Karinna Fyfe from Glenhuntly Athletics Club prevailed in a close three way tussle in the open women’s 8km race on a tough course at Lardner Park, Warragul in the second round of Athletics Victoria’s XCR series.
After former World Championship and Commonwealth Games marathon representative Sarah Klein made the early running in the race on the first of two four-kilometre laps, the long downhill stretch towards the finishing line on the second lap made for an entertaining contest.
Steeplechaser Stella Radford had a slight lead with 500m remaining but was fatigued, while Fyfe and Klein were closing quickly. Fyfe maintained her momentum onto the flat to pass Radford and run away for a four second victory in 28 minutes, 34 seconds. Klein also passed Radford, taking silver by a three second margin.
The men’s race was a more open and shut case, with Andy Buchanan from Bendigo Region traversing the course with ease to win by over half-a-minute in a time of 23:57.
The undulating course, most of which had a thick grass covering underneath, has a sadistic furthest most point. After clearing a fence on a downhill stretch, four shallow stream crossings within the space of 100 metres followed by a steep hill and a gradual climb back up to the highest point of the course greet runners. During the second lap of the open men’s race, approximately one in twenty runners fell.
[wcepe_products ids=’399,1411′ columns=’2′]
Buchanan was light on his feet and not heeded. Behind him, Cody Shanahan from Western Athletics had the better of Tom Thorpe from St Stephen’s Harriers, taking silver 24:34 to 23:49.
In the junior 4km races impressive performances were recorded by Athletics Essendon pair Archie Noakes, who took out the U18 men’s race in 12:10; and Bianca Puglisi, who won the U20 women’s race by almost a minute in 14:33.
Our full collection of 389 photos is available here.
You can download high resolution images if you subscribe to our mailing list. Subscribe here.
[wcepe_products ids=’399,1411′ columns=’2′]
Latest posts:
- No medals, no argument? Budapest delivered for the events that made the cut
Three nights in Budapest with twenty-eight global champions. Ten million US dollars paid out, three sell-out crowds, and a men’s javelin competition that produced the first 90-metre throw ever landed in Hungary among many a world class performance. The longer version is that the Ultimate Championship answered the existential question - No medals, no fillers, no second chances: the Ultimate Championship arrives
Three nights in Budapest. Twelve Australians. Ten million US dollars. And not a single medal to hang around anybody’s neck. The World Athletics Ultimate Championship starts on Friday night in Budapest, and by Monday morning our time we’ll know whether the sport has finally built something that works, or whether - “A little bit numb”: Patterson crowned Diamond League champion in BrusselsEleanor Patterson has added the one line on her career resume that was missing, clearing 2.01m to win the Diamond League final in Brussels overnight and lead an Australian high jump one-three with Nicola Olyslagers third. It capped a near-flawless night for Patterson, whose 2026 season has been building to
- King Cam: Myers beats Olympic champions to claim Diamond League Final titleCameron Myers has produced the biggest result of his career, holding off a 1500m field containing two Olympic champions to win the Diamond League Final in Brussels. The 20-year-old beat Cole Hocker and Jakob Ingebrigtsen in 3:30.14, becoming the eighth Australian to take a Diamond League Final title. Myers spent
- Ballarat: By the numbersPeople will remember Haftu Strintzos’s win, but not his time of 32:14. Ten kilometres in thirty-two minutes and change is a time you’d run through in training session, at well slower than the Australian record holder’s marathon pace. At Victoria Park it won a national title. The mud at Ballarat
