Matt Campion held on to his Armidale Fun Run crown with a speedy 16 minutes and 16 second race in the annual event on Sunday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Campion surged home nearly two minutes in front of his Armidale Athletics club teammate Stuart Geddes for the win in the five kilometre event.
“He was pretty happy with his run, he thought he was a bit out of shape but I think it was pretty impressive,” organiser Jay Stone said.
“He has shown he can get around that course pretty damn well.”
Equally as impressive in the 10km race, Yamba’s Matt Baker pipped local runner Steven Chung with a time of 34 minutes and 22 seconds.
Guyra’s Kelsie Youman was the first female over the line in the five kilometre while Floriana Dua took the title in the 10km.
Nearly 400 people signed up for both events with the 10km entrants the highest in the event’s history.
“It is probably similar to the last two years, the initial year or two was slightly bigger but we had more people in the 10km this year than every before by a long way - almost double.
“A lot of people stepping out of their comfort zone and trying that longer distance this year for sure.
“I actually got a query about whether we would ever host a half-marathon in Armidale.
“It gets a bit tricky to think about shutting down the roads for that long and finding a place to have the course but who knows?”
The Armidale Athletics club is in the middle of their annual Super Series event where members compete against each other in their disciplines and are awarded points to take out the crown at the end of the season.
One round is complete with Geddes leading the distance discipline in front of Declan Rich.
Trent Low has a three-point lead on Stone in the sprints pointscore with Neville McIntyre not far behind.
Ella Russell sits five points clear of Maddi Russell in the jump events while Bethany Schulhin leads the throws.