Our final run of the Cross Country season was held at Hollyhill on Saturday 31st August 2019. This also served as our end of season presentation where members joined together to celebrate a fantastic season of cross country running and to congratulate our winners in each distance and division.
Taking home the medals in the 1km event was Aiden McLaren with 695 points followed by Malachy Martin with 559 points and Hannah Vonk with 337 points.
The 2km Division 1 category was closely contended with just a single point separating the top placegetters. Lily Sproule snuck home for the win with 387 points just in front of Samuel Vonk with 386 points and then third was Trae Yenne, just one point behind with 385 points.
Division 2 of the 2km was taken out by Heidi McLaren with 783 points followed by dad Scott McLaren with 664 points and third was Noah Dyball on 514 points.
In the 3km Division 1 winner was Emily McLaren on 759 points who beat brother Hamish McLaren (726 points) for the number one position. Taking third was William Anderson with 614 points.
In Division 2 Katie Martin took the number one spot with 612 points in front of Jasper Leung on 579 points and Harriet Urquhart on 570 points.
A clear winner in Medium course Division 1 was Bradley Sawyers with 663 points. Running in second was Ethan Havadjia with 598 points and third was Jasper Arnold with 574 points.
Division 2 top position went to Phil Duncan who scored 723 points followed by Lucy Duncan with 706 points whilst third went to Dean Bryce, who clearly didn’t cut enough corners this season, on 687 points. Taking out Division 3 was Andrew Havadjia on 755 points. Perhaps the home ground advantage assisted Andrew’s win as he narrowly beat Angela Urquhart who finished on 750 points. John Price tallied 743 points for third place.
Long Course victory went to Richard Bosdyk with 688 points. Second was Michael Duncan on 660 points and third was Perry Strand on 602 points. Division 2 glory went to Sue Strand on 766 points who was heard to exclaim; “I was happy to be able to just run in general without something crapping out after only 2k!”. Meanwhile second place went to long-standing member Milton Cox with 693 points and third went to Ming Leung with 642 points.
Thank you to everyone who participated, spectated and assisted with this year’s cross country program. It was a fantastic season with many new beginnings. We gained two new courses, firstly with the introduction of Hollyhill, thanks to the generosity of the Havadjia family, and then Berry thanks to the collaboration with Berry Riding Club. These new courses could not have occurred without a great deal of hard work, time, commitment and enthusiasm and The Committee thanks everyone who was involved. We also farewelled Timberhills which of course was tinged with sadness but also became a celebration of a long history of great running and was a time to share memories. The Committee also extends another big thank you to the McKinnon family for all their years of support to Nowra Athletics Club.
The Club will now take a couple of weeks break before starting Track and Field competition on 18th September. This will be a rego evening as will the 25th September. Both these nights will also include a training / instruction component where people can come along and learn some throwing, jumping and running techniques. The school holidays in October will be non-points rounds for everyone to ‘warm up’ then point score competition will commence on 16th October. In addition, Summer Road Runs will commence on 21.09.19.
More details will be published over the next few weeks.
