Last Wednesday 5th November saw a slightly smaller field of athletes take to the track at Shoalhaven High School.
The young ones started in the shot put circle. Kyra McKinnon, Eilish Norwood, Lucas Johnson and Taylor Moffat in Group 1 all showed good form, all throwing over 5 metres. In Group 2 Matthew Higham had the biggest throw of the night and Jessie Moffat, James Babian and Katie Martin all put in a big effort.
Our seven & under E Grade Girls & Boys, saw James Babian taking out both the 60m and 100m, Callula Norwood finished second in both events and Katie Martin placed third in both sprints.
In the 600m event for the young C Grade athletes it was Kyra McKinnon who took first place followed by Eilish Norwood, Matthew Higham and Eva Lilly.
In the womens 600m Darlene Musgrove ran home first, followed by Brin McKinnon, Sue Anfruns and Vicki Bennett. The mens race was hotly contested with Zac Havadjia and Cameron Musgrove running strong out the front of the pack. Zac took line honours, Cameron was second and Zac Jones was third.
In the sprints Zac Havadjia backed up after his 600m run with another win in both the 60m and 100m. Jordan deVries finished second in both races and third and fourth were battled out between Hayden Strand and Brock Nichols. Hayden took 3rd in the 60m and 4th in the 100m while Brock finished 4th in the 60m and 3rd in the 100m.
The 1500m saw a very strong Cameron Musgrove take first place in front of Veteran Steve McKinnon followed by young gun Jake Babian who didn’t let the bigger boys get too far away from him! Great running Jake!
It was great to see Doug McNally make a come-back on the track in the 100m mixed race. The race was won by Andrew Rodda who is in good form, having earlier broken his own record in the 60mts.However Doug showed that he still has that sprinting spark!
The highlight of the night was definitely the 10,000 metres. This was the second annual 10 000metre track event which took place with 11 athletes caving to the temptations of self-inflicted pain. A 10km run on a Wednesday night is no easy feat and yet the small but enthusiastic field of run-fanatics took to the Shoalhaven track in the 2014 event with their usual smiles and camaraderie. There was jostling and good humoured banter at the start line between athletes and lap-counters and when the starters gun sounded it was Leith Babian and Damian Smith who shot to the lead straight away. The two runners set a cracking pace for the fellow runners to follow.
Leith and Damian swapped the lead several times in the first few laps, both running at a consistently fast pace. As the laps counted down Leith took and maintained the lead. He then stretched the lead out a bit further from Damian, and although there may have been some who thought he’d gone out too fast too early, Leith not only held onto his lead but continued to increase it!
With 1 lap to go Leith accelerated even more and ran as if he was fresh from the starting line running a 400m sprint, because sprint he did, all the way to the finish line to take the line honours in spectacular style! With a trademark grin Leith crossed the line as the small crowd cheered loudly and enthusiastically as if they were cheering for the Melbourne Cup winner all over again! Leiths winning time was 36.41, just 12 seconds under Damian Smiths winning time for 2013.
Damian finished strongly in second position. Third was taken by Bradley Sawyers who also ran a very strong and consistent race for the entire 25 laps. Brad was unfazed by the jostling of the lead in front of him and settled into his own pace, making it look effortless and reduced his own 20 – 29yrs record he set last year by almost 2 minutes.
Scott Martin in good form finished 19 seconds behind Brad in a time of 38.28 for his first track10k setting the record for 35 – 39yrs. Scott Johnson and Perry Strand finished a very commendable 5th & 6th in their first attempt at the 25 laps, Darrin Smith was 7th and Peter Khourey 8th.
Rob Pickard and Ming Leung battled it out for 9th and 10th positions, sticking close to each other’s heels for most of the race and swapping the lead between them. They both showed steely determination and ‘never give up’ attitude. It was Rob who eventually made his move and forged ahead of Ming as the laps counted down and it was Rob who took 9th position with Ming finishing 10th.
Barefoot runner Kevyn Davis put in a solid and courageous effort however didn’t quite make it through the 25 laps.this year…too many bindies on the track perhaps?
All the participants in this event hold running as their passion and all should be commended on their commitment, enthusiasm and fine running. Beyond pure bragging rights Leith was also awarded a prize of a $200 shoe voucher for taking the race out. Congratulations Leith and to all the competitors.