Times, They Are A Changing

By Brian Marantelli 23 April 2012

The 80^th year for the Victorian Cross Country League season opened on Sunday at Karkarook Park with a great deal more intrigue than is usually expected. The race, sponsored by the Moran Stable of runners, was a sealed handicap with mass a start for the sixty entrants. All went well during the event but as the runners crossed the line for the finish and results were about to be calculated, things turned for the worse.

With the clock malfunctioning, no times were recorded and for the first time in memory the club was unable to declare a winner. However after a great deal of back tracking and the collection of personal times that were available, the club was able to allocate to within a few seconds a time for all runners.

The result has been calculated and the presentations will be made next Sunday at Boeing Reserve, Strathmore. The results that were available on the day were David Haigh running the fastest time (23:16) from Joel Donnar (23:50) and Corina Kapusta (25:39) the fastest female.

The VCCL would like to welcome our new members from the weekend and hope that they enjoyed the experience. A very warm welcome to Todd Foster, Craig Foster, Marty Johnson, Lauren Crowley, Keleigh Robinson, Celia Cosgriff, Kevin Pardy and Shane Warke.

The Victorian Cross Country League would also like to congratulate our members who were able to win events at the recent Stawell Gift carnival. Lisa Roberts (female 800 metres), Craig Harris (1600 metres), Eric Sapac (open 800 metres), Julie Torrini (vets 300 metres) and Matthew Bateman (vets 1600 metres) were all successful and once again showed the value of a solid winter season to prepare well for the track.

If you are reading this, you probably realise that we have a brand new website. Marcus Boxall has worked on the website over the summer and will be continuing to do so over the next few weeks. A sincere thanks to Marcus and also to Brendan Liddicoat who was responsible for the previous site.

Unfortunately over the summer months Jim and Janet McLure have not been in the best of health and will be off the scene for the first few races. The VCCL and all their friends wish them both a speedy and complete recovery with a quick return to the track.

Next Sunday is the 10^th Fred Grubb Memorial at Boeing Reserve, Strathmore, with a 10am start. The race is once again sponsored by Bob Charlton and Greg Hutchinson, long time supporters and former runners.

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