Sandown turned on its best weather again as we braved the wet and freezing conditions! And, despite these conditions, there were many of us returning from the course very satisfied with our run, and none more so than the Premier men’s team, creating Western Aths history with a relay win!! Thanks to our AV helpers Tracy Colbert and Julie Morgan and helpers on the day Ben, Brenda, Stu and Burkie. And, special thanks to all the who braved the conditions, it’s very satisfying to see all athletes turn up to run and filling out teams.
Open Men
It was a long time coming but finally the planets were in alignment for and we had a very strong team which delivered an emphatic win by nearly a minute over Bendigo Region in a time of 1 hour, 52 minutes and 10 seconds. Zayd Al Sayd led our the team with Matt Hussey, returning from injury in his first race back, then Liam Cashin, Nathan Pearce, Luca DiConza with Ben Chamberlain taking line honours. With a considerable increase in the open men’s numbers we were able to fill out teams all the way to Div 7 and the Div 3 saw a huge improvement in form with a second place. The Div 5 and Div 6 were 7th and the Div 7 were 8th.
Ladders
- Premier – 2nd
- Div 3 – 10th
- Div 5 – 11th
- Div 6 – 11th
- Div 7 – 21st
- Short Course – 4th
Open Women
There were also good numbers in the senior women’s ranks also with four full scoring teams. In the Premier division Janae Mackrell again led the team and ran a very solid PB. It was, however, U18 Lucy Cleveland running last who ran the fastest time completing the 6.2 km course in 22 minutes and 5 seconds - 11th place overall in the open women’s ranks! The team all ran very well with consistent performances from Sophie McMinimee, Ebony Dodemaide and Claire Hodgart and finishing in 6th place. In the other divisions, Div 3 had a great result finishing 4th, the Div 4 was 5th and Div 5 also had a great result finishing 3rd.
Ladders
- Premier – 7th
- Div 3 – 6th
- Div 4 – 3rd
- Div 5 – 5th
- Short Course – 2nd and 3rd
Juniors
Our junior teams consisted of two U18 Men’s teams, an U16 team (incomplete), an U20 Female team and the U14 Female team. The Men’s U18 team was in the mix for the medals until the very end of the race with 3 teams vying for the minor medals. In end there was only one second separating second, third and fourth place with our team finishing in fourth. The incomplete U16 team was 18th, the Women’s U20 was 8th and the Women’s U14 team was 6th.
Ladders
- Men’s U18 – 2nd
- Women’s U14 – 3rd
