Elizabeth Cox won the women’s 10.5km trail race. Photo: Jeremy O’Connell
Saturday 12 November
By Jeremy O’Connell
In a repeat of yesterday’s 4km cross country results, Merrimac’s Darryl Hill and Narangba’s Elizabeth Cox have won the men’s and women’s 10.5km trail runs at the Coombabah Lakelands track.
As was the case in the cross country, Darryl was engaged in a tête-à-tête with Toowoomba’s Matt Macdonald for the majority of the race before the 30-year-old prevailed in the final metres to win in 37:04.
In the women’s event, Elizabeth showed no signs of fatigue induced by yesterday’s strong run and led from start to finish, taking line honours in 47:58.
The result capped a high-yielding JPPMG campaign for both athletes – Darryl victorious in the 4km cross country, the 3000m steeplechase and today’s trail race, while the 46-year-old Elizabeth won two gold medals from two events on the distance running program.
Both Darryl and Elizabeth have completed their participation at this year’s Jupiters Pan Pacific Masters Games and have vowed to return in 2018.
“I was very, very happy with the race. I’ll definitely come back every time and do it,” Elizabeth said.
Darryl Hill winning the men’s 10.5km trail race. Photo: Courtney Bridgewater
“I loved it. It was great to meet other like-minded athletes of all sorts of distances,” Darryl said.
(Athletics – distance running comprises four legs over four days. Starting with the beach mile (1.6km) on Wednesday 9 November, the program moved to the bitumen for the 5km road race on Thursday, before yesterday’s 4km cross country. The event ended with today’s 10.5km trail run. Participants running in all four disciplines will complete a half marathon (21.1km) on four surfaces.)
The 10th biennial Jupiters Pan Pacific Masters Games is being held 5 – 13 November 2016 on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
The event showcases competition in 43 sports and is hosting 13,000 participants from Queensland, interstate and overseas.
