Turners Beach runner, Will Cleaver, has won the Professional Cross Country Club of Tasmania’s Somerset Pharmacy 10km handicap in Somerset on Sunday hol
ding out Thomas Wilson.
In his first year with the PCCCT, the 17-years-old Cleaver is one of the club’s youngest competitors and starts each race from the challenging backmarks.
Cleaver hit the lead when he overtook Ann Horton with about one and half kilometres left to race and he stormed to the line, never glancing back to gauge the following runners.
Nearly 60 runners enjoyed Sunday’s perfect running conditions as the field started the tough out-and-back course from the beginning of the Murchison Highway and then tackling Back Cam Road.
The Somerset 10km is one of the more difficult courses in the PCCCT programme.
Last week’s winner Thomas Wilson was a surprise runner-up despite registering the fastest time of the day. It’s a great feat, achieved by very few over the club’s 50-year history to record back-to-back wins after a handicap review.
Somerset’s Dale Lancaster held the lead until after the halfway turn before the youngest competitor in the field, Vicky Knapman hit the front.
In his best result of the season, Michael Purton crossed the line in third position while co-markers Gerard Lowry and Greg Smith climbed their way to the front of the field to reach the first ten.
Backmarkers Kyle Groenewege and Hayden Bishop both enjoyed the harder course to cross the line just outside a podium finish and Cooee’s Ricky Cross also ran well to be the seventh runner home.
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