Free Running Brooks Turns Tide

By Brian Marantelli 31 July 2013

After twenty three top ten finishes, Leon Brooks finally open his Victorian Cross Country League winning account with a narrow victory in the Jayen Engineers 5km at Woodlands Park. Leon has been close to a win in the last four seasons including two second place finishes by the agonising margin of two seconds at Westgate and Police Paddocks. Leon defeated former training partner Mark Andrews by four seconds with Wayne James only five seconds away in third place. Mark Andrews is gradually working his way up the finishing list and is sure to claim his first win in the near future. Corina Kapusta was once again best of the girls, claiming fourth place and fastest female with a time of 18:21. The backmarker for the event Phillip O’Brien made up a great deal of ground over the short course to finish sixth and fastest time with a run of 16:19. Keleigh Robinson continued with her impressive form to gain another top ten finish, inches to the good of Carl Fannon and Santhy Olowonsyi. Kylie Donnar, fifteenth across the line, once again collected the Novice award.

The last four VCCL events have been decided by a total of only twenty five seconds, surely a tribute to first year handicapper David Page.

The Victorian Cross Country League would like to sincerely thank Jayen Engineers for their valuable sponsorship of the event. Also many thanks to Joe and Machelle Caruana who were able to get the event on the calendar and act as course managers on the day. The race run for the first time was a keenly contested event and hopefully will remain on the VCCL calendar.

Next Sunday’s event is the ten mile George Perdon Memorial at Lysterfield Park and incorporates a 6.5km sweepstakes event for those not wishing to run the full journey.

The following week the VCCL will have Caulfield Grammar competing with us as fun runners as they raise money for the Brain Foundation. The assistance of those not competing will greatly be appreciated as it will certainly be a busy day.

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