The 27th NSW Cross Country Relay championships were conducted at the Miranda course for the 19th occasion on Saturday 27th May.
This year we were treated to glorious sunshine and very warm temperatures, an unusual occurrence for Miranda relays which are typically plagued by rain and mud.
Nowra entered 5 senior teams and 8 junior teams. It was encouraging to see a number of new runners in the black and gold running this year, with a few fresh recruits only just entering the world of running and cross country.
As usual the team spirit was high and there were lots of encouraging “Go Nowra” cheers on this spectator friendly course.
Our masters team of Crissy Suffolk, Angela Bond, Annie Schofield and Annette Sampson brought home the silver medal in the 45+ female 4 x 4km relay in a time of 1.16.48. Congratulations ladies!
In the Under 20’s division it was a combined effort from Jaylah Hancock-Cameron, Rumer Williams, Lily Boland and Asha Martin who claimed the bronze medal in the 4 x 3km event.
Our youngest runners all put in solid performances. The Under 12’s had the biggest representation from Nowra with two female teams competing. Ella Colusso, Darcy Arnold, Bethany Dobson and Olivia Greenhalgh ran in 8th from 13 teams. Meanwhile the team of Alisha Mustapic, Roxi Florance, Ruby Marshall and Kate Leung ran in 11th.
The Under 14’s had one male and one female team flying the colours for Nowra. Alec Dobson, Sam Maher, Jasper Arnold and Scott Delo all ran strongly to place 7th whilst Abbey Dunn, Poppy Tay, Rommey Hazell and Harriet Urquhart gave their very best to place 12th.
Alex O’Brien, Rhys Flood, Byron VanDyk and Ben Shephard ran consistently to place 5th in the Under 16 4 x 3km relay. Meanwhile the older boys of Cooper Thomson, Jesse Buckham, Kieran Harrison and Hugh Dobson ran strongly to finish 9th amongst a very tough field in the Under 18 event.
Troy Whittington ran a very fast first leg of the Under 20 4 x 3km relay clocking a time of 8.40minutes. Cam Musgrove ran second followed by young Max Buckham celebrating his 14th birthday and Zac Havadjia completed the final leg to finish in 9th place, again amongst a very competitive field of seasoned competition runners.
In the masters men’s groups we saw the three Scott’s (Scott Martin, Scott Johnson and Scott Dobson) join ranks with Perry Strand in the 35+ event to finish 7th.
The 45+ team was fielded by Peter Dooley, Peter Khourey, Ming Leung and Richard Bosdyk to place 9th whilst the 65+ team of Milton Cox, Eric Moeller-Duhme, Kevyn Davis and Eva Moeller-Duhme were unlucky not to medal, finishing 4th.
Last but certainly not least the combined team of young Erin Smart with Kim Dobson, Darlene Musgrove and Megan Fitt competed in the Opens event and despite being regularly passed by very young super fit athletes, were happy not to come last. They finished 19th from a field of 23.
Thank you to all who competed and cheered on the day. The running certainly puts everyone in good form for the State Cross Country Championships which will be held on Saturday 17th June at our home ground of Willandra.
Meanwhile next week’s cross country running will take place at Timberhills on June 3rd.