Week of surprise results for race seven of the Bacchus competition

Going into race 7 of the competition Adrian Baird was nine points ahead of Lachlan Date. Game on; Date put in a sterling performance finishing fifth, four places ahead a Baird gaining him 4 more points than Baird.

Rick the English lad finished ahead of Date, but he didn't have a tag, so Date was officially forth. The gap now between those two is just five points, I could spend paragraphs canvasing various next week scenarios but what's the point, next week will sort it out. Both are under pressure to win the competition.

It has been a while since we've had this situation because on most occasions as we approached the last competition run the winner is a foregone conclusion, not so this time. Even the short course trophy is up for graps. There are 17 points between Callum Vecchio and Wendy Minato.

Minato has an outside chance as Vecchio had 30 second added to his handicap resulting in 10th place with 21 points compared to Minato's 2nd place and 35 points. Next week will sort it.

Reports from early long Bacchus course starters Donna Jackson, Nicole Dehnert, Lorraine Maxwell and Judith Cimador was that the track was very slippery and dangerous, so the decision was made to use the wet weather track which is the Lake Wyangan walking track. Great running conditions and what a surprise, everyone posted a PB.

Even more surprising was John Johns (net time of 51 minutes 29 second) leading the field home. 70 plus and not yet done. His previous best placing in this competition was 16th and the last time he won a competition race was October 2018. Andrea Cromack (47m 21s) was 2nd and the fastest female.

The drizzling rain reminiscent of Mother Ireland suited 3rd placed Sheila Marcus (58m 15s). Rick from England was 4th, but he didn't have a tag, so Lachlan Date (33m 49s) claimed 4th place and 27 points.

John Dodd (54m 06s) was 5th then the fastest for the day Jaidyn Roach (30m 50s) with a pace of 3m35s/km. John Farronato (44m 41s) was 7th then came Adrian Baird (59s 41s) gaining 23 points. Michael Johns (40m 16s) couldn't catch his dad and settled for 9th and scraping into the top 10 was Simon Barnhill (37m 26s).

The short course leader was Milla Vecchio with a net time of 16 minutes 43 seconds. Then came the Minato's, Wendy (17m 39s) finished just one second ahead of equal 3rd placed Elio (19m 10s) and Janelle Toole (23m 40s). Maggie (18m 36s) and Daisy Croce (19m 04s) were 5th and 6th.

Congratulations to Aidan Fattore for winning the Wangaratta Half Marathon. The Facebook page shows he had the support of the "Hills" Italian community.