Bacchus Marsh Little Athletics

ATHLETES travelled to a new venue for their weekly Cross Country competition on Saturday morning, competing at the Eynesbury Heritage Trail.

Consisting of a flat out and back course, this allowed athletes the opportunity for fast times, endeavouring to set themselves a season’s personal best.

The Under 11/12 athletes gathered at the start line for their 2km race.

A fast start to the race saw Zeke Horne, Iyla Robinson and Mitchell Tung lead the pack out, with Joshua Askew hot on their heels.

It wasn’t long before Josh took control of the pace and led the field to the turnaround point before a strong finish home, saw him declared the overall winner. PBs were recorded by Joshua Askew, Zeke Horne, Harry Holland, Mitchell Tung, Ruhi Sidhu while Kyra Booth and Josh Medcraft both ran massive PBs, slicing a minute and a half off their previous best times.

Another large field of Under 7 and 8 runners participated in the 1km event. Little separated our top three runners, with a sprint finish seeing Brodie Jreige out dip Hayden Tung at the finish to take line honours, while Angus Jacobsen was in 3rd place, less than a second behind.

All the boys recorded PBs for their fantastic effort. Zachary Mizzi, Amira Rickerby, Jack Ainsworth, Marli Major, Xander Dobrilovic, Eleanor Shanahan, Matilda Askew, Oliver Dalton, Ivy Carroll, Scarlett Tatchell, Lucy Hackett, Charlie Coon, Madeleine Dragic, Victoria Hannam, Olive Blokland, Eykas Singh Khaira and Paige Foley all set PBs for the event, while Meeka Booth recorded her 4th consecutive PB result.

Next on the schedule were the Under 9 and 10 athletes, racing over a 1500m course. Harry Johansen and Emilia Ibrahim recorded wins for the Under 10s. A fantastic race from Hunter Robinson, with a sprint finish, saw him declared the Under 9 winner in a PB time of 6:17.96 mins. Harbin Kaur Aujla was the Under 9 girls’ winner. Evie Grant, Gigi Baniluk, Cody Medcraft, Heidi Havran and Daisy Pickett were awarded PB times.

The Under 6s were excited to participate in their 500m race. A conservative early start from Lenni-Rose Missen saw her finish strongly in the later stages of the race and claim the win for Bacchus Marsh with a PB time of 2:30.13 mins. Georgia LeFeuvre and Angad Singh Aujla were only seconds behind, with both athletes also running a PB. Willow Blokland sliced over 15 secs off her previous best, setting a new PB of 2:56.24 mins.

Once again, our Open Age athletes completed the program, racing over a 3km course. Sam White led from start to finish, stopping the clock in a time of 11:27.54 mins. This week we welcomed our Centre Captain Emma Stewart, for her first official run this season.

Next weekend there will be no Centre Cross Country meet due to the King’s Birthday Long Weekend.

Good luck to all athletes representing the Centre at the State Cross Country Relays to be held at Cruden Farm, Langwarrin.