It has been a huge week in sport in Australia. The cricket side won the test match in Pakistan, one of the greatest footballers of all time Buddy Franklin kicked his 1000th career goal and the Launceston Running Club Season Kicked off at Heritage Forest.
After questioning the prize money at the AGM Neil Hammersley took full advantage of the increase and triumphed in race 1 today. It was summer like conditions for the 6.35k race, supported by Mike Spray and the team at the Launceston Running Company. Everyone was impressed by the course marking and easy to follow layout. Despite some technology hiccups we managed to get all 3 races away closeish too on time. It was a hot race out there and felt like the wind was pushing against you the whole way, but Neil was able to round up quite a few and win by a strong margin. In second place was newcomer Stephan Sepek with a great club debut and in third Lisa McCarthy (sorry we almost forgot your prize money Lisa. )
Our fastest male was Ricky Barnewall with a magnificent pace of 3:25km and our fastest female was the tough as nails Louise Padgett with a pace of 4:32, she left without her prize money, we will make good use of it :P.
In division 2 there were some strong performances as a few commented they hadn’t run since last years feature race. Once we got the starting list sorted we saw a hotly contested race and a strong win to Joseph Sepek, hopefully he remembers the moment, as the photographer missed him, sorry Joseph. In second place was Carolyn Bailey with a very good run and in third the always speedy Rosie Jackson, though I think the handicapper got her and her sister mixed up….
Our fastest junior female was Rosie Jackson with a great run and up and coming runner Seth Hill was the fastest junior male. The encouragement award went to Jada Rowlings, stepping up into division 2 in 2022.
The first race of the day was our division 3 race, our juniors all waited patiently for starting lists and a kick off and again showed tremendous spirit exists in our younger running group. In first place today was Sebastian Abel who managed to just hold off fellow first timer Darcy Staak in second place, a great contest between those two. They were followed in third place by Chloe Padgett, another strong runner from that wonderful family.
The fastest male was Marcus Finearty and the fastest female was Emily Padgett. The encouragement award went to first timer Adelaide White, we hope to see you at more races.
Full Results can be found here Please check them carefully and message the club with any errors, they have been manually updated in a few places, but we will adjust as corrections come in.
I want to thank everyone for their support today and kind words, we have been hit by a few absences today and there are new committee members in key roles, but everyone was in great spirits and we ended up with a great day. Special mention to our volunteers today filling key roles, without marshals , especially in the kids races, our events cannot go ahead. If you can be of help on race day please message the club.
Next week we are off to Evandale entries are open at 6pm saturday night you can enter on the website
Have a good weekend
