We had 16 athletes competing last weekend across the two venues at Mt Evelyn and Keilor. Jeremy Higlett made his debut in the Red and Black, anchoring the Men’s 4x400m relay with a very fast last leg closing down about a 100m lead to run Old Xavs into a 5th place finish and only 1 second behind 4th place. Jeremy then went on to set the cruise control at 3:20/km to run a 10:02.6 3000m making it look easy. Zach Taylor showed his versatility as a runner fronting up for a 200m (32.99) 800m (2:40.84) before finishing with a 3000m (11:55.8) to score valuable points across all three events for the Team. In the longest distance for the day, Alan Colman, Sue Hinckfuss and myself toed the line in the 5000m. Alan showed he is a 50+ power house athlete finishing with a time of 18:37.4 (2nd overall) followed by myself in 19:13.7 and Sue also showing she is a force in the 50+ women’s age category finishing in 22:30.4.
Annabelle Colman, after spending the week at the AIS in Canberra on a para-athlete pathway training camp for Paris Paralympics, returned to Melbourne and ran an impressive 3000m. Showing she is refining her trade and gaining race tactical savvy she sat in second for the first half of the race on the shoulder of the leader before deciding enough was enough and clearing out to take the lead and run from the front over the last 1000m, finishing with an impressive time of 10:21.0 to take the win.
In a race within a race we had a family feud between mother and daughter. Sue and Millie Hinckfuss were locked in an epic battle for family bragging rights to be the highest individual points scorer for OXAC. Millie again showed her all-round track and field pedigree competing in 5 events on the day (200m, 200m Hurdles, High Jump, Shot Put and Triple Jump). Millie won the day being top individual Old Xavs scorer with 951 points (3 scoring events) followed closely by Sue scoring 879 points for her three scoring events (Shot Put, Discuss and 5000m).
A huge part of taking 3rd overall in Division 4 was being able to field relay teams. At Keilor we had both a Men’s 4x400m team consisting of Zach, myself, Alan and Jeremy. Our 5th place scored 154 valuable team points. The Women also ran a 4x400m team consisting of Sue, Millie, Annabelle and Amelie Lague finishing in a time 6:22.3 which unfortunately was a DNQ for points however it was great to see the Ladies out on the track flying the flag for the Red and Black.
Over at Mt Evelyn we had some impressive results too. Seb Walker who made his season debut for OXAC running the 90m Hurdles in a time of 18:42 and also running the 1500m with a very impressive time of 5:01.47 (U14). Joining Seb in the 1500m was his brother Taj running Unattached (sporting an Old Xav’s training singlet) as an Invited runner. Taj finished in a time of 5:38.11.
Georgia Powning was also up at the AIS last week and ran an impressive 1500m notching up another sub 5:00 1500m with a time of 4:58.09 for 2nd. Joining Georgia with sub 5:00 1500m finishes were Carlo Manolitsas (4:57.61) and Lochlan Warren (4:47.19). In the Masters, Silvia Warren and Josita Hicks went head to head over 1500m with times of 7:07.53 and 7:11.27 respectively. Pablo Campillos had success on the track over 1500m, finishing in a time of 5:15.06 which was a better result than his Javelin attempt (not measured and apparently almost hit an official).
Clara Campillos had a good day at Mt Evelyn in her favoured sprint events, running 15.15 for the 100m and 74.02 for 400m. The Men at Mt Evelyn also fielded a 4x200m relay team consisting of Carlo, Lochlan, Pablo and Seb finishing with a time of 1:58.48 and scoring 171 team points.
Dave Martini, Summer Captain