Whanganui medals at Australian Cross Country Champs
Two Whanganui athletes took the top step of the podium on Monday at Kembla Grange in Wollongong, New South Wales, following the Under 20 New Zealand Girls win in the 5x2km relay at the Australian Schools cross country championships.
Rebecca Baker (Whanganui High School) and Sarah Lambert (Whanganui Collegiate) joined Kirstie Rae (Wellington East Girls), Liliana Braun (Cashmere High) and Aimee Fergusson (Rototuna High) to impressively win the relay ahead of Queensland and New South Wales, with Tasmania receiving an Australian bronze medal as our girls were awarded a visitor's gold.
Baker was moved up from the Under 18 grade to ensure New Zealand could field a team in the older grade.
On Saturday in the individual championships, Baker was the second New Zealander home in a highly creditable 19th place finish, in a very strong field competing on a fast, dusty course.
Lambert had finished 12th in the Under 20 grade, fighting her way back over the final 2km of the 6km course, after having gone through a tough middle section where she had dropped to 17th position.
Lambert's tenacity was rewarded with a team silver medal, in the 4-to-score team category.
The winning Under 20 relay team had a great start, provided by Rae, who on the Saturday had impressed by winning the Under 20 title, which was the New Zealander's individual medal.
The remaining New Zealanders consolidated this start to run out convincing winners, while the NZ Under 18 girls took visitor bronze in the same race.
New Zealand won two further team medals in the boys 5x3km events, and both teams had Whanganui runners competing.
Collegiate's Andres Hernandez, like Baker, had been moved up to Under 20s, while schoolmate Liam Back ran the opening leg for the Under 18's.
On the Saturday, Hernandez had finished 19th individually, losing 4-5 places in the dash for home after a great run, following a health issue that had kept him out of the New Zealand championships at the start of the month.
This had seriously reduced his preparation training. The team bronze medal for Hernandez did not look possible, prior to departure.
In the relay event, the Under 20 and Under 18 teams ran in the same race, with Hernandez and Back both running the lead off leg for their respective teams.
The two were tied together throughout, with Back crossing the line less than a second ahead.
The relay provided some consolation for Back, as he had a disastrous individual run on the Saturday.
Back prepared well with an outstanding final session at Virginia Lake a week before departure, heading to Australia as both Under 18 and NZ Schools Champion.
But on race day he fell back to 27th and was the seventh New Zealander home.
He went across the ditch with a realistic medal chance, but once again in Australia it all went wrong.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has often said that one learns more from losses than victories, and Back is a young man who took the loss to heart and is already analysing what went wrong and why he was not able to rally in the race after realising that he was not going to win an individual medal and re-focus.
The relay was the start of the rehabilitation process.
Back had been ill on the evening prior to the relay, so his lead leg was a gutsy effort, helping his team to silver which was one place higher than they achieved as a 4-to-score team on the Saturday.
George Lambert, who came in as the last selected athlete, finished mid field in the Under 18 race.
Lambert said it was the hardest race he has ever run in.
The flat and dusty course that was never going to favour the Hunterville runner, who relishes demanding hill courses in cross country.
He came to understand the old saying "eat my dust", as he contended not only with the dust of runners ahead but also the dust storm created by the camera vehicle on front of the pack.
Lambert will have the first chance to cash in on the experience gained in Slovakia next year, where he hopes for what he calls "a real cross -country course".
Lambert still in Year 11 has two more eligible years to make the annual NZ Schools team to Australia.
The Whanganui athletes will be in action in a fortnight in the 41st Round the Lake Relay, which I will feature next week, where Collegiate must start as favourite in the Senior Boys event, with the three current internationals as well as Zach Bellamy, who was in last year's New Zealand team.
After a shaky spell and only finishing 20th in Timaru, Bellamy is training well and Round the Lake provides a real incentive for him.
Alex McNab
Whanganui Chronicle 30/8/19