Last Saturday, 30th April 2016, Nowra Athletics Club members enjoyed cross country running at the picturesque Willandra, joined by their friends from neighbouring club, Kembla Joggers in the annual McCaffrey Challenge.
The McCaffrey Challenge is a shield named in honour of Frank McCaffrey who was instrumental in founding the Nowra club in 1960. The Challenge doubled as Round 5 of the Nowra Athletics Winter Pointscore Program however for the McCaffrey Challenge a point score system was in place to match the two clubs against each other in the five distances.
Unfortunately for Nowra, Kembla Joggers continue to have the numbers and speed to take out most of the distances but we congratulate them on their fine running.
In the 1 kilometre event Nowra’s Callula Norwood was the first local athlete home but was beat to the finish line by two Kembla Joggers runners; Callula finishing in third place. Tynan Caswell was the 4th runner home for Nowra with Nowra also taking out 6th, 7th and 8th spots with Lexie Burinaga, Harry Thomson and Amba Florance respectively.
In the 2 kilometres event Kembla Joggers were just too fast on the day taking out the first 4 places. Poppy Tay was the first across for Nowra in 5th place, followed by Reilly Caswell in 6th and Matthew Higham in 7th.
Jesse Buckham ran strongly to take out second place in the 3 kilometre event, flanked either side by Kembla Joggers runners who claimed 1st, 3rd , 4th and 5th place. Ben Shephard from Nowra was 6th and Jake Babian was 8th.
Nowra took 2nd place on the podium in the 4 kilometre event with Stephen Grant just edged out by kembla Joggers in a dash to the finish line. Teenager Dylan Holland from Kembla Joggers crossed first in 14.21 minutes with Stephen hot on his heels in 14.22 minutes. Next runner home from Nowra was Rumer Williams in 7th; Kieran Harrison was 8th and Peter Dooley was 9th.
Nowra finally claimed the elusive first place honours in the 8 kilometre event with Troy Whittington running his heart out to cross in 29.15 minutes ahead of Kembla Joggers Eligh Morris in 29.24 minutes. Congratulations Troy! Next best for Nowra was Matt Lewis in 5th, Leith Babian in 6th and Scott Martin in 7th.
Nowra Athletics would like to say thank you to Kembla Joggers for their good sportsmanship and athleticism and for an enjoyable afternoon tea nestled amongst the hills of Willandra. The return match against Kembla Joggers will be held on 18th June at Dapto.
Next Saturday cross country will be held at Timberhills on 7th May. This run will serve as the Bill McKinnon memorial run for a nominated distance so put your best running foot forward and you could take out this honour!
The Sydney Ten will also be held on Saturday.The Greater Sydney:10 is part of Athletics NSW expanding RunNSW series which features iconic Fun Runs across NSW. The Sydney 10 will be a flat fast course finishing in the brand new athletics track at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre. All races will feature NSW Championship categories and are also open to anyone to compete. See the Athletics NSW website for more information.
The King of the Mountain Running Festival will be held on 22nd May at Kangaroo Valley Golf and Country Resort and offers 4 great distances to all ages and ability (2km, 5km – Greater Fun Run, 10km, 25km – King of the Mountain). Entry details can be found at the KOM website.
Finally, the Annual Presentation & AGM will be held on Saturday May 14th at Illaroo Public School. All athletes from Summer & Winter competition are invited to attend & celebrate the achievements from the past season. Supper will be held after the presentation so please bring a plate to share.