The State Cross Country Relays were run on Saturday 28th May 2016 at Miranda. Right on cue, the rain started to fall on Saturday morning – it just wouldn’t be Miranda relays without the wet weather!
The youngest runners had to endure the rain during their relay legs but the clouds finally started to clear as the afternoon wore on with the sun peeking through as we all packed up at the end of the day!
There were several Nowra runners attending their very first State Relay event and each and every runner did their Club proud.
The Under 12 Male team of William Dyball, Jake Babian, Scott Delo & Oscar Goley placed a commendable 4th in 33.18 minutes whilst the female team of Alisha Mustapic, Kate Leung, Bethany Dobson & Harriet Urquhart ran in 10th in 42 minutes. Great effort from these youngsters!
In the Under 14’s 4 x 2km event Nowra boys placed 5th. Alex O’Brien, Ben Shephard, Rhys Flood & Alec Dobson ran strongly and clocked a combined time of 30.16 minutes.
Blake Hartnett, Ethan Havadjia, Darcy Hopkins & Kieran Harrison placed 10th in the Under 16’s 4 x 3km event in 49.40 minutes.
In the female race Nowra had two teams. Jaylah Hancock, Taliah Moxham, Chelsea Pascoe & Danielle Holt placed 7th in 52.19 minutes whilst Victoria Kennedy, Jess O’Donnell, Tara Mustapic & Leah Dobson battled it out for 10th place in 53.39 minutes.
The Under 18 female team consisted of Jaylah Hancock (who ran for the second time), Lillian Boland, Shenay Edwards & Briony Munro who all ran hard in the 4 x 3km event to place 5th in 48.32 minutes.
In the Opens female event Erin Smart ran in her first State cross country relay. Teamed with Breeanna O’Donnell, Angela Bond & Angela Urquhart the group placed 18th in this competitive race.
Nowra had another newcomer in the Female 35+ team with Teresha Moxham competing with experienced runners Annette Sampson, Cristine Suffolk & Kim Dobson. Together they worked hard to place 4th in a time of 1.07.19.
The afternoon runs achieved some medals for Nowra. The seasoned Men’s 55+ team of Peter Dooley, Bill Stahlhut, Martin Tomasini & Rod Rose ran powerfully & consistently to claim the Silver Medal in 1.05.18 in the 4 x 4km event.
Another medal was claimed by the Men’s 65+ team with a third place to Milton Cox, Eva Moeller-Duhme, Kevyn Davis (barefoot as usual) & Eric Moeller-Duhme with a combined time of 1.22.33.
Congratulations to our medallists!
The rain cleared in time for the hotly contested Opens event. Nowra entered two teams in the Mens Opens with our young runners competing against much older and more practiced runners. Jye Edwards, Arron Spiessberger-Parker, Troy Whittington & Harry McGill dug deep and tried their best to stay up with the gun runners from UTS North, Sydney University & Randwick Botany. Hugh Williams from Sydney University clocked the fastest time of the day on his leg with a time of 11.36 over 4kms however our Jye Edwards wasn’t far behind with 11.49 minutes. Nevertheless the other teams were just too strong and the Nowra team finished in 4th place in a time of 50.01 minutes – a fine result for this young team. The second Nowra team of Jake Myors, Brad Sawyers, Hugh Dobson & Cameron Musgrove also ran well to place 12th in 55.54 minutes, with both Hugh and Cameron stepping up from their age groups to compete in the Opens team.
The Men’s 35+ team fielded a combined effort of Darrin Smith, Dion Carter, Leith Babian & Perry Strand and the enthusiastic team finished 9th.
Finally the Men’s 45+ event fielded two teams with many runners backing up for a second run. The first team consisted of Leith Babian, Perry Strand, Scott Johnson & Peter Dooley – with Leith, Perry & Peter all running for the second time. This dedicated team placed 4th, narrowly missing out on a podium finish. The second Nowra team of Paul Duncan, Ming Leung, Gavin Urquhart & Martin Tomasini finished 12th, with Martin also showing commitment by running a second leg for the day.
The team camaraderie of the Nowra athletes contributed to yet another successful relay championships event (despite the rain) and the Committee and Team Managers would like to thank everyone for their team spirit.
This Saturday Nowra Athletics Club returns to cross country running with Round 8 to be held at Huskisson. After consultation the Club decided they will continue to use the modified course at Huskisson so we look forward to seeing you all there with racing from 2.30pm.