McNeill and Clarke Shine at Zatopec

Dave McNeill and Matt Clarke

While the Zatopek 10k headline news was Stewart McSweyn setting a new Australian record, OXAC was well represented with Dave McNeill taking 4th in 28:16 and Matt Clarke lowering his PB by 30 seconds to 28:39. As McSweyn and Pat Tiernan were rabbited through 5k, Dave spent much of the race leading a chase group including now-former record holder Ben St. Lawrence and eventual 3rd place finisher Jack Bruce. Matt Clarke made a number of smart moves to stay attached to that group as other runners dropped. Jack Bruce managed to get a small lead on Dave with 250m to go, and Dave unleashed a blistering kick to come within a fraction of a second of third place, but ran out of runway to overtake Bruce. Matt managed to hold onto the strong chase group to finish 10th and record a stellar PB. Full results here.