GEOFF (SWAGGY) WILSON MEMORIAL 12km ROAD RACE 7th
Yinnar athlete Steven Quirk completed a successful clean sweep of the
winter season Gippsland Championships with a hard fought win in last Sunday’s
12 kilometre road title.
In contrast, Sandra Timmer-Arends won the women’s title by a comfortable
margin.
Both title winners were awarded the Swaggy Wilson perpetual trophy, presented
in memory of former Traralgon Harrier stalwart Geoff ‘Swaggy’
Wilson.
In a nice touch of symmetry, Geoff’s wife Anne presented the trophy,
a short time after she had won the women’s 6 km event, run concurrently
with the championships.
After a clear win in the 12 km cross-country crown in June, and a gutsy
Traralgon Marathon victory, followed this month by the 25 km road title,
it seemed Quirk would whitewash the Gippsland Championships.
When Darrel Cross - potentially Quirk’s biggest threat, and who
finished hot on his heels in the 12 km cross country at Moe - suffered
a leg injury in a training accident, the experts would have further shortened
the odds on Quirk.
And despite the current good form of locals Nick Schilling and Ian Twite,
third and fourth at Moe, and with Roger Maximiw and Richard Comber also
pressing Quirk when they ran second and third in the 25 km title, the
wiry – read tough – Yinnar runner was still favourite.
However in unseasonably sunny and energy-sapping weather, Quirk had another
runner still by his side at the turn-around mark in Old Maffra Road.
With both men on a scorching three-and-a-half minute kilometre pace, Nenet
Susa stayed with Quirk, with daylight between the duelling pair and the
next group of Schilling, Maximiw and Comber.
Quirk said, “I was running tired, after a hard few weeks running,
and Nenet seemed pretty comfortable.”
“Since the (Traralgon) marathon I had trained for the Vic championships
– shorter distance events – and felt I lacked stamina.”
“Nenet had finished 50 seconds ahead of me last year, and I didn’t
want a ‘sprint’ finish, so I made a move at the foot of Cemetery
Hill,” Quirk explained.
“I was surprised that I was able to build a gap of about 50 metres,
but Nenet stayed on my heels to the finish,” he said.
“It wasn’t until I turned into Douglas Parade, near the finish
line, that I knew I had it won, and I was really gone – it was the
pressure from Nenet that meant I had to go hard,” Quirk said.
Morwell physical education teacher Nick Schilling was third, two minutes
further back, and only six seconds ahead of Maximiw, with Comber finishing
in fifth position. Ian Twite, forced to drop out of the recent 25 km championship
race with a calf injury, made a ‘gutsy’ return to finish in
sixth place.
Sandra Timmer-Arends continued her steady return to peak condition with
a comfortable winning margin in the women’s division, ahead of Melissa
Jones. Peta Mullens, third, was a minute ahead of fourth placed woman,
Penny Burgess.
The current Australian women’s 50 km record holder, and a former
Victorian half-marathon champion, Timmer-Arends is a tremendous role model
for younger women athletes in the Latrobe Valley.
In the six kilometre road race, Derek Evans, Special Olympics medal winner,
returned to best form, winning ahead of Sam Quirk, with younger brother
Ben Quirk in third place.
Glengarry junior Tanya Eagle pushed Anne Wilson before Wilson won the
women’s section ahead of Eagle, with Karen Joyce running a well
judged race to finish a close third.
Results-
Swaggy Wilson 12 km Gippsland Road Championships:
| Steven Quirk | 42.59 (1st Vet) |
| Nenet Susa | 43.22 |
| Nick Schilling | 45.41 |
| Roger Maximiw | 45.47 (2nd vet) |
| Richard Comber | 46.24 |
| Ian Twite | 47.18 (3rd Vet) |
| Bruce Salisbury | 47.46 |
| Matt Franke | 47.58 |
| Kevin Piercy | 49.01 |
| Dennis Stevens | 49.15 |
| Sandra Timmer-Arends | 49.27 (1st female) |
| Matt Mullens | 50.41 |
| Rob Embleton | 50.42 |
| Shaun Cattanach | 52.22 |
| Matt Kaandorp | 52.5 |
| Melissa Jones | 54.47 (2nd female) |
| Chris Peek | 55.26 |
| Ian Heafield | 55.39 |
| Peta Mullens | 56.01 (3rd female) |
| Gary Henry | 56.02 |
| Penny Burgess | 57.00 (1st vet female) |
| Ken Lancaster | 60.08 |
| David Graham | 61.55 |
| Lee Graham | 61.55 (2nd Vet female) |
| John Jervis | 62.34 |
| Kim Essex | 62.52 |
| Denise Twite | 62.56 (3rd Vet female) |
| Russell Mullens | 63.07 |
| Bill Rutherford | 68.29 |
| Fay Tomholt | 76.12 |
| Belinda Issell | 76.13 |
| 6km road race | |
| Derek Evans | 27.46 |
| Sam Quirk | 28.11 |
| Ben Quirk | 29.18 |
| David Embleton | 33.41 |
| teve Eagle | 33.51 |
| Anne Wilson | 35.05 |
| Andy Munro | 36.04 |
| Tanya Eagle | 36.16 |
| Karen Joyce | 36.26 |
| Jason Zwetsloot | 39.29 |
| Fran Renehan | 40.42 |
| Carmel Quirk | 40.46 |
| Tony Van G | 46.05 |
| Kerry Mullens | 46.59 |