Pashley smashes Mountain to Surf record

THE defending champion in the women’s Mountain to Surf Ellie Pashley has smashed the course record, covering the eight-kilometre track in 26 minutes flat.

Pashley’s win took 47 seconds off the previous best time.

“This one’s pretty special to me, this race,” she said.

“I live in Torquay and I work in Lorne at the medical centre here so it’s always nice to come and do a local race, I always feel a little bit of pressure because I know I’ll get back to work and everyone is going to ask me how I went.

“But it’s good, it’s always fun. I actually officially started work at 8.30am so I’m running a bit late but I’ll get there. I won it last year and then I won it quite a few years before that, once or twice, so I’m pretty happy to have claimed it a few times.”

In the men’s event, Surf Coast runner Nick Wightman stormed home in 24:08 to claim another summer title.

“It’s a tough race; it was pretty warm in the end,” he said.

“Obviously the hills are always tough – Sean Guiney and Oscar Robinson didn’t make it easy at the start and through the bush but I got away at the end just coming back onto the Great Ocean Road.

“This is the second time I’ve won it. It’s always a great race, always good competition; it sees how I’m going with my training with more important races later in the season. I had a fair bit of a challenge up the first few hills and through the
bush – coming out of the bush I got a bit of a lead down with the wind.”

Nearly 2,000 runners and walkers made their way through the Lorne hinterland and along the Great Ocean Road before finishing in front of the Lorne SLSC clubhouse.

Other entrants on the day included federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (44:51), Corangamite federal member Sarah Henderson (1.23:55), and former Cats premiership skipper Cameron Ling (39:09).