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O'Brien Claims
Sash
Stawell
Amateur Athletic Club held one of its feature races
for the season on Saturday.
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| Fiona
O'Brien |
| Click
to enlarge |
The Stephen Baird
Handicap is the only race where first place
receives a sash. A field of 23 runners eagerly
lined up
for the 5km senior event held near the Bonnie
Dundee Dam in the ironbarks just north of Stawell. From
the start the ever improving front marker Gary
Saunders set a steady pace, followed by Meg
Parnaby and Alexa Duke. However, it wasn't long
before middle markers Ivan McDonald and pre race
favourite Fiona
O'Brien,
along with last weeks winner Bob Freeland were
also making their presence felt.
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| Marcus Scott |
| Click to enlarge |
As
the course started to get hilly, back markers Gary
Howden,
Mark Pumpa and Jon Dugdale also looked as if
they could feature amongst the placing's as
well. The last kilometer of the race was one constant
uphill
climb, just the thing
to sort out those runners who have put in the long
training runs that would enable them to finish
strongly.
It was Fiona O'Brien
who
over powered
the remaining field, reeling in Meg Parnaby
in the last 200m to grab the lead and score a
popular win, and take home the sash. Mark Pumpa
took
out third place.
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| Richard Dugdale |
| Click to enlarge |
Col Barnett ran the fastest
time of 19 minutes 9 seconds. Fastest female
was
Jacinta
Collier
in a time of 21 minutes 21 seconds.
The junior
race was also run over the same 5km course. A
field of 9 juniors lined up
with Marcus
Scott determined to make this race his
from the start. He easily accounted for the rest
of the
field, winning by a clear margin of 1 minute
31 seconds, in a time of 21 minutes 10 seconds.
Emily
Parnaby was second with Naomi Jamieson
in
third place.
Jamieson was the fastest girl in a time
of 23 minutes 36 seconds.
Seven sub-juniors lined
up for a 1km race which saw Richard Dugdale run
strongly
up the hill
to the finish to win his second race
for the season from Liam Scott, with Fraser Steggall
third. Liam ran the fastest time of 4
minutes 14 seconds, with invitational runner Stacey
Faravoni being the fastest girl in a
time
of 4 minutes
56
seconds.
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