Winter 2013   - Matt's Cross Country News

Round 1: Cross Country Relays 2013 - Jells Park

Saturday welcomed in what should be another great season of distance running with the traditional opener, the Jells Park Cross Country relays. For the resurgent Nunawading Cross Country team we were fortunate enough to again welcome down some new faces and have now doubled our numbers over the last two or three years. This seasons inductees are James Dennis and Bridgitte Seeley who both ran on the track over summer while Bernard Hall had his first outing with the club on the weekend. The introduction of this trio took us into strange territory as we fielded four teams for the first time in many moons and possibly ever! As a statement to the AV community that we are “on the march” we even unveiled a new tent in club colours as well as a club tear drop. I’m pretty sure I saw a number of heads turning for the two minutes the tent was up before we took it down again due to strong winds.

Not only did we have a record number of teams but they all performed very well. Division 3 ended up in fourth place and were lead out well by Adrian who ran a strong 20.03 and Mark Deslandes finished the day off with a great anchor leg of 21.02. Bernard slotted nicely into the top team with a very solid 22.05 and showed he will be a more than handy acquisition.

Division 5 produced the club’s best result of the day with second place and they were also lead out very well with Tim doing the honours in 22.31. The highlight from this team was Dave Mellings 23.37 which was over a minute better than his performance last year.

Division 6 finished in a dead heat for fourth place and produced probably the two best performances for the day and subsequently the most embarrassment for the selection panel. Mark Boyle ran a 23.34 which was 1.12 faster than his debut effort last year while the Pappster showed he’s back in business with a 23.31 compared to a 30.05 last year! Mind you the handicappers were kind enough to allow him to run with about

15kg less this year. He isn’t quite at the 21.45 he ran on this course way back in 2007 but is obviously a lot closer than he was. James probably spent a few more tickets than he would have liked on the first lap but still produced a very encouraging run first up coming home in 25.25.

Although finishing ninth in Division 7 it was very tight and we were only a few minutes short of being on the podium. There were seventeen teams in the grade so we did beat eight teams home in a very good effort particularly from Bridgitte who ran a very respectable 27.06 on debut and Eddie who’s 27.41 saw nearly a three minute improvement on last year.

All up it was a terrific day for the club and with our normal improvement as the season goes on we should be serious contenders in all four grades this year. Looking forward to seeing you all at Sandown on May 11 for another big day.

Round 2: AV relay Championships: Sandown Racecourse

It was another great day of road running on Saturday at Sandown for the 6.2 km road relay. Despite appearing reasonably still on the way there conditions were quite windy once in the venue as is often the case. Despite the challenging conditions though there were still a number of terrific performances both from individuals as well as the various Nunawading teams. Numbers were again very good with three full teams as well as two incomplete teams, we’re still searching for that one extra female!

Our Division 3 team again performed very well finishing fourth and only about 45 seconds off third. Such a result in the relays sets us up well for the rest of the season as the distances get longer and we come into our own. Adrian is looking really good at the moment and ran accordingly to handover in first place after the opening leg, it was great to see Bernard run strongly again and Mark Deslandes put in a great effort on the difficult last leg to run a 21.51 which appears to be a course record for him.

Division 5 was the team performance of the day missing out on a victory by a mere five seconds! However with Traralgon sitting on our tail for most of the final leg in a battle for second place we were caught unaware of the fact that we were closing in rapidly on Ringwood in first place! There was eventually only 7 seconds separating the first three teams which is very little over 25km, probably the difference of a changeover. (sorry Dave had to mention it. Don’t worry we’ll get ‘em In Ballarat!) Mark Boyle backed up his strong performance at Jells with another great run, but it was the XCR debutante Brad Simpson who stole the show with a fantastic 22.50. Brad’s another of our talented walkers who showed he can also run, hopefully he can manage to combine the two a little bit over winter as we would love to see him a few more times.

Division 6 put in a creditable result being just beaten into sixth. Berto showed an improved performance from Jells while it was good to welcome back Jason and Steve. In the women’s team Brigitte(correct spelling this time I hope!) also ran well showing significant improvement from Jells.

Now we look forward to the 15km road run at Ballarat which is a nice flat course and should produce some excellent times. Please remember to purchase your season’s tickets this week as you need to have them in time to be entered for next round. Here is the link http://www.athsvic.org.au/events/register/3830

See you in two weeks!

Round 3: Lake Wendouree, Ballarat 25th May

What a great day for the club! With a fantastic turnout all three teams finished either first or second to give us one of our more successful days in recent history. This has now put us in a strong position in all three grades to challenge for a premiership, and to think at this event last year we only managed to field one team!

Division 3 took centre stage on the podium to force their way into second position on the ladder only two points adrift of top. Adrian shone brilliantly with his best ever placing of 36 in a time of 51.35, while Mark D also ran a PB (this one’s confirmed) of 54.06 and continued his rich vein of form. Division 3 also welcomed The Pappster into it’s ranks  for the first time in a number of years as he furthers one of the great comebacks.

While Division 5 only managed second (only!) they catapulted themselves into to top place on the ladder. Dave M and Mark B led the team home but the real battle was for the third and fourth positions with Steve, Jason and Jeff separated by only 20 seconds. It was Jeff who ultimately had to settle for the top spot in Division 6 but, speaking of  great comebacks, it has been fantastic to see our skipper not only racing again but being able to do it on a consistent basis.

Highlighting our great depth, Division 6 also managed second placing and now find themselves in third spot on the ladder. Aside from Jeff it was terrific to see James compete in his first road race and he slotted nicely into the team ahead of Adam who kept racing through the finish line to the nearest toilet block as he did his best not to impersonate Paula Radcliffe. Special mention also to Alan who sliced nearly a minute off his PB in the U18 5K, running 17.33.

It is with some momentum that we now turn our attention to this Saturday and the 16k cross country at Brimbank Park. Another very strong event for our club it is an enormous opportunity to shore up our position at the top of table in all three divisions. See you there!

top

Round 4: Brimbank Park

It was another terrific day for the club last Saturday at Brimbank Park with history being made as we had our first ever complete women’s team. Congratulations to Brigitte, Natalie and Carolyn who made up the ground breaking trio. Special mention should go to Carolyn who has flown the Nuna flag on her own in the women’s category for many years and had probably wondered whether this day would ever come. For the record the team finished 9th out of 13 in Division 3 in a great effort first up.

The day continued on successfully from there with our Division 3 men’s team coming in second and almost certainly securing promotion at season’s end as the battle for the premiership in this grade has already developed into a two horse race between us and St Stephens after only four rounds. St Stephens currently sit four points clear on the ladder but our superior depth should hold us in good stead as the season unfolds. Adrian and Mark again led the team in and both recorded their best ever finishes of 32nd and 54th respectively, it’s fantastic to see both of these guys in such sensational form. Dave Mellings broke into Division 3 for the first time this season just nudging the Pappster out by one spot as they continued their enthralling battle with each other.

Another highlight of the day was unveiling our new recruit Selim Ahmed who has come across from Old Xavs/APS. Although not in peak form at the moment he was still able to help our Division 5 team to another brilliant victory and a 10 point buffer at the top of the ladder! We are only four rounds in so let’s keep a lid on it, but gee we’re going to take some catching!

In the juniors Alan again ran well in the U18’s managing a very handy 29.01 over 8k, while his brother Glen made his winter debut in the U16’s 6k event with a time of 29.58 running the distance for the first time.

Unfortunately we were a couple of runners short of a Division 6 team but hopefully we can bounce back with a few extra numbers at the next event which is the 12k Cross Country at Bundoora on Saturday June 22. This is a nice, flat, leisurely course with a couple of minor undulations. OK it’s a grueling course with a hill that seems to go forever and the men have to go up it three times. But we love it, so see you there!

Top

Top

Round 5: Bundoora

As the old saying goes “two weeks is a long time in distance running” and so it proved to be the case on Saturday with our numbers ravaged by injury. (I think we need to sack our sports scientist!) With a number of withdrawals as well as some of our remaining squad hampered by illness and injury the theme for the day became one very much of damage control. Unfortunately we then lost Dave Mellings during the race, although he still maintains the impressive record of having started every race since his AV career began some two and a half years ago. Looking at the final results from the day it must be said that we did reasonably well and were successful in avoiding a disaster with Division 3 finishing fourth and Division 5 finishing second.(How our standards have risen!)

Adrian continued on his fine season with another top 40 finish amongst what was a very strong field which included a number of Australian representatives and no less than three Olympians. With our depth tested it was Jeff and Jason who stepped up and filled our final two spots in Division 3. They had a great battle over the arduous 12km course and it was only .2 of a second that separated them at the finish as Jason snuck up behind Jeff to nearly pinch the chocolates right on the line.

It was great to se Frank back in action for what ended up being a very timely return as he led the Division 5 team home. Eddie and Adam also did well improving on their previous year’s performances by 3 and 4 minutes respectively.

We now enter a five week hiatus after the “postponement” of the Coliban relays which has previously been a highlight of the season. Nevertheless with the injury list longer than the available list it gives us a great chance to regroup and come out in the second half of the season full of “fire and brimstone”(whatever that means). Enjoy the break, rest up and most importantly make sure you’re fit for July 28 which is the 10km road race at Albert Park.

Mens Open Results  (no Women running this week)

Mens Division 3                                   Mens Division 5                                   Victorian All Schools U18 6km

Adrian         43.06           39                  Frank        54.04          244                     Alan     22.47    28

Mark D        46.39           91                  Mark B       56.38           282

Pappster     51.28          189                  James        57.08         291

Jeff            52.49.3       219                  Adam         58.15          306

Jason         52.49.5       220                  Eddie          61.52          340

Round 6: Coliban - not run this season

AV info here

Round 7: Albert Park - 10km

Event info here No Vernals this week! A first for Nuna?

Last Sunday was round 7 of the AV winter season with the 10k road race held for the first time at Albert Park finishing in the new stadium. Conditions were good on this brisk morning with just a little wind about being the only concern. We had a very good turnout with three full men’s teams, whilst the women were a duo again and unfortunately one competitor short of the 3 runners required. It was another good day of results with Division 5 again the highlight with another victory, while Division 3 had to settle for third and Division 6 were sixth.

Adrian continued his fine season leading Nunawading home in 48th spot and maintaining his run of Top 50 finishes. This is a great result as the depth in this field, as is always the case with the 10k, was very strong with 120 sub 35 minute performances and 350 sub 40 minute performances. Tim and Bernard did very well with both coming back from calf injuries, they were our second and fourth runners respectively. But it was Dave Mellings who put his hand up for “run of the day” with a very decent PB of 37.25 (it should be noted the all official times seem to be a few seconds slower than what people had on their watches) which was his first time under 38 minutes.

Our depth shone through in a deep field as we had runners continually crossing the line through the high 30’s and it was for this reason that we were able to claim as good a win as we’ve had this season in Division 5. Selim showed he’s starting to find some form and fitness by leading the team in, in a time of 37.57. It was also good to see Berto’s on the road to recovery finishing in 38.37, but it was Jason who would lay down the challenge for “run of the day” running a big PB of 38.59 in what was probably his best run for the club.

James did well to claim the last place in Division 6 and his time of 42.08 shows he has improved significantly over the course of the season. Carolyn did well to finish eighth in her age division while Brigitte just missed out on a top 100 finish overall in what was again a very tough field with the first two women home both off to the world champs in a couple of weeks.

With ten of our men running under 40 minutes our depth came to the fore in what proved to be another successful day for the club. We now go rural with the 8k on in ten days at Lardner Park in Warragul which is a challenging but good cross country course. See you there!

Round 8: Lardner Park (by Mark deslandes this time, as Steve didn’t run in the mud)

Round 8 led to Gippsland with the sprint cross country championships returning to Lardner Park for the first time since 2010. The course is renowned for dishing up plenty of mud to compliment the fences and ditches to clear and with plenty of rain leading up, this year was sure to be no less challenging. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the fresh smell of animal excrement, but otherwise it was a fine mild winter’s day with a stiff breeze blowing in from the west. Our numbers were thin after a number of late withdrawals but we still had sufficient numbers to consolidate our position in Division 3 and Division 5.

First up was Alan in the U18 event who put in a solid performance to come home in 19th place in a tick over 15 minutes for the one lap 4km circuit.

Next up were the men over the two lap course with Adrian leading the team home as he has all season with a personal best placing of 26th with thoughts now of breaking into the top 20 at Burnley surely firm his mind. But the break out performance came from Mark Boyle who broke in the top 100 for the first time to be our 4th runner home in what was undoubtedly his best run yet for the club. And with the rapidly returning to form Dave Bertovic hot on his heels, our Division 3 team had all 5 runners inside the top 100 for easily our lowest score of the season, albeit still a long way behind the tearaway leaders in St Stephens.

From there it was Dave Mellings who seized the opportunity to put time into Pappster while he rolled around in a ditch to be the first home in Division 5, collecting his first age group points in the process. Jeff and James followed in to record another win for our Division 5 team this season with Steve crossing the line shortly after in his first outing since Sandown.

In the last event, Carolyn took to the now well beaten up course for an age group 8th placing and collecting points for the 3rd time this season.

Next up is the Burnley Half Marathon on Sunday September 8 where we hope to see a strong Nunawading contingent put our Division 3 promotion and Division 5 premiership prospects beyond doubt.

Round 9: Burnley Half Marathon

Advanced Freight Half Marathon

Almost perfect conditions greeted the athletes last Sunday for the half marathon at Burnley. After some concern that we would struggle for numbers for our Division 5 team and throw away our hard earned lead at the top of the table we ended up with plenty of runners and nearly had enough for a third team. With a solid squad we ended up in third place in Division 3 and finished second in Division 5. What this means is, that with one round to go we are assured of second place in Division 3 and subsequently promotion to Division 2 for next season! The even better news is that we have won our second premiership in 3 seasons with top spot in Division 5 guaranteed!

There were also some great individual performances on the day with Bernard both leading the club home and finishing in the top 100 for the first time. Mark Boyle continued his great form running nearly a 5 minute PB and filling the fourth spot in Division 3. Jason also ran a significant PB by almost 3 minutes in leading Division 5 home while James continued his impressive rate of improvement by being next in for the club maintaining only a marginally slower pace than what he did for 6km at the start of the season. The PB’s kept coming with Adam also notching one up quite incredibly given he hasn’t been able to train much and wasn’t even going to run.

Congratulations also to Carolyn on cracking the top 5 for her age group and on finishing in seventh spot for the season as well as to Vince who ran invitation and also ran a massive PB.

However before we start reflecting on what has been a very successful season there is still one more event to go, the iconic Tan Relays. If you can, make sure you’re down there next Saturday morning (September 21- the birth date of Kevin Rudd, Jon Faine and Yours Truly) to enjoy the final race of a terrific winter and try for a fast time around Melbourne’s distance running Mecca.

Men:

80 Bernard Hall                           1:19:31.0

88 Timothy Fletcher                    1:19:52.4

90 Mark Deslandes                      1:19:56.7

135 Mark Boyle                           1:23:56.8

161 Jason Mahon                        1:25:42.2

221 James Dennis                       1:30:51.4

224 Jeffrey Broderick                   1:31:17.5

225 David Mellings                       1:31:20.4

307 David Bertovic                      1:42:02.7

331 Adam McCann                       1:50:42.5

Women:

107 Carolyn Rosenbrock                1:52:47.6

Round 10: Tan Relays

A beautiful spring morning greeted athlete’s for the final round of XCR for 2013 at Melbourne’s home of distance running, the Tan. With there being no possibility of moving ladder position in any of the grades the turnout for Nunawading reflected this and it could be said that the collective “cue was in the rack”. Nevertheless there were still some terrific individual performances on the day.

Alan led the Division 3 team off and produced a massive PB. Running in memory of his coach Tom Kelly who passed away tragically last week, Alan completed the lap in a 12.40 compared to his previous PB of 14.01. This was certainly the run of the day with some suggesting it had claims on also being the run of the season. Mark B and Jason both celebrated promotion into the Division 3 relay team by running PB’s as they managed a fifth placing overall. A good result given the circumstances with second place and promotion already stitched up and no chance of  securing top spot.

The 2013 Division 5 premiership team went around more as a chance to salute the crowd than to provide any serious competition having sewn up the pennant officially after the Half Marathon. However it provided a good opportunity for Berto to have a solid hitout after “misleading” the selection committee on his prospects and running much better than it was suggested. Some would say it was a masterstroke as it was a good way of keeping the Division 3 runners honest. Nevertheless it was very heartening to see him moving freely which augers well for the upcoming track season as well as next winter. It was also good to see Steve back having a run after missing most of the season, he has indicated it might be his last time in the green and black but there’s every chance it won’t be. Being the first athlete ever registered with the club some 42? years ago it would be nice to think there is another effort left in the tank for the dogged veteran.

It was unfortunately a familiar story for the women who again were one runner short of a team. Brigitte and Carolyn both ran well with the former putting in a PB (and possibly a club record?) but we need a big effort over the summer to find one more willing participant. Even if they’re not that willing just get them down one way or another….. bribery, false pretences, whatever it takes!

Congratulations everyone on a terrific season and good luck to those entering the Melbourne Marathon, Mark Boyle and Jason. (Apologies and good luck to anyone else that I’ve missed out on.) To everyone else hopefully we might see you down at the track at some stage, full details are on the club website. Speaking of which there will also be a season review going up on there in the next few days.

Mens

Division 3:

5 ATHLETICS NUNAWADING 66.55

1 1991 Alan Vernal 12.40        2 1994 Mark Deslandes 13.26         3 1251 Jason Mahon 14.07      4 2102 Mark Boyle 13.57     5 1984 Adrian McLean 12.45

Division 5:

9 ATHLETICS NUNAWADING 62.14

1 1457 David Bertovic 13.45    2 1990 James Dennis 14.58           3 2575 Glen Vernal 17.53         4 2330 Steve Vernal 15.38

Womens:

Division 3:

ATHLETICS NUNAWADING DNF

1 1456 Brigitte Seeley 15.40    2 1987 Carolyn Rosenbrock 17.33 3