Barnett, Walker in classic contest
Stawell Amateur Athletic Club staged its own Clash of the Titans when orienteering giant Andrew Barnett and schoolboy champion Tom Walker fought out the finish of a five-kilometre One More Step for Ray at Stawell.
Under handicap conditions for the race, which honours the memory of club legend Ray Rickard, the student had to give the Stawell College science and physics teacher a 1.4-minute start.
Walker clocked fastest time, 16.42 minutes, on a course that challenges with a strength-sapping uphill climb to the finish.
But the teenager won’t find a more formidable opponent in Stawell than Barnett, who matched motors for most of the way, though his margin was cut to just 37 seconds in the end
The fastest female, Jess Cass, came an honourable third.
In terms of fitness, Barnett was rock-hard, having returned from Scotland where he won a highland games hill race that tests an athlete’s mettle over four kilometres up a steep and forbidding climb, and then four down.
A world-class orienteer who has represented Australia in Eastern Europe and in New Zealand, Barnett is a novice at cross-country competition. This was his first win at only his second run with the club.
After a presentation of the winning sash, Barnett drove to Ballarat for a gruelling training exercise in outlying forest, dotted with old goldmining shafts, diggings and mounds, which are ideal for plotting orienteering courses.
“I run seven days a week – at least one run is up to two hours, and I mix it up with three or four tempo,” Barnett said.
The affable athlete is in training for a Dunkeld Peaks and Trails Run in early August, followed weeks later by a 25-kilometre Ultralong Orienteering Championship in Canberra on August 26.
Budding cross-country runners contested a one-kilometre sub junior event won by Horsham visitor Logan Casey from Moloney brothers Will and Romy.
The club joins Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club on Sunday for an eight-kilometre Cross Country Classic at Best’s Winery from 9.15am. Fun runners are welcome.