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Saunders Wins on Handicap
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| Gary
Saunders |
| Click
to enlarge |
Stawell Amateur Athletic
Club held the Stawell Curtain Centre 10km Championship
last Saturday at
the Rifle
Range Reserve, in fine conditions.
The race marked
the three quarter point of the cross country
season, with fourteen senior runners still in contention
to win the 2004 club aggregate. It was also the
last of the championship races so also decided
the club
champions
for the season.
Run
as a sealed handicap, all 20 senior runners set
off together, with a
lead
group of
Col Barnett, Gary Howden, Ray Scott, Stan Watson
and Jon Dugdale soon establishing a break on
the rest of the field.
By mid race, Barnett had
moved
away from Scott and Howden, with a number of
individual tussles developing in mid field, spurring
some
runners to push themselves towards personal
best performances.
Sharon Howden finished
5 seconds ahead of Fiona O’Brien, Stephen
Baird 8 seconds ahead of Bob Freeland, Stan
Watson was 14 seconds behind Jon Dugdale, while
Meg
Parnaby finished 3 seconds ahead of John Collins,
but missed
the 5 minutes per kilometer mark she has been
chasing all season.
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| Emily
Parnaby |
| Click
to enlarge |
At the finish it was Col
Barnett who crossed the line first in a snappy
time of
36 min 34
sec with
Ray Scott second and Gary Howden third. Fastest
female was Jacinta Collier in 41 min 55 sec.
Being
the last of the 4 championship races for the
year, Barnett’s win gave him a clean
sweep of all the championship races, and the
title of Club Champion. Jacinta Collier won the
Open
Women's Championship, and Sharon Howden the
Veteran Women's Championship.
Once handicaps were
applied, it was Gary Saunders, the oldest competitor
in the field, who took out
the
event in a time of 56 min and 8 sec, with
Alexa Duke second
and Stan Watson third.
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| Liam
Scott |
| Click
to enlarge |
Eleven juniors ran
a 4km race with Karl Scott taking out line honours
and the Junior Championship
title
in the smart time of 17 min 21 sec, followed
by Nathan Watson second and Emily Parnaby
third.
After handicaps Emily Parnaby
scored her second win for the season with Nathan
Watson in second place and Thomas Blair third. Seven sub-juniors lined
up for the 1.25km event. Richard Dugdale set the
early
pace
closely
followed by Liam Scott and Stacey Faravoni.
Elly Barnett
also put in a good run in the middle
of the race, but the tussle for line honours
between
Dugdale
and Scott continued to the finish with
Dugdale winning by 76 one hundredths
of a second.
When handicaps were applied,
Liam Scott won by 8
seconds from Stacey Faravoni with Richard
Dugdale third.
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