He would have been flogging himself in the last few hundred metres from top of the Hill, waiting for the usual swamping by faster runners, but it never happened.

This win shows there is still life in those legs despite a depressingly long list of lowly placings and six years since Ron last had a win, and almost two years since he has run this fast. He has leapt to 4th in the point score, not far from 2nd, but still way off fromn Digby Jones.

After a few weeks of R&R following his Bacchus win, Aidan Fattore has accelerated back to full pace and overtook all but Ron to get home second, with of course, the fastest time.

Given the open road ahead of him this week, he may have been a little surprised to find another Jogger already home.

3rd went to John Farronato in another quick time, and now up to 2nd in the point score, showing he is more than just a Wardle Waddle contender. It is probably a good time to mention to those runners in contention, that the Winter competition is the only one where there is a runner-up trophy, so fight on!

Michael Colaciuri had an equal 4th with Digby Jones, who set a new PB and whose pace of 4-minute 46-second per Km is equal to his fastest ever.

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Joggers might consider Digby a newcomer but think again! He has been hiding in the Short course for years, seven years to be exact, and has built a solid base on which to launch his attack on the Long course runners.

Mark Andreazza picked up his pace to return to the top ten at 6th, Adrian Baird enjoys the cooler weather for 7th, Steven Bourke is having a good Winter campaign with another high placing at 8th, Peter Stockwell a regular in the top ten got 9th, and Natalie Schmitzer had pacing help to get 10th. Sharon Careri cruised to 23rd and registered the fastest time for a female.

In the Short course, four-time winner Jessica Dalton was a no-show, and the juniors made a bigger impact. Isaac Fattore took line honours so far ahead he could have been in another race, with a pace that took 90 seconds per kilometre off his PB. Clearly, he is on the up-and-up but how high can he go?

Callum Vecchio was 2nd with a PB of 14-minute 33-second, and Ruby Kenny, in her first run for a month, cruised to 3rd and was the fastest female with plenty still left in the tank. Nate Mingay was 4th and Jai Kenny at 12th posted the fastest male time.

Further back, a heap of walkers enjoyed the perfect conditions, Elizabeth Bunn made a return from the way-backs of the 1980's, and Neil Palframan is settling into a regular last place, but someone must be last otherwise second last becomes last.

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