Marathon champ Virginia McCormick debuts for Bendigo Bats at Sandown XCR

MARATHON champion Viriginia McCormick, nee Moloney, marked her first race in Bendigo Bats colours by being ninth fastest woman in the Sandown Road Relays on Saturday.

McCormick teamed with Alice Wilkinson and Vanessa Bull to be number one in women’s division four as clubs marked the halfway mark of 10-leg cross-country series run by Athletics Victoria.

The 16^th placegetter in the marathon at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, McCormick is now a Mum and on the comeback to competitive athletics.

She ran the 6.2km leg on the Sandown racetrack in 21.55 minutes as Wilkinson, 23.29; and Bull, 26.23, ran well for the Bats to finish almost four minutes clear of Mornington.

The Bats’ were runner-up in men’s premier division.

Victorious in the opening four rounds, Bendigo was defeated by Box Hill by 33 seconds.

The Box Hill line-up marked a time of 1:53.45 as the Bats ran 1:54.18.

Bendigo’s team which ran 6.2km legs in the top division was Nathan Stoate, 18.15; Matt Buckell, 18.43; Harrison Boyd, 18.55; Brady Threlfall, 18.39; and Glenn McMillan, 20.01.

Bendigo took out men’s division four in 1:42.31 from Ivanhoe.

The Bats’ squad was Jamie Cook, Jake Delaney, Matt Heislers, Stephen van Rees and Brian McGinley.

In men’s division seven it was Sandringham which dominated in 1:21.51 as Bendigo’s team of Ben Stolz, Matt Hooke, Rory Flanagan and David Heislers ran 1:34.51 to be runner-up.

In the junior relays of 3.1km legs, Bendigo and Geelong had another great duel in the under-20 women’s class.

Geelong won in 34.34 as the Bats squad of Tullie Rowe, Tully Lang and Phoebe Lonsdale ran 35.05.

The under-18 men’s class was won by Collingwood from Ballarat, Doncaster and Bendigo’s line-up of Jayden Padgham, Avery McDermid and Logan Tickell.

In men’s 40-plus, Bendigo’s team of Phil Noden, Chris Timewell and Kevlin Niblett  was fourth as Richmond took honours.

The Bats squad of Antony Langdon, Trevor Kelly and David Lonsdale were 11^th in men’s 50-plus.

Round six in XCR ’22 will be on July 23 when the Victorian cross-country championships are raced at Bundoora.