July Update

By Brian Marantelli 31 July 2022

Hi everyone,

First update for a while.

The funeral for Sean Quilty was held on Thursday at Bramleigh Estate Funerals. The Victorian Cross Country League was well represented and Doona was given a great send off with Dean Paulin, Kevin Cottam and Martine Beer delivering the eulogy. Sean's contribution to athletics and especially the VCCL will be remembered for years to come. The VCCL committee hope to organise a fitting way to honour Sean's memory.

David Page has created a fundraising team for the Point To Pinnacle Half Marathon, raising funds for pancreatic cancer charity Pankind. Donations can be given through the following link, but some may like to join the team and run the event in Hobart on November 20^th.
https://pankind-fundraising.raisely.com/t/teamdoona

On Saturday, 9^th of July the club competed in the AV series with the event being the Sandown 6.2km relays. The VCCL were represented in divisions 2, 5 and 7. Division two, finishing an excellent fourth, also their current standing on the season ladder. Michael Marantelli (18:38) was the fastest of the day. Division five also finished a great fourth with Julian Harris fastest with a run of 22:53. Currently division five sit in sixth place on the season table. Division seven raced a great fourth with Tobias Lawrence clocking a 22:31. A great effort in division seven by Adina and Irene to push the team into fourth place. The division seven ladder has the club mid table but has had limited appearances. The Sandown handicap was won by Ingrid Woodward by seven seconds from Mark Hipworth and Fraser Murray in third place.

The VCCL conducted a club race on 17^th of July when we combined with Victorian Masters in the annual Eric Greaves memorial 10km at Braeside Park. With Fraser Murray relishing the longer journey he powered away from Adina Morrow and Russell Johnson to win by over forty seconds. Fastest time went to Matt Grant with a run of 37:07.

The following Saturday we raced with AV again, this time over the tough Bundoora 10km grass course. With a small turn out we were only able to field teams in Divison 2 and a reduced teams in division 5 and womens. The division two team finished fifth with Riley Bryce (34:13) holding out Dan Lawlor (34:26) for fastest time. Division five, with Craig Harris (44:04) and Fraser Murray (45:08) our sole representatives battled hard to finish seventh, gaining valuable points. Also gaining points, Adina Morrow and Irene James battled out against some strong women's teams to finish a great fourth, leaving Mentone and Yarra Ranges far behind. The handicap for Bundoora went to the rapidly improving Tobias Lawrence in only his second run with the VCCL. Tobias defeated Mark Hipworth by an impressive 24 seconds with Dan Lawlor in third place. Fastest time went to Dan Lawlor 34.13.

Yesterday, we were back at parkrun with Martine Beer winning her first VCCL race, narrowly besting Mark Hipworth by 3 seconds.

On behalf all VCCL members I would like to would like to thank those that pitched in over the last few weeks to enable Braeside and Bundoora to run smoothly. Janine McKerron, Janet McLure, Mark O'Brien, Fraser Murray, Oscar Robinson and Dan Lawlor stepped forward make sure each day ran with minimum of concern. Apologies to others I have failed to mention.

Hope to see you all at Lakeside on August 7^th for the 10km road race.

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