Adelaide July 1989

This page is about my first trip (by plane)to Adelaide for the National All Schools Cross Country and Roadwalking Championships in the winter of 1989.

This a photo of the WA state team for these events, taken at Perth Airport. CLICK on the photo to see a larger version.

Chelsea Groves and I were the only racewalkers in the team, and my second cousin Jodie Blechynden ran in the 8km cross-country, see photo at the finish below;

The racewalking events were held on part of the Adelaide Grand Prix circuit, which still had the blue and white chicanes on them, and the road course was very flat and fast. I competed in the Men's U/17 5km walk. I was on track to do about 25min for the 5km, but was much too uneven and my technique was patchy resulting in a DQ. The next day I woke up with a bad case of the flu! which combined with my inexperience at Nationals (only my second race there) probably had a bit to do with my poor performance and bad race tactics.

Chelsea Groves almost pulled off a huge upset in the Women's U/17 5km where she led for most of the race but was unable to hold off a future Olympian from NSW by the name of Jane Saville, so Chelsea had to settle for a Silver medal.
Unfortunately I didnt take any photos of the racewalking on the Grand Prix course.

Some of our team cheering on runners around the Cross country course.

Start of U/17? Boys national Cross Country; Adelaide 1989.
Two West Australians pictured(in gold and black), Carl Davies went out hard, Simon Lindsay ran a better paced race, and won the silver medal.

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