Son cracks whip for father’s win
An Ararat school teacher’s eight-year-old son cracked a horsewhip to start the Shane and Robyn Young handicap running race at Stawell on Sunday, which might have stung the boy’s dad into winning the race for a second time.
Andrew Reynolds ran a minute faster than he did at Rhymney a week before to win the five-kilometre event by a comfortable 0.19 minutes.
Reynolds’ first win with Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club came in 2013 at only his third run when he defeated the club’s runs record holder, Jack Trounson, by four seconds.
On Sunday it was Trounson again charging into second place at his 636th start, with another stalwart Keith Lofthouse battling in unseasonably warm and humid conditions to run third.
Reynolds couldn’t explain son Oli’s interest in whips, but the boy did better.
“I like the sound of them and I find them entertaining,” Oli said.
“I didn’t need the whip to get me going today,” Reynolds added.
“It’s a beautiful course to run on and at Rhymney I’ve been hampered training on road corrugations around my place.
“Fortunately they’ll be graded this week, which will make running a lot easier.”
Reynolds missed most of last season while the family toured Central Australia and the west coast.
Oli’s whip was purchased in a specialty whip shop in Darwin.
“I ran the 11 kilometres around Uluru while I was away, which was inspiring and spectacular, but I haven’t run anything like that distance since. It’s hard to top,” Reynolds said.
The club returns to Dunneworthy Common, Ararat, at 9.45am on Sunday for a five-kilometre handicap. Fun runners are welcome.
Saunders never headed
On Saturday, whiskered warrior Gary Saunders spoiled the birthday party for Kayleen Urquhart when he staged a massive form reversal to win at Concongella.
Having finished near the tail of the field, 15th and 12th, at his previous two starts, Saunders, at 75, Stawell Amateur Athletic Club’s oldest runner, would have been at cricket-score odds to win the five-and-ahalf kilometre event.
But it was too easily forgotten that Saunders had, in fact, won the penultimate race of the 2017 cross-country season five starts before.
Under revised handicap conditions, everyone had to give Saunders a start, but in typical fashion the veteran began strongly, set up a sizeable lead out of sight of the backmarkers and was never headed.
“The course was just right for me, a bit of downhill at the start and nothing too steep, and I just ran thinking the next runner is right on my heels,” he said.
Saunders, who is focusing less on gym work and more on running this season, runs like a bulldog when he gets a sniff of victory. On greeting the timekeepers with a typically pugnacious sprint, he had over a minute of daylight to spare from a party-pooped Urquhart, with Sharon Howden next best.
In a sub-junior race of 1000 metres, the club’s most consistent youngster, Olivia Hunter, was too nippy for chasers Johnno Baker and Jack Urqhuart.
The club returns to Stawell on Saturday for a five-kilometre Stan and Karen Watson Handicap.
Fun runners are welcome and should meet at North Park clubrooms in Stawell from 9.30am for a 10am start.