Rd 9 XCR16: Burnley Half Marathon

Zac Newman claimed the Victorian Half Marathon Championships on Sunday, running 66:54, and leading MUAC to it’s third Premier Men’s victory in a row in the XCR series. Newman eschewed the early pace, as a pack of 7 including teammates Frankie Conway and Nick Earl took an early lead on the riparian loop course. Stranded on his own for much of the first half of the race, Newman reeled the leaders in and immediately broke up the pack, gaining a small gap.  Knox’s Jordan Nelson fought back briefly to return to the lead only for Zac to surge again ferociously and create the winning gap inside the last 5km.  Newman’s performance represents a personal best of almost a minute and bodes well for the Melbourne Marathon in 6 weeks time. Conway (PB) and Earl combined with Max Ueda (PB) and Shohei Waller (PB) to narrowly claim the third team victory in a row for MUAC in Premier Men.

Ruby Turner made her debut for MUAC in the women’s race as a dedicated crew of women responded to Captain Martine Botha’s call to support the sash, with good runs by Cassie Cohen and Courtney Parker.

Phil Van Dueren ran his first half marathon in 3 years, comfortably getting under 90 minutes and James Maguire and Julian Baker had a very pleasant Sunday long run disguised as a race.

MUAC will return to action in two weeks at the ultimate XCR16 event, the Tan Relays.

Results