Saturday night’s Bendigo Half-Miler’s ‘PB’ (Personal Best) Club night proved to be a winner for all involved. Athletes from as far afield as Queensland competed in the twilight meeting at the Latrobe University Athletics Track, with some extremely impressive nationally-ranked performances.

Meet organizer Judy Lees, a Level 4 AA accredited middle distance coach, was rapt with the strong response from athletes in the second year of the event. “Last year, the fastest 3000m in the state was run on this track in our meet, and the winner went on to win the state 1500m title and record a sub-four minute mile later in the season. It’s all about raising the bar, in an ideally paced race situation, and hopefully our local talent will get inspired and raise local standards to nationally competitive levels. It’s certainly achievable over several years.”

Co-sponsor of the event, local running author and chiropractor Dr Keith Livingstone, was very pleased with the turnout. “We were nearly going to pull the pin this year, but we had a flood of quality late entries that meant the event was going to be viable, and I’m pretty sure we will have an on-going event for Bendigo after Saturday’s success. All the athletes we spoke to are keen to come back and spread the word for next year.”

In an odd coincidence, two completely unrelated ‘Rowes’ respectively won the elite men’s 3000m and 800m events in nation-leading times for the season so far.

Deakin’s Brenton Rowe, 22, last year’s 3000m winner, backed up again this year to take out the elite men’s 3000m from a very strong field in his personal best time of 8:01.88, lowering last year’s meet time by 11 seconds, and taking home $850 for his win and smashing the incentive time. He surged to the front over 1000m from the finish to beat off challenges from Essendon’s tough world cross country representative Liam Adams and New Zealand cross country and track representative Jason Woolhouse.

Both Adams and Woolhouse did well to back up from solid performances in the Zatopek 10000m 9 days earlier. Extremely promising Duer Yoa, 20, from Ballarat, who was second in the Bendigo Easter Road Mile this year, attacked Woolhouse with 200m to go, but the experienced Kiwi bided his time and nabbed 3^rd in the homestretch. The first four placegetters all beat 8:15.0 for the distance. Local athlete Andrew Buchanan (Bendigo University) ran a 16 second PB to record a commendable 8:56.16.

2009 World Youth championships representative, Alex Rowe, (St Kevin’s) won the elite men’s 800m in a season’s best 1:50.48 from this month’s Zatopek 800m winner, Simon Fitzpatrick of Athletics Essendon, in 1:50.98. Alex (17) broke the 1:50 barrier in April this year, and is aiming for big things later this summer in open men’s competition.

Third placegetter Dominic Sutton (Preston) ran 1:51.62, missing the $500 incentive time by 12 hundredths of a second, but took home $200 for his place and beating the second incentive. Queensland entrant Cameron Clayton took home a personal best of 1:52.95 in 4^th. Local entrant Kyall Britten was rewarded for his participation with a personal best of 1:55.69 in 5^th place.

The evening also featured a very famous name in 800m running winning his heat of the 800m: 1980 Olympic champion Steve Ovett’s son Freddy, yet to turn 16, showed beautiful poise and technique as he floated across the line in the last few metres for a win the Men’s B Final, just edging local Josh Nolan in 1:57.29. It’s probably safe to say that’s not the last time we hear from the Melbourne Grammar athlete, who thoroughly enjoyed his experience in Bendigo!

The 3000m B event went to University runner Luke Gregory (17) in a PB 9:45.99, edging reinvorated Bendigo YMCA Masters runner John Maher (44) in 9:49.37. YMCA athlete Meredith Cook, 36, ran strongly to place third amongst the women. The women’s race was dominated by Essendon EMH runner Lynden Hall (17), who won in 9:56.55, ahead of her team-mate Jaimie Vernon (18).

The Women’s 800m Final was won by promising Essendon athlete Erin Rayner, 15, in a PB of 2:14.69, beating Regan Logan (23) of St Kevin’s and Lisa Stanton-Smith (Keilor St Bernard’s) in a tight run to the line.

In all, 13 Bendigo athletes competed, with 7 athletes rewarded with PBs or seasonal bests. The night produced 12 personal bests and 7 seasonal bests overall.

Many thanks are extended to the officials who volunteered for the night.