Van holds Vanguard in historic win

Adrian van Raaphorst notched an historic double on Sunday when he won the Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club’s Fenn Family Handicap for the fourth time since 2004.

Having won the Thompson Family Handicap for the first time in June, the 594-start veteran also became the first to win the eight-kilometre ‘bookend’ events at the same venue in the one year.

“I’ve always run well in Mcdonald Park,” van Raaphorst said.

“I can’t really explain why I’ve won this race four times and the Thompson only once, but I do think this is the easier of the two.

“I ran the course during the week and knew where all the puddles were, so that might have helped a little, but I must have been in front for a good half of the race and that was a surprise.”

Punching his arms for momentum in his typically pugnacious style, van Raaphorst never looked likely to lose.

“I had to run as hard as I could as I fully expected Fennie, Paul Fenn, to swoop past me. I don’t think he’d have stopped just because his family sponsor the race,” he said.

Fenn, a quality runner almost 30 years younger than the winner, recorded fastest time, a scintillating 30.30 minutes in the rolling hills, but even he couldn’t overcome a brutal handicap, giving 18 minutes start to van Raaphorst.

It was left to other ‘youngsters’ Sue Blizzard and Andrew Reynolds to fill the podium beside the winner.

The club travels to Stawell on Sunday for its penultimate race of 2019, the five-kilometre Clem Hall Memorial.

Hunter fires up

Stawell Amateur Athletic Club secretary Naomi Hunter was running on adrenalin when she scooted to a surprisingly easy win in the five kilometre Ivan Mcdonald Handicap at Stawell’s Big Hill on Saturday.

Hunter found herself burdened by extra duties due to the absence of club president Jess Cass, who was holidaying, and vice-president Simon Edge, who became a father for the first time.

It had been a stressful morning, with husband David Hunter on a late call-up to mark the course, but by the time the race got underway, all that stress was converted to nervous energy and Hunter never gave the chasers a chance.

“I’d already decided to go out as hard as I could on the downhill to set up the gap I probably needed for the uphill,” she said.

“I haven’t trained as hard as I did last week so I had freshened up a bit. That helped and I also had two fun runners for company, urging me on the last hill climb, which is always the toughest part.”

Hunter’s emphatic one minute win over pre-race favourite Terry Jenkins and the ever-improving Katie Field again denied Jenkins the chance to break this season’s drought.

Very much the bridesmaid, Jenkins has not finished further back than fifth in his past dozen starts.

In the one kilometre sub-junior race at the bottom of the hill, Eva Hurley deserved her maiden win after a ding dong battle with brothers Joshua and Dale Robinson.

The club’s season finale on Saturday is the three kilometre Chris Blake Handicap which starts at 3pm on North Park athletic track. Fun runners are welcome.