Park Street Champs WINNERS Announced

These are the winners and placegetters from last night’s Park Street Champs at St Helena. Congratulations to all involved, in particular course setter Lyn Green.  Read on for the full Event Report.

Click here to see the full Champs results!

Click here to see tons of photos!

Hot weather and a red hot field at St Helena for the 2019 Championship. We welcomed around 60 Finalists from all of our summer series, including Geelong and Macedon Ranges. Flags flew in the welcome breeze. Course planner Lyn excelled herself (as became obvious in the amount of time people took to leave the Start). The map and course was not just a test of fitness, speed or stamina; medals were won or lost on the basis of route choice, and contours also came into play.

The map, which was completely redrawn by Russell, was beautifully presented. Yarra Valley OC did an excellent job of organising the event, and we must also thank Ray who once again pulled the whole thing together. There is a lot that happens behind the scenes in the leadup, right through the qualifying events, and Ray is the person who ensures that everything “goes right on the night”.

So to the race itself – the A course was contested by the Mens Open and the Mens Senior. Mens Open was oh so close, with Luke, looking very fit, beating Bruce by a whisker. Bruce’s route was a good 200 metres longer. Third place went to Peter H, who was very happy to finish ahead of his rivals Andrew H, Michael S and Michael D. Paul took out the Mens Senior title, with Geelong’s Andrew T second, and Andrew J third.

On B course we had the Womens Open, the Mens Vets, and the Juniors. Hot favourite Tim took the title, with Peter M in second. We hadn’t seen the female contenders – all really strong runners – go head to head much, so we weren’t sure how that would pan out. Victoria was the winner, ahead of Helen and Alicia. James won Junior Boys, really stepping up to tackle B course.

Mens Supervets was the largest, and most talked-about category, with several of our best A runners taking on C course specialist Ian. This probably worked to his advantage as he approached his route a little differently, and it paid off with a comfortable winning margin. The “other” Ian was second, and Ted was third. Also on C we had another strong group of Mens Ultravets, with Hugh taking first place, Peter D second and Mark H third.

Womens Vets featured the indefatigable Carolyn, with Prue taking silver. On Womens Ultravets the winner was Denise, with Lauris a strong second and Philippa third. Sophie ran a great race to take the Womens Junior category (but she was just as pleased at outsprinting clubmate Mark to the final punch!) D course had the Womens Ultravet final, which went to Libby. Course winners were Geoff, Ewen and Andrew G.

The Power Walkers were also competing hard for medals. Winning Mens Open was Dave, but only by two points from Andrew H. Mens Vets went to Ian G, who was fourth overall with 54 points, again holding off second placed Mark H by only two points, and Len B with 50 points. The Ultravets went to Dennis on 49 points, with Ron second on 45 points, and Noel third on 33 points. Winning gold on the Womens Open was Ros on 47 points, with Martine second on 39 points. Jo triumphed on Womens Vet with 52 points, with Muriel second on 44 points. Rosie took out Womens Ultravets with 40 points, ahead of Ilze on 33 points and Gwennyth on 28 points.

And so the Champs wraps up for another year! But there is plenty more streetO action to come before the end of summer.