The Victorian Men’s 8 k. cross country championship was held on Saturday 18th August in excellent conditions at the Yarra Bend reserve, a course reasonably well known to most of the athletes participating. Box Hill was well represented in the senior men’s division, with a team in the women’s competition and other competitors in the underage divisions.
The men’s race saw a large group of Box Hill athletes start out with five of our athletes in the first 10 places after 800 metres, namely Andrew White, Steve Dineen, Daniel Clarke, Bouchaib Chefnaoui and Otmane Tirhazouine. Unfortunately this great starting position slowly slipped away as the race progressed, although several of our athletes excelled with high placings and we are getting closer and closer towards the winner’s position.
As the race progressed Lee Troop (Geel.) and Richard Jeremiah (Geel.) broke clear with Liam Adams striving to hold on. Andrew White challenged them briefly in the early stages of the second lap by taking the lead but paid the price in the later stages of the race for this exuberance. Andrew remained at the front of the field in touch with the leaders. Adams ran away from Clint Perrett (Mentone) after trailing him for much of the early stages to take the bronze medal. David Ruschena (GH) overtook Andrew White in the concluding stage. Both Daniel Clarke and Steve Dinneen ran very impressively, both steadying and then lifting their position in the latter stages of the race. Bouchaib Chefnaoui finished solidly in 26th position and then three Box Hill athletes finished very close to each other, headed by Paul Boxshall, 34th, who improved his position significantly during the race, Otmane Tirhazouine, 35th, and Barry Lynch, 37th. Adrian Vincent, 42nd was the second scoring member of our winning Dib=vision 3 team, with Graeme Olden, 92nd, Chris O’Connor, 96th and Anthony Van Eeton, 133rd filling the remaining places. Bill Dyer, Barry Whittle and David Stevens also completed the course. Our Section 1 result was pleasing with Glenhuntly eclipsing us by the slender margin of 2 points for second position. Geelong fielded a very strong team and deserved their win in Section 1.
Hayley Tomlinson won the silver medal in the Women’s Under 20 6 K Cross Country. Hayley improved her position the whole way and closed on the leader until the concluding stages, where her rival, Stephanie Kondogonis (KSB), gradually extended her lead.Our Junior Men’s (Under 20) competitors both performed well on the two lap 4 k. course, with Chris Hamer and Matt Coloe both being in contention at the conclusion of the first lap. After the major rise in the second lap, Chris was holding a clear second place and Matt was a little further back in fourth position. Chris continued in this place until the conclusion of the race winning the silver medal in a strong field, with Matt holding fourth position in the Under20 race, also a very creditable performance. Unfortunately we didn’t field an Under 20 team, but our close rivals, Knox, didn’t benefit as they only fielded two Under 20 athletes as well. Cameron Nagle managed to finish in 24th position in the Under 18 race.
In the Under 16 race, Harriet Hodgkinson finished the 3000 m course in 12 minutes 13 seconds, running tenth, a solid performance.
OPEN MEN 1 Lee Troop Geelong 24:11 2 Richard Jeremiah Geelong 24:19 3 Liam Adams Essendon 24:46 4 Clinton Perrett Mentone 24:58 5 David Ruschena GH 25:04 6 Andrew White BH 25:07 7 Scott Rantall Geelong 25:23 8 Daniel Clark BH 25:37 11 Steve Dinneen BH 25:55 26 Bouchaib Chefnaoui BH 26:29 34 Paul Boxshall BH 26:58 35 Otmane Tirhazouine BH 27:00 37 Barry Lynch BH 27:01 42 Adrian Vincent BH 27:24 92 Graeme Olden BH 28:50 96 Chris O'Connor BH 29:06 133 Anthony Van Eeton BH 30:13 200 Bill Dyer BH 32:02 269 Barry Whittle BH 34:52 306 David Stevens BH 37:13 TEAM PLACINGS Men's Section 1 Geelong Region 65 Glenhuntly Athletic Club 117 Box Hill Athletic Club 119 APS United 376 Men's Section 3 Box Hill Athletic Club 389 Ringwood 477 Western Athletics 624 Men 40+ 1. Keilor St Bernards 9 2. APS United 25 3. Wendouree Athletic Club 44 4. Traralgon Harriers Athletic Club 54 5. Box Hill Athletic Club 61 6. Malvern Harriers Athletic Club 83 Men Under 20 4 k Cross Country 1 Sam Crowther Knox 12.01 2 Christopher Hamer BH 12:13 3 Craig Huffer GH 12:25 4 Matt Coloe BH 12:40 Men Under 18 4 k Cross Country 24 Cameron Nagel BH 16:21
Open Women's 6 km Cross Country 26 Rachel Johnson BH 23:41 27 Joc Keage BH 23:37 36 Amanda Harper BH 24.22 90 Kerry Putt BH 27:31 Team Results 1. Knox Athletic Club 32 2. APS United 92 3. Glenhuntly Athletic Club 119 4. Geelong Region 126 5. Eureka Athletic Club 166 6. Box Hill Athletic Club 173 Under 20 Women's 4 k. Cross Country 2 Hayley Tomlinson BH 15:20 Under 18 Women's 3 k. Cross Country 10 Harriet Hodgkinson BH 12:13
