XCR Round 3 Bendigo - 30 May 2026

Despite some forecast rain, Waverley turned out in good numbers for xcr3, the Bendigo 8K cross country.

10 of us headed up early on the Friday night to stay in a magnificently renovated house near town and enjoy a fine bbq dinner before the main event. Janice's cake was a winner, but then Beck's Cats just went down to Petra's Blues in a thriller.

The St Annes winery welcomed us with some misty rain which turned into a downpour just before the mens start. But then the sun came out and the men were away. Davin led the Waverley contingent for most of the course but then Smoothy came home like a train and nailed him by 6 seconds. Martin then completed our 50 team for another huge victory. well done 50 team.

I followed, with Daniel and Ernie not far behind. Then the battle was on between Smurf, Michael, James and Nic. They started out in that order, but then Nic, the silent assassin, started picking them off one by one. First James, then Michael and finally Smurf. He now leads the mini contest with 3 wins out of 3 in the first 3 rounds. But we'll wait to see what sort of form Harvs is in when he gets back from Borneo.

Next our women were away and Beck ran very strongly for our best placing 62nd. Niamh did well 6th in her age group, and then Janice just held off an in form Em, with smiling Petra finishing off our team.

We had some surprisingly good teams results with our Mens 60 team 3rd, Mens Div 4 2nd, Mens Div 5 2nd and Men 50 1st. Our women Div 3 finished 5th ot of 12 and Women 50+ were 6th.

Our individual results were:
Female Open
8km: Rebecca Kirkham 36:08; Niamh O'Reilly 40:27; Janice Marston 46:19; Emily Stokes 46:33; Petra Spiteri 52:23;
Male Open
8km: David Venour 31:31; Davin Hopper 31:37; Martin Spiteri 33:17; James Atkinson 34:00; Daniel Spiteri 34:59; Ernest Lim 37:30; Nicholas Spiteri 40:05; Ewen Vowels 40:30; James McEniry 40:39; Michael Jansen 41:12;

Full results are at: https://athsvic.resultshub.com.au/#
The fastest mens time in a huge upset was Logan Janetzki (Sandringham) in 24:44. Andy Buchanan, our national marathon record holder, had run the fastest time at Jells Park by 20 seconds (ahead of the in form Ed Marks), and as a cross country specialist on his home course, I expected him to win by a minute. He led for most of the way but young Logan managed to run him down in the last couple of km for a surprise win.

In the womens race, Georgia Hansen from Box Hill was fastest in 28:55. Sandringham won both Men Div 1 and Women Div 1 again.