SOUTH Bendigo put in a brilliant effort to be second in the division two points tally at Saturday’s fourth round of Athletics Victoria Shield League. 

The meet drew a record tally of 154 competitors to the Bendigo Regional Athletics Complex in Retreat Road, Flora Hill.

MAIN PHOTO: Some of the stars of South Bendigo’s 40-plus squad: Joan Self, Peta Dawe and Carol Coad. Photo by Ryk Neethling.

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AVSL Points race:

In the race for AVSL points, South Bendigo scored 28,734 as Western Athletics led the way on 38,391 and employed its PowerPlay to double its premiership points from 10 to 20.

Next best were Keilor St Bernards, 28,636; and Sandringham, 27,361.

The Powerplay was also used by Sandringham to score 14 points.

Bendigo Harriers continued its fine season to be fifth on 27,337.

A key to South Bendigo’s run was the 40-plus women’s squad who scored 10,043 points as Eaglehawk was next on 6134, and Bendigo Harriers tallied 4090 to be sixth.

South’s 40-plus women’s squad in Saturday’s round was Carol Coad, Annette Curtis, Peta Dawe, Kellie Doering, Jackie Guillou, Trudy Haines, Sophie Hawken, Debby Kirne, Jayne Norton, Jennifer Payne, and Joan Self.

High scoring categories for Bendigo Harriers were 40-plus men, 6606; and under-18 girls, 4310.

In Premier division, Eaglehawk scored 42,437 to be third as Athletics Essendon and Diamond Valley led the way on 48,763 and 46,382.

Athletics Chilwell was fifth on 31,954 but used its Powerplay to score 12 points in the premiership race.

Eaglehawk was third in the 40-plus men class on 10,353 points, and also shone in under-20 men to be second on 2884, and runner-up in under-16 girls on 8394 points.

The Hawks were again represented by more than 50 athletes.

In division five, Bendigo University put in a great effort to score 4835 points as Maccabi, 6088; Williamstown, 5483; and Ivanhoe, 5018, led the way.

Nine athletes from Bendigo Region featured in the Most Valuable Athlete award for the round.

Athletics Bendigo general manager Terry Hicks not only stars each week but also plays a key role for many of the Two Blues as coach.

On Saturday, Hicks scored 1368 points to be equal 13th in the MVA standings.

Others to star for Eaglehawk were Lachlan Start, 1276; David Chisholm, 1248; Angus McKindlay, 1194; and William Beaton, 1158, to be 50th, 62nd, 76th and 91st.

Best for Bendigo Harriers were Jake Gavriliadis on 1344 to be equal 23rd; Geoff Shaw, 1302 to be 41st; and Peter Clarke in 90th place on 1159 points.

South Bendigo’s versatile veteran Joan Self scored 1191 points to be 78th.

More records were broke on the track.

Bendigo Harriers’ veteran Jill Wilkie ran the 3000m in 11:16.74 to break the Bendigo Centre record of 12:07.5 set by Harriers’ clubmate Lyn Crome in 2008.

South Bendigo’s young run Logan Tickell added another record run to the list.

Just days away from his 15th birthday, Tickell ran the 1500m in 4:13.37 to set a Bendigo Centre record for the under-15 age group.

The previous record of 4:18.4 was set by Ian Prendergast from Kerang at the Epsom track in October, 1994.

Prendergast played 65 senior games for Carlton Football Club between 2001 and ’06.

At Saturday’s meet, Bendigo Harriers, Bendigo University, Eaglehawk and South Bendigo were joined by athletes from Albury, Essendon and Chilwell.

Among the many athletes in form were Eaglehawk’s Lachlan Start, 45.26m at javelin and 12.60m at triple jump; Albury’s Xavier Pitt in 100m hurdles, javelin and shot put; Eaglehawk’s Angus McKindlay and Harriers’ Jorja Hill at javelin.

First of the women’s 100m heats ended in a dead-heat between Eaglehawk’s Andrea Archibald and Harriers’ Abbey Conquer after they ran 13.51 seconds.

Stars at shot put were Harriers’ Jake Gavriliadis, South Bendigo’s Emma Berg and Kai Norton, and Eaglehawk’s Olivia Graham.

Those to leap a long way at triple jump included Harriers’ Jake Gavriliadis, 11.54; Eaglehawk’s Denise Snyder, 10.63; and South Bendigo’s Abbey Hromenko, 10.24m.