Australian Champs - Day ?

Friday, 29 September 2017

I've lost track of actual days we've been here but I know that yesterday was the last event of the schools champs - the relay day.  Due to recent solid performances (hmm... not counting the sprint I guess!), Zali got a run in the Junior Girls relay team as the 2nd leg runner.

Jett and I had a long drive to get out to the event so when we got there we were both informed that Zali had started her leg already, and had gone out in the lead due to a great run by their first leg runner Mikayla.   Zali's job was to keep that lead and ideally stretch it as much as possible in order for our third leg runner to be able to hold on against the ACTs 3rd leg runner who had been running about 5 minutes faster than everyone else in the bush events all week.  Jett and I were very relieved to see that Zali had actually managed to stretch the lead a little by the time she headed towards the murdurious spectator control - a leg that came up a long steep hill in full view of the crowd.    She headed back into the forest for the last few controls then popped out again in the finish chute, handing a solid lead to the 3rd leg runner - phew!  

 

Then we all had a nervous wait to see if Eleanor could hold off the ACT. Things were looking touch-and-go through the spectator control as she'd already caught up some 3 minutes and we only had a couple spare.  Sure enough, despite a good 2nd half, the ACT runner appeared in the finish chute ahead of Eleanor who still posted the one of the faster times of the day.  That meant Tasmania finished 2nd in the Junior Girls relay which is still a great result. Yay!

 

 

 

Funnily enough a similar thing happened in the Senior Girls relay where Tasmania went into the last loop of the final leg in the lead only to be passed by the older sister of the ACT assassin in the junior girls - so another silver medal to Tasmania! Again a good result though.

Here's Zali's at her boarding school accommodation which we visited briefly today..

 

After all the excitement of the relay Jett and I went out to do our enter on the day courses which we both won. Yay us! We both had to suffer the same brutal spectator control that the school kids did - I was very glad I wasn't doing it on a relay team so I was able to allow myself to walk a bit of it!

On our way home we stopped at a fun looking park on the edge of Bathurst which we’d passed about 8 times the day before. It was nice to relax on the grass and play some frisbee golf before heading out to our house, arriving at sunset..

 

 

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