Big Foot president Andy Simpson made his mark on the Australian Sprint Championships by taking out M50A. Andy (pictured) was 11 seconds clear on the 1.8km course. Feet clubmates Mark Shingler (4th) and Simon George (8th) made it an impressive race for the pink club.
Andy sprinted home as winner in front of 'mum and dad' over from the UK (who also competed and showed where Andy gets his talent from - mum Hilary won W75A, and dad Trevor was 2nd in M75A!
Curtin University hosted the second event of the national titles on Monday, and other NSW winners were Mikayla Enderby (W10A), Serena Doyle (W12A), Jenny Enderby (W45A), Fedor Iskhakov (M35A), Chippy le Carpentier (M70A), Basil Baldwin (M75A) and Neil Schafer (M85A).
Our roving reporter Barbara Dawson, with a vested interest in her talented offspring, fills us in: "The morning was overcast with scattered storms. From the arena it was a 700m walk to the start - atop a two-storey car par. Upon starting, runners crossed the empty car park, went down a ramp, across a road that was marshalled and up some stairs to the start triangle. A very interesting start, I must say.
"Once racing started the weather gods shone and it cleared to a nice blue sky. The junior elite men set a cracking pace, with our son Aidan pushing hard in front of his own personal cheer squad at the spectator control, a sculpture near the arena.
"Aidan came in 4th but ended up 9th, an impressive result in a very high-quality field. The junior elite women were also tightly packed in a very competitive age class. Michele went out second runner and posted a good time of 16 minutes. This held up for quite a while and in the end was beaten only by Nicola Blatchford (NC) and 3 Kiwis.
"As usual, route choice was paramount. It was a single level uni campus with lots of garden beds (out of bounds) to take into account."
Results are on Eventor: note these will be updated as there were some glitches.
Focus now shifts to the Australian Schools Championship events on Wednesday (individuals) and Thursday (relays) on the rolling hills and extensive areas of granite south-west of Northam.
