Nowra Athletics hosted both Round 5 of their Winter cross country competition and the first match of the McCaffrey Challenge on Saturday 28th April at the picturesque Willandra.
Nowra Athletics Club was founded by running guru and distance runner Frank McCaffrey in 1960. The cross country event on Saturday honoured the founder in what has now become the annual McCaffrey Challenge. The Challenge is held over two matches with Kembla Joggers Club and a point score system is in place to match the two clubs against each other across all the distances.
It was a rainy afternoon on Saturday with heavy mist hanging low around the edges of Browns Mountain but that didn’t deter the enthusiasm of the visiting runners from Kembla Joggers or the home team of Nowra.
In the 1km event, KJs claimed the first 4 positions with Nowra’s Evie Smart crossing the line in 5th place as the first local runner home. Next for Nowra was Ripley VanDyk in 7th place and then Tom Smart in 8th. Miller Bell for Nowra was 10th followed by Evelyn Jennings in 14th then Josie Sproule, Matthew Chittick, Malachy Martin, Ben Sproule and Winter Bell.
In the 2km event, it was again KJs who took the top positions with Elias Oldfield from Nowra finishing 4th. Kembla then took the ten next placings with Cameron Baxter running in 15th as the next Nowra runner home. Daniel Williams, Elijah Jennings and Evie Hill from Nowra ran in 18th, 19th and 20th.
Will Dyball finished 7th in the 3km event, as the first Nowra athlete. Cooper Barrett was next best in 16th and Lily Sproule was 17th, Ben Sproule 18th and Toby Dyball 19th.
The 4km was well populated with Kembla Joggers and a number of visiting and new runners. Luke Hince from Kembla took the win in 13.30 minutes whilst first across the line for Nowra in the Club point score competition was Peter Dooley in 21st place in a time of 16.45 minutes. Owen Cox was 25th, Sam Maher was 28th and Jade Mustapic 29th.
Finlay McPhillips from Kembla Joggers took line honours in the 8km in 29.27 minutes however second place went to Nowra’s Matt Lewis who was close on his heels in 29.49 minutes. Scott Martin was next home for Nowra in the point score comp in 6th place in 31.17 minutes whilst Brad Sawyers was 10th in 32.19 and Steve Crossman was 12th in 33.16.
Whilst Kembla Joggers certainly outweighed Nowra athletes it was great to mix it up with other like-minded athletes in a friendly competition. The final results saw KJs claim victory with 711 points over Nowra on 338 points.
Thanks to everyone who supported this event. The return match against Kembla Joggers will be held at West Dapto on June 16th.
Cross Country next Saturday will be at Longreach on May 5th.