Christmas festivities were in full swing on Wednesday night for the Christmas Mile. There were two heats on the program. The first event was the junior handicap race which was contested by 18 young racers. Hue and Ben Sproule were first off the line, fully decked out in their Christmas outfits. It was a family affair amongst competitors with a number of siblings competing against each other including Josie and Lily Sproule, Mali and Alisha Mustapic, Liam, Flynn and Patrick O’Leary, Lachlan and Olivia Rabey, and Hamish and Emily McLaren. Backmarker Emily had a lot of ground to make up and in the end the field had too much of a head start on her to round them all up. It was Harry Thomson who made his move in the final 200m to take the lead, passing Lachlan Rabey. Harry held his lead to take the win with Hamish McLaren sprinting home to take second and Lachlan Rabey crossing in third place.
In the senior race Eva Moeller-Duhme started with a 1 minute handicap followed by Alison and then Andrew Havadjia. The rest of the field followed in staggered handicap starts with back marker Cam Musgrove starting on 3 minutes 10 just after Ethan Havadjia who was on 2.55. Whilst the lead changed several times during the course of the race Cam Musgrove slowly but surely pecked off the field one by one. In the closing stages of the race Cam put his foot down and rounded up the front runners, stealing the win from Andrew Crawford. Ethan Havadjia was third.
Congratulations to both Harry Thomson and Cam Musgrove who were the proud winners of Christmas plum puddings for taking the win in the Christmas Mile! Thanks too, to Peter Condon for his ongoing sponsorship of the annual Christmas Mile.
The athletes then enjoyed a 100m shuttle relay and a medley relay, using Christmas hats as their batons for festive themed fun.
Thank you to everyone for a great season of athletics. The Club will now take a break for Christmas and will return on Wednesday January 8th. The committee would like to wish everyone a very happy and safe holiday season.
Here’s a little Christmas poem to wrap up the culmination of our year:
Dashing around the track
In a race for Christmas pud
O’er the bindis we go
Laughing if we could
Bells for last lap ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it was to run a mile
For Christmas pud that night!
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way.
Oh! what fun it is to run
In a Christmas Mile this way.
Jingle bells, jingle bells,
Jingle all the way;
Oh! what fun it is to run
In a Christmas Mile this way.
