The 2017 NSW cross country championships were held at Willandra on Saturday 17th June. It was the 19th occasion the Gibb’s have hosted the event at Willandra, the first being in 1993.
The clouds hovered around all day, and the weather forecast threatened rain but it remained dry and provided perfect conditions for cross country running.
Nowra was well represented on the day with some pleasing results.
Our junior numbers were strong with twelve Under 12 runners running the 2km course. First Nowra runner home was Ruby Marshall in 16th place. Ella Colusso was 19th, Bethany Dobson was 22nd, Darcy Arnold 23rd, Isobel Cofield 25th, Alisha Mustapic 27th and little Evie Smart was 28th in the female race. In the male race Matthew Higham was top finisher for Nowra in 13th place. Toby Dyball finished 16th, Cooper Barrett was 19th, Reilly Caswell 26th and Zac Maher 28th. In addition Zac Peters ran in the Shoalhaven Little Athletics colours as a dual athlete and finished 27th.
In the Under 14’s Nowra had 6 participants in the male 3km race. Alec Dobson ran a strong race to finish one place out of the top ten, in 11th place. Jasper Arnold was 32nd, Sam Maher 33rd, William Dyball 35th, Lucas Johnson 36th and Wil Osgood 37th.
Chelsea Pascoe was the sole representative for Nowra in the Under 16 4km female race, finishing 37th whilst in the boys race Alex O’Brien was first home for Nowra in 31st place followed by Max Buckham in 38th place, Darcy Hopkins 40th and Ethan Havadjia 45th.
Our older teens performed well in the Under 18 event across 6kms. Hugh Dobson was the fastest Nowra runner finishing in 12th place. Jesse Buckham was 28th, Kieren Harrison 31st and sprinter Lachlan Kaszonyi gave it his all showing much determination to place 32nd. Not sure if Lachie has been convinced to give up the track for cross country running anytime soon though!
In the Under 20’s Harry McGill looked strong all the way and was only narrowly beaten across the line for a podium finish, crossing in 4th place in 27.28 minutes. Troy Whittington also ran a strong race to finish 12th in 28.47 minutes. Zac Havadjia, another sprinter trying his hand at cross country distances this year, finished 26th.
In the seniors races across the combined events Nowra had 20 runners. At the time of writing this article the official results with age category splits had not been published online so the results listed here are overall placings. Final results will be listed on the website when they are published by Athletics NSW.
In the combined 55+, 60+, 65+ women’s 6km event Eva Moeller-Duhme ran with her usual enthusiasm to place 12th overall.
In the male event over 8km we had eight athletes in the gold and black for Nowra. Peter Dooley was up there at the front finishing a strong 4th overall in 35.14 minutes. Graeme Pepper was not far behind in 6th place in 35.35 minutes. Peter Khourey was 9th, Bill Broughton 16th, Robert Pickard 22nd, Milton Cox was 25th and Erich Moeller-Duhme was 27th. Smiling all the way relishing the mud between his toes was Kevyn Davis, leaving his chook post to run the hills of Willandra Kevyn finished in 34th place overall.
Running in the combined event of Opens, 35+, 40+, 45+, 50+ over 10km Crissy Suffolk was first home for Nowra in an overall placing of 18th. Kim Dobson ran a solid race to finish 27th whilst Annie Schofield was not far behind in 30th place and Sue Anfruns was 37th.
In the male event Scott Martin put in a solid performance to finish 27th in 38.53 minutes with Damian Smith coming in next for Nowra in 34th place. Competing in the Opens category Brad Sawyers ran a steady race to finish 40th. Perry Strand was unswerving in his pace to finish 49th overall with Club President Scott Johnson hot on his heels in 50th place. Richard Bosdyk finished 64th and Ming Leung finished with a smile in 66th place.
In addition to the Championship events many runners enjoyed the Combined Fun Run with 1km, 2km and 4km distances on offer.
The Committee would like to thank all the volunteers on the day who gave up their time to help make the event run smoothly and contributed to the success of the Championship. Thanks of course to Jan & Rod Gibb for the use of the beautiful Willandra course.
Next week the Club will travel to Dapto for the return match against Kembla Joggers in the McCaffrey Challenge.