XCR Round 1 - Jells Relay Results

Well done by 7 Waverley Teams at Jells Park today for the opening event of the XCR24 season. The weather was surprisingly sunny and warm, a cracker of a day. The course was supposedly similar to other years, but they seemed to have worked a bit more into those last 4 hills, and they were a killer on the last lap.

Dramas unfolded early on when the uniform container was unfortunately missing the Waverley singlets. But Martin was quick to rescue the situation with a quick drive home and just returned with uniforms in time for the second legs. No sooner had he started running when another drama emerged that the final runner in our team David “Smoothy” Venour had COVID. (Sorry I missed his message). With not much notice Peter Kormendy was able to save the day with a promotion to the 50+ first team.

There were plenty of good results:
- our womens 50+ team finished 4th with Sally running the 4th fastest W55+ time
- Daniel improved by 50 seconds v last year
- Nick improved by 1:47
- but best on ground goes to Matt Harvey who ran an impressive 26:37 to be our 2nd fastest Div 3 runner, beat Dad by over a minute, and improve out of sight from last year. He has got himself in shape and is going to just blow away last season’s times.
- Great debuts by Julian Russell 23:24, Martin Buden 24:35, Neil Hutchins 32:51, and Linda Sharp 35:36
- Great returns after very serious cycling accidents by Peter Kormendy and Shane Fielding
- Andrew Baxter improved by 27 seconds
- Martin Spiteri improved by 20 seconds
- Ernie Lim improved by 1:47
- Christopher Knott improved by 25 seconds
- I improved by 1 minute
- Emily Stokes improved by 46 seconds
- Sally Lim improved by 38 seconds

James McEniry was nearly the last one out on the course (again), but he managed to pass Petra on the last lap, and both beat Nunawading, so we did manage to avoid being the last team.

The Waverley tent was as usual well catered with Daniel cooking the bbq, Jackie and others supplying biscuits and Nick supplying the esky. Afterwards we adjourned to the nearby Rogue Squire for more refreshments and to embelish the running battles. It was great to see 16 of the team making it up the road, and whilst there were a few other teams there as well, Waverley just dominated the numbers. A special thank you to Simone Albiston and Wendy Masters for being our club helpers and doing the spotting and recording. It sounds like a long day at the Div 4 changeover, so thank you.

Div 1 Men was won by Glenhuntly ahead of Western Athletics and Mentone
Div 1 Women was won by South Melbourne comfortably ahead of Sandringham and Box Hill
The fastest times were:
Men: Ed Marks – 17:25
Women: Abbey Caldwell – 19:55
Full results are at: https://athsvic.resultshub.com.au/#
Some photos are at: https://waverleyathletics.teamapp.com/photos/1885565?_detail=v1
and even more at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/CfZ6muveJEv2NEb59

Our next event is at a new venue – Hanging Rock Recreation Reserve, 12k cross country on Sat 11th May, in 2 weeks time. Should be good to try a new course, but I expect there may be some hills.
Bring a picnic rug and some picnic supplies for afterwards for a Waverley Picnic at Hanging Rock.