Neighbours Gabe Tonks and Andrew Reynolds used home-ground experience to spread-eagle a desperate field of chasers in Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club’s five-kilometre Rhymney Reef Handicap on Sunday.

Sixteen-year-old student Tonks and 39-year-old teacher Reynolds live adjacently on top of the hill overlooking the race start and finish at the bucolic Rhymney Cricket Ground.

The course is notorious for the  bone-shaking corrugations along Pentlands Creek Road that seem treacherous to the unwary runner, out and back, on a landscape that includes a steep uphill and fast downhill.

Despite advice from Reynolds that runners ‘stick to the soft edges’ it was no surprise that he and his young protégé recorded fastest times, with Tonks benefiting from helpful guidance when the youngster almost went the wrong way.

Once pre-race handicaps were applied, Tonks was the clear winner in only his fourth club run, with Reynolds relegated to sixth, enabling returning talent Rhonda Rice to slip into second place ahead of gritty veteran, Julie Hertz.

Tonks, who trains with Ararat coach Sue Blizzard, has a promising distance-running career ahead, after first realising his potential in five-kilometre fun runs.

“I go alright in three-kilometre cross country at school level, but I think I’m better at five kilometres. I hadn’t run that distance until Parkrun,” he said.

The club now ventures to Stawell for a five-kilometre handicap on Sunday.

Father and son

A warm-up in the Lindsay Kent Memorial Fun Run at Stawell was the perfect tune-up for cross-country rookie Drew Christian, who won the first race of his adult life at Concongella on Saturday.

Christian’s competitive juices were ignited by a second on debut with Stawell Amateur Athletic Club last month, and he bolted to a decisive win in the 5.5-kilometre handicap with almost a minute to spare from runner-up Elise Monaghan.

Earlier, son Cameron had skipped to his maiden win in a one-kilometre sub-junior division with his sister, Claire, 16 seconds behind.

Christian has never trained or raced over a distance greater than 10 kilometres.

The club heads to Stawell’s Grampians Rail Trail on Saturday, starting at 10am from Hooper Track, for a five-kilometre handicap.

Stawell and Ararat Cross Country Club will venture to Stawell for a five-kilometre handicap on Sunday.

Fun runners are welcome.

– By Keith Lofthouse

 

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