SKAAC had huge representation at the Vic Milers on the 23rd of January 2020 with 24 starters across the two middle distance events. Earlier in the night the 800m runners faced some gusty wind conditions that made racing exciting and unpredictable, as the night progress the wind died down and some quick 1500m times were recorded.
Aaron Little got the night going for SKAAC and recorded a 2:09.33 in a relatively quick field. Jacob McGirr had the chance to race for $100 in the randomly selected ‘Dash for Cash’ heat. Jacob lead through the bell and looked strong, however suffered into the back straight headwind and was passed by 4 other athletes to finish middle of the pack and in a time of 2:04.76. Tom Sellwood blitzed his field to finish first in a sub 2-minute run. Andrew Mathieson and Conor Lynch were to do battle in the Men’s C event. A few cheeky side bets were taking place in the lead up to this heat. Andrew proved to get the better of Conor and took the win, however credit must go to both athletes who ran sub 2 minutes in a very competitive race. Tom Scroggie showed good form and seems to be well on track with his recovery post injury. His time of 1:55.41 was good for a podium un the Men’s B Heat. In Men’s A we had both Jack Lunn and Felix Lonergan racing for SKAAC. Felix ran a quick 1:54.06 and Jack ran a huge PB time of 1:49.53 on his chase for a national qualifier.
SKAAC had 5 athletes in a field of 15 runners in the Men’s 1500m A Heat. An impressive feat in itself. Peter Bol took the win with a comfortable run of 3:46.91 and showed his is right on track for his assault on the Tokyo Olympics. Both Sam McEntee and Steve Knuckey crossed the line in 3rd and 4th in low 3:48s. Steve (arguably) had one of the quickest finishes on the night and stormed home from about 8th to 4th. Both Ben Moynihan (leading up to the Melbourne Track Classic) and Joseph Deng rounded out the SKAAC contingent. Josh Collins ran 3:53.62 and is starting to show some real consistency in his running at the top end of the game. Luca Di Conza managed to break the 4-minute mark, as did Jonathon Gusman. Tristan Day came agonizingly close in a time of 4:00.02, however these are all promising signs heading into the back end of the track season and the upcoming Cross Country Season.
Our two female performances of the night were by young guns Bridie Hill (4:52.55) and Cleo Richardson (4:55.7) who arguable ran the best race of any SKAAC athlete on the night. Her pacing was excellent and her final kick proved far too strong for her competitors as she broke away from 2nd and 3rd to finish 1st in the Women’s 1500m D Heat.
By Tristan MioniHarry Bowen ran 4:08.17, Callum Day 4:14.77, Jack Bowen 4:35.93 and Sam Scroggie 4:44.51. In all this was a fantastic effort by all SKAAC athletes and shows the depth in talent that we have over the middle distances. Hopefully everyone can go one better this weekend at the SKAAC AVSL DOUBLE POINTS round.
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