMENT AWARD
Well done to the Modesti sisters. First to older sister Stephanie for helping the club in a crisis. If not for Stephanie, the club would have been one runner short of fielding a third men's team and Stephanie more than held her own, just missing out on recording the team's fastest time. And to younger sister Daniella who stepped up into senior ranks as part of our Women's Division 1 team and her team was not far off her other team members - expect big things from this runner in the future
BLOOPER OF DAYNever before in the history of the Coburg Harriers has a person defeneded their title for Blooper of the Dayat the same race the following year. Until now. Philip Van Dueren was told that he had about six minutes before the next runner was coming through before his leg. Alas Ken Soyave finished so strongly that he came through to find ... no-one to take over from him. A brief and frantic search found Van Dueren and he started his run eighteen seconds afterSouyavehad completed his leg. In the end, the team was seventh by ten seconds. And all this after Van Dueren and recorder Jeremy Grey had been joking over a similar mishap to another team in the division earlier in the race. Oops!
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