News & Social

WELCOME BACK!

After the year off, we made our return to Jells Park for the traditional opening cross country relays, on a new course configuration that still provided enough of a challenge for those who came looking for one. On a warm sunny afternoon we welcomed new and returning members for what promises to be an exciting season ahead.

The Premier Division Women made a strong statement for the season ahead, working their way to claim second place against some formidable competition, with debutantes Eilidh Bell and Rachel McGuinness cruising through the grassy (i.e. non-muddy) terrain, with Rachel Ayres comfortable in her first race in SMAC Colours. The Division 5 trio of Kirstin, Vanessa and Julie found themselves settled in the action.

Men’s Divisions 3 & 4 were well placed, moving through the field for a respectable finishes in the middle of their respective divisions. The Veterans were on display with “Wazza” leading the charge, as was our newly minted President
Runner of the day for his blistering finish was Jusuf Agil whose debut put the selection panel on notice, while fellow debutante Charlie Edgecombe used his trail running chops on the shorter distance and Arthur Brenaut did an admirable job anchoring division 3.

Special thanks to Shan Shan for photography, Athletics Victoria for hosting and organising the event and everyone who came down to run, support, cheer and brought snacks on the day!

Next round of XCR is at Lardner Park, Warragul on Saturday 22nd May and its a treat for you purists after an authentic cross country experience. Until then, put in those miles and Up the Bloods!

Ross Pentland

We’re getting so close, after coming out of lockdown we’ve been hitting the track and putting in the miles of training and now the new season of XCR is upon us, starting with the traditional cross country relays at Jells Park in Wheelers Hill.

Firstly, thank you all for being with us this far over what was a testing year and even joining us on some of the virtual challenges held over lockdown.
We can’t wait to be out there racing alongside you in what promises to a big year for our team as we tow the line

Membership applications are open via Athletics Victoria Members Portal, and this year there are options to pre-purchase all race entries with the XCR Package or alternatively pay-as-you-go to suit your availability.

Teams need to be in by Monday 26th April, with individual registrations to be completed by Wednesday 28th April if you wish to run at Jells Park Relays.

XCR’21 Season Schedule

XCR’21 Round 1 Jells Park Relays

For younger members they can join the South Melbourne Little Athletics

Little Athletics Calendar

Whatever your running aspirations are this year, we hope to see you donning the red and white hoops this year and look forward to seeing you out there!

Hello there! After the rollercoaster that was 2020 behind us and we invite you to our Traditional Season Opening Lunch to be held on the afternoon of Saturday 17th April 2021. The venue will be the Montague Hotel, with the upstairs room booked from 12:30pm onwards.

We’re hoping to see you in the XCR season ahead, in what promises to be an exciting year running, camraderie and friendship across the diverse courses and terrain Victoria has to offer.

You can leave us a line via our contact form or to southmelbac@gmail.com or presidentsouthmelb@gmail.com, and follow us on our Instagram @southmelbathletics as well as our Facebook Group Page.

Hope to see you in the red and the white hoops in 2021!

A big season of cross country and road racing concluded this morning with the time honoured Tan Relays.

Congratulations to our senior Winter Champions Lauren Cockerell and Adronis Karabagega, who both put in multiple outstanding performances during the season 🎉

Well done everyone who competed, and many thanks to those who volunteered and were otherwise involved/supporting during the season.

Andrew Ross

Waz’ere,

Hey Team SMAC’rs, quick update on Sunday’s round 9, Burnley Half Marathon action…… Perfect conditions for the run and a good hitout leading up to the MM….

Great to see the fans’ out in force, even Peter Logan was there telling us all to ‘hurry up’…… 😎 And to the vollies, we love your work, thanks as always guys…….

Sadly the women weren’t able to field a team, well done to the couple of girls who ran (and also notable was Anna Kelly for a smashing return to A.V racing 👉👉)…… Lets get a team up for the Tan next week hey, BIG EFFORT….. I see it could be the return of the Brick too Wo’hooo……

In the mens solid team efforts in div 3 and 4, along with the o50s and o60s very steady performances again….. I think the div 4 men will lose 2nd position after Sunday, so all hands on deck at the Tan, lets get it back and finish the year off guys…..

Well done to the PB brigade also, Mitch, Rosco, Nick and anyone else who smashed it’…… Train well guys and see you in 9 days for the Relays… Waz

Ps… Re-hydrating at the Rising Sun Hotel at 10.30am on a Sunday morning, cannot become a habit Prezzi.!!!!! By the way what time do the relays finish next week 👉👉👉

Waz’ere,

Ballarat road 15km was held Saturday and in very good conditions, compared to the last few years….!! Numbers were down a little unfortunately, but those who attended fought bravely for the SMAC brand…..😎😎😎

Div One women unfortunately couldn’t field a scoring team, however Lauren Cockerell was on fire again, coming in 9th overall in 55min, a fantastic effort Lauren…. R.O.D again…. The girls lost a couple of spots on the ladder, not fielding a team, so if anyone wants to join for a couple races, we’d all love to see you back…..👉

Div Three men had a terrific 2nd on the day, to hold 6th on the ladder, well done boys…. Patrick led the charge in 52 mins, with the other boys under 58… Well done…

Div Four men also ran well for 3rd on the day and jumped into 2nd on the ladder, again well done…. James lead the charge hear in 57mins and notably the ‘o50s sappers’ came up and played the ‘tail-gunners’ to round it out……👉

o50s a solid 7th on the day, to hold 8th spot, well lead ARoss in 60mins flat…….

o60s nailed 3rd on the day, to hold 4th possi’ on the ladder comfortably…. Judge Andrew Kincaid nearly blowing a gasket late on, but led the boys home nicely…..

Thanks to the ‘fans’ and notably Peter Casey who could simultaneously yell encouragement and take photos each lap of the racing SMAC’rs…. Thanks Pete…..

Tassie Daniel Clarke won the ‘re-hydration award’ Saturday night at the Sporting Globe hehehe…

Train well and consistently guys, see you in a couple of weeks time… 👉👉👉 Waz😀😀😀

By Andrew Ross

A quick summary of events at the Albert Park 10k on Sunday…

Firstly, well done to all SMAC participants. Again we barely scraped together a women’s team, but the club is very grateful to the five who participated. Although finishing 9th, the team scored enough points to push us a little further out of reach of the relegation zone.

All five girls deserve special mentions. Teleah Hayes finished in 15th place in 36:23. Lauren Cockerell finished 24th in 37:07, a massive PB I believe (possibly even debut!), Alana Plymin trotted around for a 38:30, Eloise Thompson almost died 🙂 trying to break 45 (so close!), and Rosa Law, who we know loves running on bitumen, rounded it out with a 48:19.

For the men, it was a welcome back to Patrick O’Driscoll (35:59) for his first run this season. Welcome aboard to Alejandro Stephens (39:57) in his first run for the club, and well done to our fastest runner Adronis Karabagega (35:01) who almost ran a PB!

Andrew Louey (38:25) did run a PB, as did James Thai (37:32) but alas not fast enough to catch Lauren! Daniel Clarke (38:44) got up off his death bed to run, and President Stuart Nicol watched us all come in before finishing his own run 🙂

Men’s team results saw the 3 Open teams come in 6th, 3rd and 7th, Over50s 9th and the highlight of the day… the Over60s came in 3rd and have jumped from 6th to 4th place on the ladder!

On to the 15k at Lake Wendouree in Ballarat on Saturday week!

Waz’ere;

Well, well, well another solid hit-out Saturday in great conditions on the bitumen (no slush.!!) and in sunshine, by the SMAC squadron…. Good results through the whole line-up really and well done to all the teams, with the div.4 men coming in 2nd the best score result……👉👉👉

Div.1 women another 5th, top effort team

Div 3 men 5th and rising up the charts boys

Div 4 men 2nd GREAT job lads and climbing

Div 5 men (invites) a fantastic 2nd, well done

o50s men another 4th, well battled boys steady she goes

o60s men im giving them 5th, Kinkers’ Andrew Kincaid up your training please 😂

GREAT JOB by the Vollies (Ivor, Ed and Bron), you guys are champs, you keep rolling up and helpin’ out often 👉👉👉 and to our fans, there was a few in the crowd……

RUNNERS OF THE DAY

Teleah Hayes 22 flat, running consistent and strong for the SMAC’ers and Adronis Karabagega 21.41 super job mate.

MUFFINS (CAKE) OF THE DAY

Rosa Law you are a genuine star, go easy this week though, as its an early lunch after the 10km 😀😀

Gigi MacCagnini, who is one of junior middle distance runners had the honour representing Australia in the U/18 Women where she took out the win in 2:10.61 Gigi currently owns the 800m record for South Melbourne Athletic Club in and this is a massive achievement for her hard work.

Congratulations Gigi on your achievements, we can’t wait for what the future brings!

Waza’ere,

Ekiden Relays were Saturday and it was an improving SMAC Attack, from our small squadron again…… Good runs aplenty in the slushy (new word), slippery, twisty, muddy and winding conditions (we all loved it really)……

Women Div 1. a very solid 5th 👉

Men Div 3. a very steady 8th 👉

Men Div 4 (over 250yold mixed division!) a battling 6th 👉

Great work again by the Vollies and the Fans, there was more of them, than we had runners I think 😀😀😀

RUNNERS OF THE DAY:

Lauren Cockerell for her 38.12mins and Daniel Clarke 35.21 for their great efforts in the slush n’ mush, out on the back 9.2km leg. A great challenge out there guys.!!

CAKE OF THE DAY:

You guessed it, 3 in a row Rosa Law your a star😎😎

CHEER OF THE DAY:

Greg Payne flew at the back end of the Div 4 team, in a super rear-guard action, with all there to cheer him in…..

Ps…. GREAT vibe’ there Saturday team (you were right Alana Plymin!!), even at the de-brief afterwards and the best since Ive been at SMAC (2017)… So well done to all, train well and lets keep working at getting better…Bring on Sandown on the 6th July…… Go SMAC’rs…… Waz