Gibson breaks a two-year drought

The redoubtable Peter Gibson only partly shook off a bridesmaid tag despite breaking through for his first win in two years with Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club at Warrak.

The 374-start veteran has long been the club’s most consistent performer but to his own frustration he has been a perennial place-getter. His past 10 starts have yielded four seconds, four thirds and now only his second win from 48 starts in the past three years, which include 32 top-four finishes.

He almost came unstuck again in the 6.5-kilometre Watkins Family Handicap when threatened by Sandra Bywaters, a bolter who finished more than five minutes behind Gibson, 60, the week before but got within five seconds over a shorter distance this time. A mere 0.17 minutes separated the first four to finish.

Having previously won the Watkins in 2015, Gibson joins the ranks of two-time winners, now swelling to six without a three-time winner since the first in 1996.

Gibson’s win was timely given the club’s next race, on September 16 after the Father’s Day bye, is the eight-kilometre Peter Gibson Handicap at Dunneworthy Common in Ararat.

Back to back

It took 30 years for Simon Edge to win his first ever foot race a fortnight ago and seven days to win his second.

Despite being re-handicapped for his maiden win in the King of the Mountain at Halls Gap, Edge backed up a week later in a five-kilometre Ivan Mcdonald Handicap at Stawell’s Big Hill.

“At the start of the season I’d picked out these two races as my best hopes,” he said.

Clearly showing a liking for five-kilometre hill climbs, Edge had a decisive 26-second margin over the luckless Jess Cass by the time they reached time-keepers with Nathan Baker closing fast, just four seconds further behind.

Cass had been runner-up at her past three starts and winless after 15 attempts this season.

But there are no hard feelings as she and Edge have formed a team with other club members to run a 25-kilometre leg of the Surfcoast Century ultra-marathon along the Great Ocean Road on September 15.

Edge has increased his workload in preparation for the marathon, but now the Halls Gap schoolteacher faces a dilemma – how to maintain his momentum while on a weeklong camp with primary school students at Mount Baw Baw.

In a sub-juniors one-kilometre race at Big Hill it was a Baker bonanza, with Johnno Baker beating brother Barney and Jerome Baker in third place.

A three-kilometre Chris Blake Handicap on Stawell’s North Park track this Saturday is open to fun runners, from 4pm.