XC Races Coming Thick and Fast

Aidan Jackson & Sue Hinckfuss

OXAC athletes have had a number of great events in the last month – read below to catch up on the action!

APSOC Wise-Findlay

Saturday 29 April 2023

The APSOC Wise-Findlay is one of the smaller events on the APSOC calendar, not being a premiership race. Nonetheless, the course through Westerfold’s Park offers 5km, 10km, and 21.1km hitouts for athletes. Margaret Fitzgerald ran the half marathon in 107:46, the second fastest woman, and Richard Dickman ran 111:34, both being the fastest 60 + runners. Jules Fleurus was fourth in the 10 km with 39:41 and best 40+ male. Winter Captain Sue Hinckfuss (43:10) was the third woman and second 50+ female. In the 5km, JC (John Charles) was third with 17:14. Di Guiney (20:59) was the first 50+ woman; Georgia Guiney (21:29) was the third under 23 woman; Sebastian Harvey (22:58) was the second 60+ male; Kim Drever (29:00) was the third 40+ woman.

Run The Tan

Sunday 30 April 2023

The 3rd annual Run The Tan event took place the following day, the brainchild and exciting product of OXAC’s own Darren Templeton. This event allows members of the public to notch their official Tan time, whilst also hosting events in the Emergency Services, Schools, Para, and Elite categories. This event was the biggest one yet, with some great OXAC results. Harry Mezger (13:58), Annabelle Colman (14:10), and Georgia Powning (14:28) all came top 10 in the Elite Para subsection. Pete Chappell (12:19) finished 6th overall in the public run (those gumboots must only cost 40 seconds!). In the elites, our very own Matthew Clarke ran 2nd in a huge 10:26, smashing his PB and coming within 20 seconds of the overall record set by Craig Mottram over 10 years ago. The event, as always, was ably supported by a huge team of volunteers, many of whom are OXAC athletes. Thanks to all who made the day a fantastic event.

AV 10km Road Race

Ant Meek enjoying the 10k racing conditions

Sunday 7 May

The AV 10km Road race at Albert Park Lake is always a great opportunity to run a fast 10km. This year despite it being put earlier on the AV winter season calendar and also the Melbourne weather providing wet and near freezing conditions the OXAC team turned up and performed well with some great running and a swathe of PBs.

It was great to have 3 time Olympian Dave McNeill representing OXAC; he was our fastest male coming in 9th overall in 29:46. Ben Haseler 32:09 (PB), Anthony Meek 34:49, Daniel McConnell 34:58 and John Charles 35:27 all ran impressive times and made up our Div 3 team which placed 4th. Alan Colman (37:03), Dave Martini (39:09), Carlo Manolitsas (PB 41:45), Alexander O’Callaghan (46:05), Pierre Guillon (48:05) made up the Division 4 team and placing 10th. Club president Christopher Worsnop also ran, finishing in 54:42. In the masters teams the men’s teams ranked 31st (40+) and 22nd (50+) and 21st (60+).

In the women’s race Georgia Powning (above) continued her awesome form with a big PB (39:08). Solid performances by Sue Hinckfuss (42;39), Montana Whiteley (PB 46:20), Claudia Haeger (PB 47:59) and Margaret Fitzgerald (48:33) meant that our top 5 women placed 8th in the Premier Division. The women also placed 8th in Div 5; the team comprised of Fleur Shaw-Jones (50:13), Clara Campillos (51:29) and Georgia Guiney (53:08).

In the masters teams the women’s teams ranked 10th (40+) and 4th (50+) and 3rd (60+).

In the Under 20 events Gerry Stamoulis ran placing 10th in a great time of 34:23 and Annabelle Colman ran a PB of 38:05 which put her on the podium as second Under 20 female.

Annabelle Colman en route to another PB

In the 3km junior events OXAC was also represented by our young members with Max Sukdara (U14,: 12:21), Lexi Guiney (U18, 15:52) and Millie Hinckfuss (U14, 16:21) all braving the very wintery conditions.

APSOC Dyson Relays

Saturday 13 May

On the second weekend in May, the massive Dyson Relays took place at the Tan, the second premiership race on the OXAC calendar. The red & black as usual outnumbered the rest by far, with over 50 athletes across 12 teams, including 2 junior teams which is great to see. Our fastest two runners overall were the exceedingly fit Ben Haseler (11:48) and Johnny Kuol (11:51). Annabelle Colman (14:11) was the third fastest woman and the first under 23 woman, Di Guiney (16:02) was the first over 50 woman, Simon Holt (13:04) was the second fastest over 40 male, Alan Colman (14:03) was the second over 50 male, and Darren Templeton (14:14) was third. In Division One, our OX1 team just fell short to the Scotch outfit, finishing in second place and needing to win the remainder of races for the year to snatch a massive 3rd premiership in a row. The remainder of our Division one teams came 4th,5th and 8th, highlighting just how much depth we have. In the Women’s Division also fell just short of a win, finishing second, 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th and 13th.  In the juniors, our school boys’ team was 7th in Division Two, and the older team was 13th. Whilst we may have just fell short in our premiership-contending teams, there were plenty of outstanding performances, and the fire has been set in the belly to bring it home strong in the rest of the season!

APSOC Orchard 10km Handicap

Saturday 20 May

The Orchard 10km Handicap around Albert Park Lake was the 4th APSOC race of the season. The event is a non-premiership race, runners were given handicaps, starting off at different times with the aim for all the runners to cross the finish line at the same time. In the handicap event Hannah Stagoll was the first Old Xavarian and 7th overall across the line.  Michael Kondro was the fastest OXAC runner and third fastest at the event, running the 10km in 36:56. Steve McDonald was the 3rd fastest Male 50+ in 40:35 and Seb Harvey the 3rd Male 60+ (49:03). Neda Jamshidi was the 2nd fastest female (43:49), Di Guiney was the 2nd woman 50+ (44:09) and Margaret Fitgerald 2nd fastest 60+ woman (49:19).

Great Ocean Road Marathon Festival

Saturday 20 May – Sunday 21 May

On the same weekend, OXAC members headed down to the Surf Coast to represent the red & black at the Great Ocean Road Marathon Festival. Athletes were met on the famous road with fierce winds and late-autumn drizzles, which made the run even more challenging. Nonetheless, there were some great results in the half-marathon. Dan Gibney ran a massive 84:20 to finish 4th overall and 2nd in his age group, easily the star performer of the day. Aidan Jackson and Pablo Campillos both ran sub 90 minutes for the half distance, with Pablo finishing a very impressive 2nd in his age group category, and Dave Browne also represented the Xavs well in a solid hitout pacing a friend. Claudia flew the flag for the Xaverinas with a solid 1:51 for the 21.1km distance and just over 2 hours for the full 23km.

AV St Anne’s 8km

Three female athletes with medals on a podium

Annabelle Colman collects her 2nd place prize at St. Anne’s

Saturday 27 May

For Round 3 of the AV XCR calendar athletes took to the road, heading to St Anne’s Winery near Bendigo for the 8km cross country race. The junior races took place first with Annabelle Colman taking on one lap of the hilly 4km course and finishing 5th in 16:36. Next the men took to the vineyards and paddocks for 8km (2 laps) of cross country running. Dave McNeill again was our fastest male placing 5th in 24:45, followed by strong runs from Alan Colman (32:55), Bruce Davie (33:41), Dave Martini (33:51) and Mark Anderson in 40:10 for the Div 3 team finishing 8th. The Div 4 team also placed 8th with great running by Richard Dickmann (41:48), Alex O’Callaghan (42:46) and Robert Meek (44:22). Our fastest female was Lauren Mosbey (32:56 and first woman 40+). The Premier women’s team did well to place 6th with Lauren leading home the other top womens performances Di Guiney (35:42), Sue Hinckfuss (35:56), Georgia Guiney (38:14) and Margaret Fitzgerald (40:00 and 1st woman 60+). Aya Fukunaga donned the OXAC red and black singlet for the first time and also her first ever cross country race with a solid performance of 40:43 and with Fluer Shaw-Jones (45:51) getting the Div 5 team  7th place. In the masters categories our 40+ men were 14th, 50+ men 7th, and 60+ men 8th. Our 50+ women’s masters teams were also impressive finishing 3rd in the 40+ category, 1st in the women’s 50+ and 2nd in the women’s 60+.

In addition to the above running events, OXAC also had its AGM in mid-May, with our Committee re-elected for another year.  We were greatly appreciative of the donation of $500 to the Club from Darren Templeton on behalf of Run The Tan at this AGM. Excitingly, we also inducted two extremely loyal servants of the Club as Life Members – David Sneddon and Anthony de Castella. Both have impressive OXAC CVs. David was a runner with the club in the 1970s and 80s, where he was a member of 25 APSOC race-winning teams, 3-time cross-country champion, and made  the Australian Championships in 1978. Following his athletic career, he was a long-serving member of the Club including 25 years on the Committee, 10 years as Treasurer, and an executive member of APSOC from 2008 until now. Anthony will be known to many as our current energetic and inspiring coach, but he has also had a great running and administrative role within the Club. Having joined in the 1970s, ‘Deeks’ was Winter Captain and Tutton Trophy winner in the late 1980s, Club committee member since the early 1980s, and co-organiser of the De Castella Run from 2008, a major funding source for the Club. Congratulations to both David and Anthony for this recognition of their fantastic contributions to the Club.

What a big month! As always, thanks to those who support the Club and allow us to run every week, especially the supportive family members of our athletes, and our ever-brilliant Coach and now OXAC Life Member, Anthony de Castella.

As we head into Winter proper, we have a swathe of events coming up, including APSOC Churchill Park (3 June), McPhail (10 June), and Lodge (24 June), and AV Cruden Farm 12km (17 June). May the red & black continue turning up in numbers and running the house down!

Aidan Jackson & Sue Hinckfuss

OXAC Winter Captains