Blakey On The Run At Coburg; Three-peat Fraser; Irene Continues To Feature

By Brian Marantelli 7 October 2019

The Victorian Cross Country League 2019 season concluded on Saturday at Westerfolds Park where a smaller than usual group gathered for the final event. The race, a staggered start over 3km, was an extremely close finish with Fraser Murray once again showing his liking for the shorter courses. Fraser, taking his VCCL wins to five, was able to hold out Julian Harris by two seconds with Irene James in third place. Fraser’s first success in the event came in 2014 and then followed with a back to back double in 2018 and 2019. His other wins have come at Kyneton and Woodlands Park. Julian Harris recorded the fastest time with a run of 10:34. The Club offers sincere apologies to any members who missed the final event due to the website and date error.

The VCCL conducted its final virtual sealed handicap parkrun for the season on Saturday 28^th September and with members running at twelve different venues the handicapper produced an exciting finish. Gary Blake running at Coburg, his local venue, had a one second margin to spare over Luke Critchley racing at Lorne and a further four seconds to Brigitte Humphrey at Albert Park. The VCCL parkrun series offers our members the opportunity to have a competitive run when on school holidays as shown by Marcus Boxall racing at Zillmere (Qld) and Shane Thiele competing at North Sydney.

The Athletics Victoria Cross country season has also come to a close and the VCCL teams performed extremely well with premiership pennants won by the division three and division six teams. The division seven team finished a creditable fifth after only fielding a team in four of the ten events. The women’s division four and men’s over forties teams were also competitive throughout the season when able to field teams. The final event on the AV calendar was the very popular Tan Relays and the VCCL sealed handicap was taken out by the clubs most consistent member, Irene James. Irene has had a first class season with twenty two runs, two wins and numerous placing and capped the season off with a win in the Club aggregate and female champion awards. Other than the Tan relays win, Irene’s other win this season was the Sandown relays 6.2km event.

The Club champions for season 2019 were Matthew Grant (Open), Irene James (Open Female),Sean Quilty ( over 40’s), Carl Kennedy (over 50’s) and Russ Johnson (over 60’s).

The Victorian Cross Country League will hold the 2019 Annual General Meeting at the Boyd Community Centre 207 City Road Southbank. The date is Sunday 3^rd November at 10am. The committee and members present will be discussing the program and direction that the VCCL will take for the 2020 season. If you are unable to be present on the day but would like to put forward a item for general business please email bmara2011@hotmail.com

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