Cover image by Cooper Clarkson-Grigg
With pandemic pandemonium a thing of the past, Victoria’s distance runners were back in action with cross country relays in the opening round of Athletics Victoria’s XCR series at Jells Park.
The event catered for everyone from Olympians to dedicated club athletes and everything in between. Run over a 3km loop, the adult relays were 6km legs, while younger juniors sped around their 3km legs. 
St Stephen’s Harriers were the dominant force in the Open Men’s Premier division, with a sextet that included Stewart McSweyn and Ben Buckingham taking a convincing victory by over four minutes from Western Athletics and Glenhuntly. In fact, Division 2 victors, Bendigo Region, spearheaded by Andrew Buchanan, were the second fastest team on the day. 
It was marathoner Liam Adams that recorded the quickest split of the race. Adams is a strong supporter of his Athletics Essendon team and will frequently don the black and red to support the club, even if just putting in a threshold training effort (which at his level is still very competitive). It wasn’t just a threshold effort here, with a swift 17 minutes, 2 second leg being almost half a minute quicker than the rest of the field. 
Stewart McSweyn ran the fifth leg for St Stephen’s, with a relaxed 17 minutes, 39 seconds the third fastest of the day. Splitting Adams and McSweyn was Buchanan’s opening leg of 17 minutes, 30 seconds.
Five fastest splits of the day Rank Athlete Split 1 Liam Adams 17:02 2 Andrew Buchanan 17:30 3 Stewart McSweyn 17:39 4 Cody Shanahan 17:52 5 Tom Thorpe 17:55
[wcepe_products ids=’399,313′ columns=’2′] 
In the women’s open Premier division race, Glenhuntly took line honours ahead of South Melbourne and Box Hill. Box Hill started strongly with a 21 minute, 5 second opening leg from Calli Thackery, which was the second fastest of the day, but just one second. 
Backing up after a bronze medal in the National 3000m titles on Thursday, Melissa Duncan was the fastest of the day with a 21 minute, 4 second split for St Stephen’s.
Five fastest splits of the day
| Rank | Athlete | Split | ||||
| 1 | Melissa Duncan | 21:04 | ||||
| 2 | Calli Thackery | 21:05 | ||||
| 3 | Karinna Fyfe | 21:38 | ||||
| 4 | Emilie Guy | 21:55 | ||||
| 5 | Simone McInnes | 22:03 |
Check out a few more of our 440 images from the day below.
Check out our new look website, with free high res downloads!
For a better storytelling and user experience, we are migrating our collection of over 20,000 photos to the Zenfolio platform. We’ve started with our full gallery from Jells Park. 
We’re also making our high resolution photos free to download. Just subscribe to our mailing list and you’ll receive the download password. You can subscribe for free here.
Check out our full gallery of 440 photos from Jells Park
[wcepe_products ids=’399,313′ columns=’2′]
Latest posts:
- Why five athletes lost their Commonwealth Games selection appeals: Tribunal publishes reasons
The National Sports Tribunal dismissed all five appeals brought by athletes who missed individual selection for Australia’s Commonwealth Games team in Glasgow, with sprinter Josh Azzopardi, steeplechaser Ben Buckingham, hammer thrower Timothy Heyes, 400m hurdler Alanah Yukich and pole vaulter Dalton Di Medio all unsuccessful in their bids to overturn… Read more: Why five athletes lost their Commonwealth Games selection appeals: Tribunal publishes reasons - The puzzle is complete: Strong Australian team set for Glasgow
Five Commonwealth Games champions from Birmingham return in the 63-strong open Australian team for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games along with 23 athletes in para events. The gold medallist journeys have all been different, with career highs and injuries occurring since their last Commonwealth Games. Matt Denny enters with the longest… Read more: The puzzle is complete: Strong Australian team set for Glasgow - Eleven criteria and one difficult choice: what the Azzopardi selection tells us about discretion in Australian athletics
Every season it arrives on schedule. A team is named, an appeal follows, supporters take sides, and then the argument stops being about one athlete and becomes about the system. This year it is Josh Azzopardi. And the reason it has landed is simple. The athlete he beat at nationals,… Read more: Eleven criteria and one difficult choice: what the Azzopardi selection tells us about discretion in Australian athletics - Chasing Fear | An UNSCENE Short Film on Olympic Gold Medalist Nina Kennedy
This film from the team at UNSCENE tells Nina’s story post the injury that took her out of the World Champs. Nina gives us an insight on the mundanity of rehabilitation post-injury, and the discipline it takes to return in a better place. Nina also talks about her relationship with… Read more: Chasing Fear | An UNSCENE Short Film on Olympic Gold Medalist Nina Kennedy - Robinson joins Ron Clarke in the record books with Oslo 5000m run
Ky Robinson has become the first Australian male since the great Ron Clarke to simultaneously hold the national records over both 5000m and 10,000m, after slicing almost five seconds off Craig Mottram’s long-standing 5000m mark at the Oslo Diamond League — the Bislett Games — overnight. Robinson finished eighth in… Read more: Robinson joins Ron Clarke in the record books with Oslo 5000m run
