The Alpine regions of Victoria received their best snow of the season over the last weekend, and while Bundoora is well below the snowline, an Antarctic breeze was blowing the rain around: in other words, it was proper cross-country weather at the AV 10k XC Championships. AthsVic did a brisk business selling surplus clothing as runners made their best efforts to stay warm and dry in the conditions at Bundoora Park.
There was a full slate of junior races to start off the day, so open and masters athletes found the first loop of the 10k course had been well prepared for them. The muddiest section was a cambered S-bend positioned right in front of the OXAC tent, giving spectators plenty of chances to watch athletes struggling to stay upright.
In the women’s race, OXAC was just able to field complete teams, with the Premier team comprising Lauren Mosbey, Di Guiney, Margaret Fitzgerald, Aya Fukunaga and Silvia Warren. Various combinations of those 5 also filled out the 40+ and 50+ teams, with Christine Williams adding her support to the 60+ team who took out another win to continue their dominance. The 40+ and 50+ teams both took 5th spot while an 8th place finish for the open team keeps their hopes alive for staying in Premier Division. Lauren was 3rd F40, Di was 4th F50, and Margaret 3rd F60.
The course received more rain and wear during the women’s race, setting up truly classic XC conditions for the open and masters men. Again it was a case of masters athletes filling up the teams, with the average age of OXAC men close to 60, held down by Jeremy Higlett who was also our fastest man on the day. Behind him were Bruce Davie, Bob Meek, Richard Dickmann and Christopher Worsnop. Bruce, Bob and Richard combined for 4th place in the M60 division, while Bruce managed 3rd place in the M60 individual competition.
In the earlier All Schools para competition there were medals a-plenty for our IST athletes, with Georgia Powning, Cameron Marshall, Amelie Lague, Clara Campillos, Carlo Manolitsas, Lochlan Warren, Lexi Guiney and Finnian Harvey all getting among the hardware.
With the next AV race being the roads of Lake Wendouree we can look forward to better footing although the chance of snow in Ballarat cannot be entirely ruled out.