Milly Clark had the perfect warm up for her Olympic campaign, taking out the 45th PAYCE Sutherland 2 Surf on Sunday.
Clark, who will represent Australia in Rio in the women’s marathon, cruised home in a time of 36 minutes 37 seconds to win by almost two minutes from Charlotte Wilson and Sylvania’s Belinda Martin.
The 27-year-old, who is based at Abbotsford, clocked an outstanding time of 2:29.07 in her major marathon debut to claim third place and a Rio qualifying time at the Amsterdam Marathon last year. Her run in Europe saw her move into the history books as the eighth fastest female Australian marathon runner of all time.
Clark, who will leave for Rio later this week, then went on to win the New Zealand half-marathon in Christchurch and the 10,000 metres at the NSW Championships.
Twenty-year-old Victorian Jack Rayner was the overall winner in a time of 32:26, beating out last year’s winner Jordan Gusman by 12 seconds and last year’s runner-up Matthew Cox who was one second further back.
Rising track star Rayner made the long trip from Altona near Melbourne to take part in the road race, adding valuable experience to a promising sporting career that is heading towards international recognition.
It was an outstanding day for Bundeena’s Emily Schneider, with the 14-year-old winning the female youth category in 39:08, which was also good enough to finish fourth in the overall women’s race.
Schneider won the female youth category by more than four minutes from Blakehurst’s Chloe Gentle and Stephanie Torley.
Christopher Breen, from Cronulla, won the male youth category in 36:40. Gymea’s Jack Porter was almost three minutes back in second, with Kareela’s James McNaughton third.
More than 5,500 runners braved chilly conditions to take on the annual 11-kilometre event.
The race, the longest running community event in the shire, is organised by Wanda Surf Lifesaving Club and is their major fundraising initiative.
Wanda SLSC president Mark Sargeant thanked the community for again getting behind the event.
“Without these funds Wanda would not be able to undertake their role as volunteer surf lifesavers,” he said.
“There are significant costs to organise an event of this nature, so without the support of our many volunteer club members, lifesavers and sponsors it would not be viable.”
Nuffs Fitness won the gyms team challenge in 2:39:20, while Sydney Water took out the corporate team challenge in 3:10:42.
Love Mercy won the runners team challenge in 2:46:58.
In addition to the prizes for winners of each of the age categories and the team categories, all finishers, including the guide dogs of the Vision Australia team, received a medallion to mark their successful completion of the course.
Full results: sutherland2surf.com.au.