It was a day for the lean and mean in the Senior/Masters Mens Cross Country on Saturday when the lithe youngsters overcame the gnarly veterans. With two laps down of three it seemed like Ron Middleton and Mark Speakman were the only two that could hold off the rampaging duo of Kristian Day & Lucas Duross who had started as back-markers.

Ruby Muir was also making things interesting as well as she took to the conditions like a duck to water (not that I'm saying that our Ruby is a feathered waddler but you know what I mean). Ron had 1 min 45 sec on the galloping duo with that lap to go and unless there was divine intervention it looked a bit of a hopeless cause for the mudlark. Careering down the hill with a km to go it became evident that the stars had not aligned for Ron with Lucas & Kristian fair smoking out in front. With 200m until the finish the dynamic duo were still locked in battle but as they emerged from the dip 50m before the chequered flag Kristian had pinched a break and he held that to the lineto take victory by 2 seconds. It must have been hard work as they weren't taking interviews for a couple of minutes immediately after collapsing over the line. I am sure the Facebook trash talk will make up for that later. Ruby had duly overtaken Ron who had his own battle in holding off Mark, which he duly did. Not far back was newcomer Brad Donovan who had also made up good ground from the rear. Most of the field got home although Craig Mathers may have done some lower leg damage so I hope that is not too serious.
In the mature womens event, Kim Creagh had to battle the demons in her head to stay ahead of the chasing throng. Okonta Nneka was edging closer to Kim along with Marilyn Brown while Annie Kane was finding it tough enough thank you very much so Kim was able to build enough of a buffer to take a 17 second win at the finish. Jenny Pearson again had a radar malfunction – Lance should invest in a GPS I believe.
To keep it in the family Georgia repeated the effort in the W16/G14 as she eventually wore down Kaya Shlomi to win by 15 sec.
James Mikkelson kept it together to take the M16/B14 event by over half a minute. Sean Findlay again put in a terrific run put could not haul in James.
In the U12, it was the Bassick girls who showed a liking for the gluey stuff as they were comfortably out in front of the horde.
The Cubs had to concentrate really really really really hard to resist the temptation to race through every puddle and dive in to every mud bath en route but they did well by finding there way back to the finish. Temptations proved difficult to resist post-race however and many a youngster was caked in the brown stuff........

Results – All Open Handicap (except Cubs).

Senior Men/Masters Men – 9km (19 finishers): 1. Kristian Day 37 min 10 sec (Fastest Time) 2. Lucas Duross 37 min 12 sec 3. Ron Middleton 43 min 54 sec.

Senior Women – 9km: 1. Ruby Muir 39 min 43 sec.

Masters Women – 6km (6 finishers): 1. Kim Creagh 36 min 53 sec. 2. Okonta Nneka 35 min 25 sec. 3. Marilyn Brown 35 min 45 sec. Fastest Time Annie Kane 33 min 19 sec.

M19 – 6km. 1. Jason Pearson 32 min 04 sec (Fastest Time). 2. Benjamin Harrison 39 min 43 sec.

W19 – 4km. 1. Laura Langley 18 min 59 sec.

M16/B14 – 4km (9 finishers). 1. James Mikkelson 17 min 24 sec. 2. Sean Findlay 16 min 57 sec (Fastest Time) 3. Kingston Webb 18 min 27 sec.

W16/G14 – 4km (5 finishers). 1. Georgia Creagh 19 min 27 sec (Fastest Time). 2. Kaya Shlomi 20 min 22 sec. 3. Anne Rinck 25 min 04 sec.

U12 – 2km (18 finishers) 1. Kate Bassick 11 min 35 sec. 2. Sophie Bassick 11 min 04 sec. 3. Isaac Pilcher 11 min 42 sec. Fastest Times: Oliver Marshall 8 min 02 sec. Alia Wentz 10 min 34 sec.

Cubs – 1km (7 finishers) 1. Matthew Marshall 3 min 34 sec. 2. Noah Green 4 min 02 sec. 3. Riley Peach 4 min 06 sec.