The Box Hill team was down in numbers for the 15km road race at Albert Park, with only 3 male and 3 female finishers in the open event. Conditions were cold and still, ideal distance running conditions. Dale Bickham had his first race for the winter and showed good form to place 23rd in a time of 48:53 (unfortunately Dale is not yet registered!) John Meagher continued his good form to place 25th in a time of 49:14. Chris O’Connor moved through the field in the middle stages but then faded towards the end to finish 70th in 53:42, while Sam Hassett failed to complete the course.
The women’s team of Megan Sloane, Felicity Gamble and Melinda Missen ran close together all the way with Melinda leading out early, but being overtaken by Megan and Felicity later in the race. Megan finished 2nd in her age group and 27th overall in a time of 62:31, Felicity was 28th in 62:33 while Melinda finished in 34th place in a time of 63:23.
Box Hill had a good representation in the junior 5km events. Hayley Tomlinson won the under 16 event (and was the first junior woman) running the 5km in a speedy 17:13. Sarah Cant was 3rd in the under 16s running 17:50, while Jocelyn Keage was 6th in the under 20s in 19:02 followed by Jessica De Bruin in 19:20.
Chris Hamer won the under 16 boys event in a time of 16:19. Chris has shown great improvement this winter and continues to impress with each race. Our under 20 team of Adrian Vincent(15:57), Andrew White (16:12) and Lachlan Aspinall (16:19) finished 5th, 7th and 8th to win the under 20 teams event. Kevin Craigie ran 16:46 and Graham Graigie ran 17:10, with Michael Bourne also coming in under 18 minutes.