Newman claims Victorian Marathon Championship
2016 Melbourne Marathon
Testing conditions were no obstacle on Sunday as Zac Newman claimed his second Victorian Championship of the year, running 2:25:21 to come fourth in the Melbourne Marathon, which served as the Victorian and Australian Championship. Newman started conservatively on the windy Sunday morning and was sitting just inside the top 10 as the hard work into the strong northerly began at the Elwood turn around. He relentlessly pushed home, mowing down some highly credentialed runners in the last 10km. Such a strong performance in adverse conditions bodes well for big personal best at his next marathon outing. Newman’s result was just the headline on a big day of racing for MUAC athletes at the Melbourne Marathon Festival.
Andy Buchanan (31:08) and Stella Radford (36:06) both took 3rd place in the 10km, with Ellen Schaef (20:35) winning the 5.7km event. The men’s 10km was stack with MUAC athletes with Nick Earl (5th), Martin Mashford (6th), Frankie Conway (9th) and Max Ueda (16th) David Paroissien (24th) starring. MUAC Winter Captain Martine Botha crowned a fine winter with a half marathon PB of 1:35:41. Simon Weir also clocked 1:31:05 for the half marathon. The development distance group had some fine runs in the 10km from Andrea Gatti (39:44), and half marathon with Stefan Wittlinger (1:31:40), Danielle Zhang (1:51:04) and Vicky Huang (1:55:18).