Baird back after drought
Abattle-scarred running veteran who last won a club race in 2010 and thought he might never win another, got the gorilla off his back by winning an eight-kilometre Best’s Great Western Classic on Saturday.
Relishing the relatively gentle inclines from the Great Western vineyard with generous downhills and a finish on the flat, Stephen Baird maintained rhythm and a steady pace to hold a margin of 47 seconds over Keith Lofthouse.
Lofthouse, under the handicap conditions, conceded the winner 15.30 minutes start.
Third, more than a minute astern, was Peter Gibson who battled hard to overcome a dose of the flu.
After being crippled by a serious hamstring injury in 2014 that tore tendon from bone in a 200-metre race in Melbourne, Baird missed the cross-country season that year before returning in 2015 to begin a slow and sometimes painful recovery.
In 70 starts with Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club since that excruciating breakdown, 67-year-old Baird had rarely finished in the top 10 and had more often tailed the field.
“For me, it’s a challenge to try to be the best I can be,” he said. “Running is what I do. I never gave a thought to stopping. It’s too much a part of me.”
Lofthouse, who won the Stawell Amateur Athletic Club section of the combined race, was full of admiration for the winner.
“It takes guts and determination to come back the way Steve has,” he said.
“At his best he was always faster than me. The fact that he now starts 15 minutes ahead of me shows how debilitating the injury has been.
“If I had suffered the same injury I’d have given it away without hesitation.”
The club faces a tougher test in the Ararat Hills for the eight-kilometre Thompson Family Handicap on Sunday. Fun runners are welcome.
Form turns good
Veteran Lofthouse confounded the evidence of poor form by scoring a surprise win in the Stawell Amateur Athletic Club’s leg of the event.
Lofthouse runs with both the Stawell amateurs and Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club at weekends, but his form card with the former looked dismal, reading 12, 10, 17, 13, 11, 14, 6, 9, after a promising fifth to open the season.
“I guess I’ve lacked a little motiva- tion on the first day of two-day running weekends, and of course I’ll be 70 next year and at that age I might have to reassess,” he said.
“With just the one combined race on Saturday, I was a lot fresher but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
“I know the Great Western course like the back of my hand. I designed it and the gentle undulations suit my style down to the ground.”
Lofthouse said he gained confidence when he caught Horsham runner Graeme Eldridge, who had the better of him all season.
“I then had Terry Jenkins in my sights and he is as tough as old boots. I tailed him for about three kilometres and didn’t think I would reel him in, but with a kilometre to run I was close enough to have a crack,” he said.
Holding just a little reserve for the flat run through the Best’s driveway, Lofthouse sprinted clear to win the handicap event by 0.38 minutes from the improving Kayleen Urquhart, with Jenkins hanging on for third.
In a one-kilometre sub-junior race, Jerome Baker scored a brave win over duelling sisters Chloe and Olivia Hunter.
The club has a ‘home’ five-kilometre handicap race at Stawell. Fun runners are welcome and should meet at the North Park clubroom from 9.30am.