The Harriers had an excellent turn out for Round 12 action last Tuesday night with almost all athletes on deck enabling the club to continue its dominant latter season run. In fact, it has not been since Round 8 that a Coburg men’s team has tasted defeat. This continued on Tuesday night, where in cool but fine conditions, we had over thirty athletes taking part, the most we have had at a single meet for several years, if not this century!

Our division two men, who were held to a remarkable draw with Western Athletics in the extreme conditions of Round 11 at Williamstown, had no such concerns this time around. A full complement of athletes available ensured a big victory was recorded. Our Division 3 and 4 men continued on their winning ways with each scoring their fourth victory in a row. Results this season has shown that when our Division 2 men fill all their events, the benefits flow through to our next two teams and that has certainly been the case since the Christmas break

Our women’s team finished second to Preston, who are the form team of Women’s Division 2. The ladies can take heart from the fact that when Preston have lost this season, it has been only Coburg that has inflicted their defeats

An amazing statistic to come out of Round 12 is that of the 84 individual performances, we had 44 placings recorded by 26 different athletes. Some of those were Stacey Van Dueren first in the 1500 and 5000 m, Adrianna Crea was first (and a PB) in the 2000 m Walk and Daniella Modesti was third in the 1500 m. David Woods was first in the 200 m (Division 4) and second in the 400 m (Division 2), Filip Cosic was second in the High Jump (Division 3), Josh Traine was first in the 5000 m (Division 4), Paul Keating won the 200 m (Division 2) and Rey Villegas was second in the 400 m (Division 4). And John Braszell broke the M45-49 age group record in the 200 m

So with the regular season complete, our division two and three men finished on top and carry quite a bit of momentum into the Region Final at Williamstown. For our top men’s team, they were defeated only once this season – and that was only because of a points penalty incurred for an insufficient number of officials! Our division four men are also on a roll and can enter the Region Final with the confidence of knowing they have knocked off the “seconds” of Western Athletics for four meets in a row

Our chances in the Region Final will depend heavily on getting good numbers to Williamstown. We have worked to ensure that every member that qualified will have at least one event each, however most will have three or more. Nevertheless we should be used to this workload by now as we have been doing it all season. At this stage, our advice is that the top two teams after the Region Final will make it to the AV Shield Final and none of our teams have finished worse than that this year. We would ask that everyone make a special effort to get to Williamstown – no matter the conditions – and help get the club through to Olympic Park on the last Saturday in March

There is now just under two weeks until the Region Final, and we will want to remain sharp and fit for Williamstown. That’s why it would be good to see as many Harriers as possible to the Doncaster All Comers Meet on Saturday, 17 March. There is a full program of events (except Shot Put and the 400 metres), and affords an excellent opportunity to get in some valuable practice in competition conditions. I hope to see you there

DATES TO REMEMBER

Sat, 17 Mar 2007   All Comers Meet at Reischiek’s Reserve, Doncaster from 1:00 pm (Melways Ref 33 J11)
Sat, 24 Mar 2007   AV Shield North West Region Final from 12:00 pm at Williamstown (Melways Ref 56 B4)
Sat, 31 Mar 2007   AV Shield Final at Olympic Park from 10:00 am (Melways Ref 2G C9)
Sat, 14 Apr 2007   Presentation Night at L'Aspromonte Restaurant – 398 Sydney Road, Coburg. See the Summer AV page shortly for a flyer

To matters non-AV, and the 2007 Stawell Gift takes place over Easter from 7 – 9 April 2007. A group of Harriers have expressed interest in hiring a bus and staying in Stawell for the three day carnival. Visit the Latest News on the club website for more information. Up to six Coburg Harriers will be in action, so be sure to come along and support the pro runners who have supported the club so magnificently this season. For more information, visit http://www.coburgharriers.org.au/joomla1/content/view/73/2/

Socially speaking, and last but not least, Athletics Essendon is holding a Trivia Night this Friday night at the Essendon Bowls Club next to Windy Hill. If you would like to join Kylie and myself in representing the club, please let me know by Tuesday to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it