Round 7 XCR’15:Brimbank Cross Country

Zac Newman claimed his first Open Victorian medal at the oldest event on the Athletics Victoria calendar, the Victorian 10 Mile Cross Country Championship. Raced annually since 1892, the event this year was Round 7 of the XCR’15 series with MUAC taking 8 teams of athletes out to Brimbank Park to take on the uneven terrain and brutal hills over a variety of distances. Newman, who is in the middle of preparation for the Chicago Marathon, established his position during the middle stages, and held off the fast finishing Mitch Brown to take the bronze in 50:39.4. Nick Earl, 8th and the lightly trained Martin Mashford, 16th, provided further low scores for MUAC and impressive runs by Winter Manager Max Ueda, ultramarathon madman Paul Munro and Charlie Park pushed MUAC into second place in the Premier Men Division. Strong running continued down the order with the Division 2 and 3 Men’s teams taking 5th and 2nd place respectively. In Division 5 the team placed 4th and Paul Shortis claimed another victory over Tony Brain in the season long grudge match, with both claiming victory over Gerarde Kelly.

Winter Captain Al Bryant-Smith’s top level recruitment brought three strong MUAC teams out to Brimbank and once again the Division 5 women took a close second. Clare Walsh in her first race for the winter, Bethany Hosking and Allyson O’Brien took the team to glory This pushes the team to within three points of top of the ladder with three rounds remaining in the season. There were strong runs from Gen Blanch in her farewell run for MUAC before heading off to do her Masters in Sweden and Claire Beynon in her debut for MUAC.  Our Premier Women team took 7th place and Division 3 Women claimed 5th.

For the first time this season MUAC fielded an U20 Mens team with Fred Smithers, Nick Parkinson and Ben Burgess combining to take 5th place in the division, with Smithers leading the team home in 13th place.

Many thanks must go to Phil Van Dueren, Kyle Stocker and Ellen Schaef for helping out on the day as MUAC’s volunteers.

After a sumptuous repast in the MUAC marquee, athletes retired to the comfort of Chinatown’s best Indian restaurant, Gaylords for some fine food, outlandish stories and Haywards 5000, India’s top selling strong beer.

MUAC athletes will be back in action for Round 8 of XCR’15 in two weeks time at the Anglesea Ekiden Relays.

Official results