Cross Country Report

Newington Invitation, Sir Joseph Banks Park, Botany | Saturday 10 August

Incredible that the penultimate race on the 2024 Cross Country calendar should be at another new venue. Two new venues, two weeks in a row – just what we need in these difficult times of finding new Cross Country courses in metropolitan Sydney and the difficulty in securing ones we have grown to love. Sir Joseph Banks Park, Botany, was a very pleasant and reasonably challenging course for the GPS teams assembled as the CAS athletes had headed off to their own Cross Country Championships. This is possibly a good thing, as I’m not sure the regular weekly races, sometimes nudging 200 competitors with GPS and CAS in attendance, would have fitted well in the ‘not so roomy’ park at Botany. The paperbarks around the course were stunning, and it was very ‘War of the Worldsish’ as the stevedore cranes loomed on the horizon! Cool!

The Juniors sprinted off on the dot of nine and we immediately missed Toby Ward as he was off playing football, not letting his team down. Luckily for us, he hasn’t had too many clashes this year, and he regularly has been able to join us. Henry G, close to our youngest registered Cross Country competitor, took the responsibility to lead the Juniors around their two laps and did so in fine fashion. He was locked into an awesome 6th, yet a brief wrong turn proved to be a setback as he finished, in a still very commendable 9th. George Harvey continues to impress and improve. I have the feeling that he will be one of our stalwarts in years to come, as he was 14th. Tom ‘Roxy’ Roxburgh was tenacious once again, sneaking inside the top 20 in 19th. Leon Field knew that, in all likelihood, he would secure the team result with his performance last Saturday and had possibly his best run of the season as he was 28th. The Junior Team ended up 3rd behind Scots and Grammar.

The Intermediates were struck a blow soon into their race, with Hugo Stewart pulling out with a strain. We do hope he is quickly on the mend with the GPS Championships being next week, and no doubt he has plans for the Track during the Athletics season. Jonty Jagger ran very well to place 8th, literally floating around the course. He does look effortless and fast when racing well. Will Bestic made a huge improvement from his performance last week, yet was held accountable by James Warren for the duration of their 6km. They passed each other a few times, and in the end, Will prevailed over James as they were 12th and 13th, respectively. Ben Frantz had another fine run, and no doubt his super run at Northbridge provided just the impetus needed to spur James on to be ahead of him at Botany. We love healthy competition amongst ourselves. Ben secured a very solid team result of 3rd behind King’s and High. Shout outs too to JJ Black, Digby W and James Thompson, who all had possibly their best runs of the season so far, all looking determined on course, and finished inside the top 50!  

We were keen to see how our Opens would fair with Captain Lachy Brown looking as though he was starting to get his ‘bounce’ back last week at Northbridge. Alas, the nasty niggle reared its head again, providing considerable foot pain and subsequently hampering his racing. Ryan Gilmour assumed the lead role and surged into a fine 6th place. James Bestic ran well and improved on last week too, as he was 12th with Lachy two places further in arrears in 14th. We got news mid-race, having no idea where Isaac Lanham was, missing him greatly, that he had injured his foot in dramatic fashion (punny guy me) during his GP performance on Friday night. So, it was left to Daniel Becker to anchor our Open Team to 4th place as he was a solid 36th.

Shore Cross Country Machine of the Week: it was hard to go past Henry G last Saturday! Well done Henry, on your tenacious run in the Juniors.

We head to another new venue at Miranda tomorrow for the GPS Championships. It will provide the final race to what has been a most pleasing and very wet season of Cross Country. Sadly, we don’t have the opportunity to hoist any of the silverware this season, but we remain exceedingly proud of the season-long efforts of the Blue Street Boys.

Top image: Digby in the zone!

Good running,

Mr M Spratt
MIC Cross Country