The Sydney University Athletic Club (SUAC) will this weekend travel to the Melbourne to contest Athletics Victoria’s (AV) Tan Relays, arguably the biggest event on the cross country calendar in 2012.
The AV Tan Relays is 3.8km-winding path course in the historic Melbourne Botanical Gardens and Kings Domain, and SUAC, having an accepted an invitation from the Melbourne University Athletic Club (MUAC), will send three teams down to the event – a men’s division 1, men’s division 2 and a women’s division 2 team.
The SUAC men’s division 1 team, which will race over six 3.8km legs, looks to be quite competitive on paper with James Nipperess, Russell Dessaix-Chin, Hugh Williams, Brad Croker, Ben Liddy and Daniel Macdonald rounding out the top six.
Sydney Uni Sport & Fitness (SUSF) Elite Athlete Program (EAP) scholarship holder James Nipperess, who recently won the 2012 Australian Cross Country Championships, looks to be in the shape of his life.
With Chin, Williams, Liddy and Macdonald all posting personal best times at varying events in the past month (add to this Brad Croker who is getting back into good form after a setback with an achilles tendon injury) and the ‘all-white’ line up looks to be especially strong.
Nipperess had this to say earlier this week, “The Victorians see themselves as the superior state in distance running in this country and for good reason.”
“They will have some really strong sides down there, with probably Knox and Box Hill the strongest, but I’m really looking forward to some tough racing.”
“I suspect it will be a pretty tight contest.”
