Box Hill AC had brilliant results at the 2003 Road Relay Championships back at Sandown Race course on Saturday, 12 July. These exciting results augur really well for the future.
Our Under 20 Team demolished the opposition, with excellent performances from each team member. Andrew White ran 19:50, a time which would have clearly made our Section 1 team. He was ably supported by Lachlan Aspinall (21:07) with the third leg anchored by Adrian Vincent who ran most impressively to record the fast time of 20:18, also a good enough time to make the Section 1 team. This was a splendid result. Well done to the whole team.
Our Under 18 team ran exceptionally well too, winning the silver medal. Simon O’Brien ran 10:02 in the first leg and set the team up for a high placing. Running second, Nick Bourke recorded 10:56, and the team was brought home by Michael Bourne, who maintained second place, recording a sound 10:42. This was a very pleasing result.
Our Under 16 team performed magnificently with all members running tremendously well. Clear winners, each member of the team demonstrated great promise. Chris Hamer gave an enormous advantage to the team’s chances by running the first leg in 10:01, a very fast leg from an Under 16 athlete. Matthew Coloe ran even faster in 9:58, a lap time regarded as an excellent performance by senior runners. With two mighty efforts like these, the team was completed with Navin Arunasalam running impressively to finish the team in first place, in 10:43, another very worthy lap time. It was fantastic to hear Box Hill’s name constantly over the microphone at the medal presentation ceremony.
All our Junior teams excited the interest of senior members and there was strong support around the course for their performances in each leg of each team. Two gold medals and a silver medal is the best result for our junior teams for many years. Great work and congratulations go to all our junior competitors. Thanks to Glen White and Doug Bourne for team management duties.
Now to the senior races. Conditions were cool, with a fluky but solid breeze in the back straight but relatively benign by Sandown’s conditions in past years. This year’s race appeared a little more open than usual, despite Glen Huntly’s dominance in the Winter races to date. Glen Huntly had a number of athletes unavailable or injured. Doncaster, Ballarat YCW, Geelong, APS, and Box Hill all had reasonable teams available. However, when Lee Troop and Mark Tucker declared themselves available to run for Geelong, it appeared that they had a very strong claim, although the amazing Steve Moneghetti was a starter for Ballarat YCW, which certainly improved Ballarat’s chances. This is not to overlook Doncaster, who also had a strong line-up with Olympians Sean Quilty and Rod de Highden running for them. John Meagher was unable to compete which lessened our chances somewhat, given his excellent form this winter. Luke Yeatman our fastest performer in 2002 has recently been married and was also unavailable to compete.
Our Section 1 team got off to a flying start with Marcus Tierney running the first leg. Marcus trailed Simon Field (Old St Kevins), running for a section 2 team, but was leading Section 1 at the conclusion of the first lap. At the end of his leg, he had slipped back slightly to hold third place in Section 1 behind Sean Quilty (Don) and his Geelong opponent. Marcus had put the team within nine seconds of the lead, ahead of Ballarat YCW, APS and Glen Huntly, with Tyler Coady unwell and coming in 8th place over one-and-a-half minutes off the lead.
Box Hill’s division 1 women’s team performed creditably to finish in 5th place in the Sandown road relays on July 12.
Jessica De Bruin ran first against some very strong opposition, with most teams running their best runners first. Despite running strongly in the blustery conditions, Jessica came in 9th place when she handed over to Emily Smith. Emily managed to pick a place and move closer to the teams ahead. Jocelyn Keage ran the third leg and improved the teams position from 8th to 6th when she handed over to Fiona Turner. Fiona ran a great last leg, being the fastest Box Hill athlete of the day, moving up to 5th place and very nearly catching the Glenhuntly team in 4th.
This was a good performance from a young team (with Fiona at 21, being the senior member) and we expect even better performances in the future.
It was great that Box Hill were able to field four open relay teams this year. Box Hill fielded 3 teams in division 3 in the Sandown road relays.
This was a most competitive division with 19 teams starting.
Melinda Missen, Rachel Johnson and Megan Sloane made up our first division 3 team. They all ran well with Melinda and Rachel running fast enough to be in our division 1 team.
Unfortunately they could not stick with Doncaster (who did not enter in division 1 and ran their first team in division 3) and lost a close battle with St. Stephens (who also had their first team in division 3), but third place was still a great result.
Our second division 3 team of Beth Bird, Audra Papworth and Felicity Gamble also ran very well to finish 4th overall. Audra, in particular ran a fine leg.
It was great to have enough open women running to fill a fourth open team. Kerry Putt, Kate Beever (in her first competition for the club) and Amanda Harper did well to finish mid-field in this event.
A number of our junior women were unavailable (with Hayley Tomlinson and Sarah Cant overseas) and we were not able to fill any of the underage teams in the women’s competition, but Alice Baquie and Alice Martin ran 2 of the 3 legs in the under 18 competition and were in fourth position at the end of the second leg.
Dale Bickham was out second, chasing Dean Paulin (Don) and Geelong. He was holding third place after his first lap. Unfortunately, Dale was unable to maintain his first lap momentum in the concluding stages of his leg, and David Ruschena (GH), Julian Marsh (APS) and John Walsh (BYCW) all slipped by, to place the team in 6th position at the conclusion of the second leg.
Hamish McElwee has been one of our best accomplished runners this season, and he recorded the second fastest Box Hill time of the day, clearly passing APS and getting the team back in eye contact with Glen Huntly (Michael Chettle) to be in fifth position. Shane Nankervis (BYCW) and Richard Jeremiah (Geel) both ran well under 19 minutes for their legs so their teams drew a little further ahead of Box Hill.
At the front of the field Doncaster continued to hold first position from Geelong which was 30 seconds down, with Ballarat a further 40 seconds to the rear. Glen Huntly were a further 17 seconds behind, with our team 55 seconds behind them. It was looking like Glen Huntly could have difficulty hauling in the teams ahead, due to the best runners not having hit the tarmac (Tucker, Troop and Moneghetti). For them to get back on level terms they needed one of their athletes to do something exceptional.
Barry Lynch ran the fourth circuit. He ran steadily, breaking 20 minutes. In this leg Mark Tucker (Geelong) really threw down the gauntlet, recording the fastest time of the day to that point, 17:53. This propelled Geelong to a lead of just under a minute over Doncaster, and nearly four minutes ahead of Glen Huntly and 4:50 ahead of Box Hill.
The fifth leg saw Steve Moneghetti take his place for Ballarat YCW. Starting in third team position Moneghetti blasted out the first lap in 8:47, and made huge inroads into the lead held by Geelong and Doncaster. At the end of Moneghetti’s leg, he had converted a deficit of 1:51 into a lead of 10 seconds an incredible achievement in the gusting wind in the back straight. Steve Moneghetti is one amazing athlete – “retired”, 40 years old, and still able to record the second fastest time of the day. Geelong held second place and a further 11 seconds further back was Doncaster. Glen Huntly, through Linton Gloster, had been unable to make up any ground and were 2:17 behind third, with Chris Bunney maintaining Box Hill in 5th place a further two minutes behind, though well clear of 6thposition.
With Lee Troop running the final leg, freshly returned from Boulder Colorado where he had been training with club member Andrew Letherby in preparation for the World Championships later this year, the stage was set for a Geelong Victory, and that is the way that it happened. Troop quickly reeled in Maurice Prendergast (BYCW) and ran right away from all other athletes, in recording a sizzling time of 17 m. 34 (running watch). Travis Longmuir also passed Prendergast in the final lap to bring Doncaster back into the silver medal position, so Ballarat YCW took third place, 39 seconds in arrears. Glen Huntly were nearly one minute behind BYCW, following a quicker leg from Nick Harrison their final runner and Graeme Olden anchored our Section 1 team into fifth place a further four minutes behind. It is a long time since Glen Huntly hasn’t won a medal, so this road relay result can be interpreted as being healthy for winter competition.
Our second team, in Section 3 placed 4th. Paul Boxshall ran really well in the first leg, significantly upsetting the rankings, in recording 20:03. Tony Bird ran faster than he did two years ago, which was a great effort, and when he handed over to young Rubin Arunasalam, the team was in about seventh position. Rubin managed to do something many more experienced runners are consistently unable to do, and that is to run the second lap faster than the first. This was an impressive effort, assisting the team to hold sixth position at the changeover. Luke Vipond set out purposefully, passing two other section 3 teams and getting within striking distance of third place. Unfortunately David Ayers was not ready on the line for the changeover and this cost the team valuable time. Nevertheless, he held fourth position, once he commenced, within sight of the third- placed team.
The Section 6 team was short of one team member, so Chris O’Connor, who was ill, was not called on to run after Dave Featherston and Michael Riera had completed their legs.
Many thanks to those members and supporters who were prepared to offer their services as officials. Your efforts were much appreciated by our competitions.
|
Leg |
Runner |
Lap 1 |
Lap 2 |
Total |
Position |
Leader’s time |
BH time |
|
1 |
Marcus Tierney |
9:04 |
9:37 |
18:41 |
3 |
18:32 |
18:41 |
|
2 |
Dale Bickham |
9:48 |
10:38 |
20:26 |
6 |
36:56 |
39:07 |
|
3 |
Hamish McElwee |
9:28 |
9:51 |
19:19 |
5 |
56:05 |
58:26 |
|
4 |
Barry Lynch |
9:49 |
10:02 |
19:51 |
5 |
74:27 |
78:17 |
|
5 |
Chris Bunney |
10:03 |
10:19 |
20:22 |
5 |
93:58 |
98:39 |
|
6 |
Graeme Olden |
10:17 |
10:19 |
20:36 |
5 |
111:42 |
119:15 |
|
Leg 1 |
Leg 2 |
Leg 3 |
Leg 4 |
Leg 5 |
Leg 6 |
||||||
|
Don |
18:32 |
Don |
36:56 |
Don |
56:05 |
GH |
74:27 |
BYCW |
93:58 |
Geel |
111:42 |
|
Geel |
18:35 |
Geel |
37:58 |
Geel |
56:34 |
Don |
75:28 |
Geel |
94:08 |
Don |
113:32 |
|
BH |
18:41 |
GH |
38:28 |
BYCW |
57:14 |
BYCW |
76:18 |
Don |
95:19 |
BYCW |
114:11 |
|
BYCW |
19:25 |
APS |
38:48 |
GH |
57:31 |
Geel |
77:12 |
GH |
96:36 |
GH |
115:08 |
|
Ess |
19:49 |
BYCW |
38:50 |
BH |
58:26 |
BH |
78:17 |
BH |
98:39 |
BH |
119:15 |
|
APS |
19:54 |
BH |
39:07 |
APS |
APS |
APS |
APS |
|
Fastest Times |
|||
|
Lee Troop |
8:45 |
8:49 |
17:34 |
|
Steve Moneghetti |
8:47 |
8:53 |
17:40 |
|
Mark Tucker |
8:50 |
9:03 |
17:53 |
|
Simon Field |
8:56 |
9:04 |
18:00 |
Please note these times are running watch times and are not official. Section 3
|
Leg |
Runner |
Lap 1 |
Lap 2 |
Total |
|
1 |
Paul Boxshall |
9:56 |
10:07 |
20:03 |
|
2 |
Tony Bird |
10:54 |
11:18 |
22:12 |
|
3 |
Rubin Arunasalam |
11:19 |
11:04 |
22:23 |
|
4 |
Luke Vipond |
11:14 |
11:26 |
22:40 |
|
5 |
David Ayers |
12:06 |
11:36 |
23:42 |
Team Result: 4th Section 6
|
Leg |
Runner |
Lap 1 |
Lap 2 |
Total |
|
1 |
Dave Featherston |
12:35 |
12:42 |
25:17 |
|
2 |
Michael Riera |
25:20? |
||
|
3 |
||||
|
4 |
Team Result: DNF
|
Leg |
Runner |
Lap 1 |
Lap 2 |
Total |
|
1 |
Andrew White |
9:48 |
10:02 |
19:50 |
|
2 |
Lachlan Aspinall |
10:15 |
10:52 |
21:07 |
|
3 |
Adrian Vincent |
10:01 |
10:17 |
20:18 |
|
Leg |
Runner |
Lap |
|
1 |
Simon O’Brien |
10:02 |
|
2 |
Nick Bourne |
10:56 |
|
3 |
Michael Bourne |
10:42 |
Team Result: Gold Medal Under 18
|
Leg |
Runner |
Lap |
|
1 |
Chris Hamer |
10:01 |
|
2 |
Matthew Coloe |
9:58 |
|
3 |
Navin Arunasalam |
10:43 |
Team Result: Silver Medal Under 16
Team Result: Gold Medal