Athletes were met with good conditions for the running of the SKINS Sandown Classic on Saturday 29 May 10 at the Sandown Raceway.  Excellent  performances for our leading open athletes Michael Masseni & Belinda Keogh who raced beautifully in a race which was won by Geelong Regions Mark Tucker & Cassie Fien of Wellington Athletic Club.   For all results & ladders after round three please read on.

Even though on race morning we were met with constant drizzle throughout Melbourne, by 11am the rain had subside and we were left with 16-18 degrees and little to no wind and for those who have raced at Sandown we knew this was good. 

With five athletes across our teams ringing on race day sadly announcing that they couldn't race due to flu like symtpons we were still able to field some good teams and achieve some solid results.   The first race of the day was the 3km 'dash' around the Raceway, all of the underage girls and the U14 & U16 boys were all lined up on their start line ready for a quick race, thankfully with no falls this year.

Lots of great individual & team results for the underage; the Under 16 girls (Courtney, Talissa & Claire) managed a third win for the Series and the Under 14 boys also managed a top 3 result.  Individually we had a great day with many top ten results; Michelle Matthews who is undergoing a transfer from ATE to Wes Aths finished 2nd in her first race of the Series in the U20 category, Amy Cashin winning the U18 race, Courtney Scott winning the Under 16 race, Talissa Jansen 6th in U16 and Brooke Zerafa = 4th in the U14 race.   This week the boys also had some fine performances, with Jack Rayner finishing 10th in the U16 men & Liam Cashin managing 9th spot in U14, well done to all of our underage runners.

Club records are hard to break.....so some special mentions; Jack Rayner's 3k road time is the Club's 2nd fastest U16 time, pushing Tom Temay down a spot & sitting behind Callum's time of 9:43 in 2008.  Liam Cashin also posted the 2nd fastest U14 3k road time now sitting behind John Camilleri's 10:06.  Will we see the boys push the 5km times at Ballarat (U16 - 16:16 & U14 - 17:55).

The girls not to be outdone, actually broke some Club records; Courtney Scott had a dominating run at Sandown posting the fastest 3km road time ever by a Western Aths female runner, 9:55, this time giving her the U16 & female record.  Amy Cashin broke the U18 record and also posted the 2nd fastest female time.  Not to be outdone, Talissa Jansen posted the 6th fastest U16 time & Brooke Zerafa the 3rd fastest U14 time.  Well done girls.

• All individual results

The open 10km road commenced at 2:30pm with more than 730 competitors, with the ladies having their own starting line which combined with the men's race approx 300m later.   We were one short of 3 complete men's teams and had one womens team with 1 extra, but with the knowledge that a couple of unwell runners were running.   A few of the young guys were chasing PBs that they were confident of breaking and that they did!   Whilst others may have too broken PBs I would like to congratulate Michael Masseni on breaking the 34 minute barrier and to Cam Macaulay & Chris Camilleri who broke their PBs posted 5/6 years ago as teenagers.

Michael was our first runner across the line in 33:57 which is the 10th fastest time for our Club (Jemal Hussen 32:01 in 2000), well done Michael a top 10 spot in our record books!  2nd across the line was Cam in 34:31, finishing 84th (2nd time in top 100) and running a PB of more than 2 minutes and Reech Kuol was third across the line.  Making up the remainder of our 5th place Div 2 team were Chris Camilleri, Adam Clark & Michael Berhe.   The Div 4 team managed another solid week finishing 5th but moving up into 4th spot on the ladder.

The Div 2 ladies team led out by Belinda Keogh posting the Club's 5th all-time fastest female 10k time in 38:58 (Narelle Coady 37:38 in 2006) managed a strong 7th placing which has helped consolidated the team away from the relegation zone.   The remainder of the team were Jo Francken (back from injury), Michele Paull (first race since 2008) and Loren Lane - well done ladies.

• Team results

Saturday 19 June is the next race in the XCR'10 Series, Round 4 at Lake Wendouree, Ballarat - 5km road race for all underage athletes and 15km for both men & women, I hope everyone gets there entires in, either racing or enjoying your weekly long run, every runner means more Club points.

Will we see anyone try to break some more Club records: Men 15km Rob Ibic 49:00.9 in 1999, Women 15km Narelle Coady 56:47 in 2007, Underage Men 5km Luke Searle 15:34 in 2005 and Underage Women 5km Amy Cashin 17:54 in 2009.

•  Ladders after Round Three (updated 8 Jun)

Enjoy the read