The Last Three Years of the Sydney:10
2013 Sydney:10
Last year saw a runaway win to Harry Summers (Randwick Botany) ahead of training partner and recent national 5000m champion Cameron Page.
“If it came to a sprint finish, Cam Page would smash me over the final kick so I thought I would put the pressure on from the gun so he wouldn’t be with me at the finish,” summers said.
“I put 30 metres into him in the first k and that is how it stayed for the whole race. At every U turn I looked around and could see where he was.“
Summers crossed the line in 29:36, ahead of Cameron 29:49, with Scott Westcott (Macquarie Hunter) 30:38 third, outsprinting Tom Do Canto (Hills) 30:43.
A quality group of women lined up in the Sydney 10 last year, which incorporated the 34th NSW women’s Road Running Championship.
After the initial sorting out South Australia’s Casey Wood was up the front with recent World Cross Country Championship representative Celia Sullohern (Macquarie Hunter) and previous winner Melinda Vernon (Sydney Striders). But Vernon would not finish the race, leaving the others to battle out the 2013 title.
“I let Celia lead for a couple of ks then when I felt comfortable I took the lead and just hung on,” said Wood who is coached by her father, Grenville, a 1986 Commonwealth Games marathoner.
Wood looked comfortable over the later part of the race.
“With 2k to go I could see she was a little behind me. I went out a little hard so my first five k was faster than the second,” said Wood who took the race in 34:08, ahead of Sullohern 35:13.
Milly Clark (Sydney Uni) took third in 35:48.
“I was really just hoping for anything around high 35 or low 36 so it is a good starting point as I’ve had two weeks off,” Clark said.
Previous winners fared very well. Five-time winner Liz Miller (Randwick Botany), building up towards the New York Marathon, ran faster than expected, clocking 38:54, while 1997 champion Jo Cowan (Sydney Striders) ran 45:05.
2012 Sydney:10
Interstate athletes claimed the honours at the 2012 adidas Sydney:10 held in Sydney Olympic Park on Sunday. Canberra Olympian Lisa Corrigan took the women’s race in 34:49, ahead of former national 50000m champion Belinda Martin (St George) and Victorian Tamara Carvolth. In the men’s the first three places were filled by interstate athletes led home by Victorian Mitch Brown in 30:08.
For Corrigan it was a last minute decision to race after she travelled up from Canberra with a friend.
“I only decided to race when I arrived here,” she said. “I was pretty surprised with the win.”
“I have had a sore achilles the whole season,” she said. “So I didn’t think I was very fit, but in the end I decided as I was here I would run. I went out really slowly and after 2km the achillies had warmed up.”
A 13:55 5000m runner Mitch Brown had good recent form and as one of the favourites going into the men’s race.
“I rated myself a chance,” he said. “I said to myself whatever pace they go out at I need to stay there. I didn’t have a heap of kilometres in my legs so I thought maybe don’t go too hard too early.
``And that is how the race unfolded as it wasn’t too quick through the early stages.
“I was slow in the early stages, but came home strongly. By the time I’d got to around the 8k mark I was feeling pretty good and thought I’ve got this covered.“
Brown beat Shane Nankervis (Victoria) by 10 seconds. On the comeback trail, Queenslander Alastair Stevenson was third in 30:23.
“I ran 30:01 in Burnie and 30:08 today,” said Brown who is coached by one of the nation’s finest ever milers Ken Hall.
“It is great to have someone with his knowledge and credentials,” he said referring to Hall’s best performances of 3:55 (mile) and 13:31 (5000m).
As was the case in the women’s race, there was a close battle for the NSW medals with just 23 seconds separating the first four. NSW Novice champion David Mainwarring (Kembla Joggers) took the honours in 30:39. He had been in the lead pack of four until the later stages of the race. With about 800m to go Brad Croker (Sydney Uni) and Brad Milosevic (Girraween) were running neck and neck, but in the final run up Olympic Boulevard, Croker ran away to win by nine seconds in 30:49 ahead of Milosevic (30:58) with Matthew Cox (Bankstown) fourth in 31:02.
2011 Sydney:10
Sydney University student Lara Tamsett smashed the race record in winning the Sydney:10 road race at Sydney Olympic Park. The 22-year-old from Coogee took more than a minute off the previous record, clocking 32 minutes, 27 seconds for the 10km course. Taking out the minor places were Tamara Carvolth (Queensland, 34:54) and Melinda Vernon (34:58), with Australian 5000m champion Belinda Martin the third NSW athlete across the line in 35:00.
“Before the race I said that anything between 33 minutes 30 seconds and my previous road race personal best of 32 minutes 40 seconds would be a good performance,” Tamsett said.
Despite the quality of the performance placing her within reach of the Olympic qualifying standard of 31 minutes 45 seconds for the 10000m, Tamsett believes her future representative aspirations lie on the road.
“I don’t think I’m the type of athlete who makes dramatic breakthroughs, and I feel more comfortable running on the road,” Tamsett said.
The first male across the line was Canberra’s Martin Dent, who also set a race record with a performance of 29 minutes, 31 seconds. Following Dent were Tim Rowe (30:01), Harry Summers (30:18) and Scott Westcott (30:34). The 32-year-old backed up from his win a fortnight ago at the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon to shave fourteen seconds off the previous race record held by Russell Dessaix-Chin.
“Russ ran really well here a few years ago. We’ve been racing since we were teenagers, so it is nice to get the record from him,” Dent said.
David Tarbotton and Ron Bendall for Athletics NSW