A resurgent Steven Asson—who overcame recurrent back problems that caused him to quit running at one time before a low key return to racing once again—ended two and a half years of frustration by overhauling this two early leading opponents to win the Ceres Juices 10K Series finale on Saturday afternoon.
On the women’s side, just two days before her 13th birthday, Tallulah Kinkead gave herself an early birthday present by winning the women’s division.
Asson who last won the race in November 2011, in 39 minutes and 53 seconds, had a winning time of 41:21, after overhauling early co-leaders Julius Farley who was second in 42:56 and Curvin Andrews third in 43:26.
“This is two and a half years I haven’t won a race,” Asson noted. “I was not able to run only just to take a little jog sometimes and the way I felt, I quit then made up my mind to start back again. But in this run today, in my mind, I didn’t come to race. I just came to run and the rhythm and the pace I had I kept it and was successful.”
Asson passed Andrews just before the Ellis Thomas Downs and overhauled Farley about 600m later. He said looking at Farley’s leg turnover and the way he heard him breading coupled with the way he was feeling, he knew he could possibly win.
“I didn’t surge anywhere,” he explained. “I just held the rhythm and ran smoothly.”
Despite the loss, Farley was the series’ overall men’s champion.
“Today wasn’t my day and I have to congratulate Steven,” he said noting that he had stitches from the start, which intensified as the race went on. “That kind of slowed me down a bit. Steven and Andrews (Curvin) kept a good pace and I tried to compete with Steven but I just couldn’t make it. I had to give up and settle for second.”
Kinkead ran 48:25 to win the women’s division. “I felt good but Kat (Katrina Crumpler) wasn’t here so that’s why I won,” Kinkead said. “The races are really fun. I like the people who do them.”
Race director Kay Reddy says the series gets better and better each year.
“This is one of the best supported (events) we had almost 70 for the first race and we’ve had a lot of people complete three races and we’ve had a lot of people getting personal bests,” she noted. “It was fast and furious at the front, we’ve had some changes and new faces on the block. Ceres put in a lot of effort and new products. It’s has just been a smashing series all around.”
Final Results.
Men: 1. Stephen Asson, 41 minutes and 21 seconds. 2. Julius Farley, 42:56. 3. Curwin Andrews, 43:26. 4. Ravindra Sukhu, 43:31. 5. Simon Cook, 44:27. 6. Adam DeMonte, 45:10. 7. Ciaran O'Shaughnessy, 46:19. 8. Paul Hubbard, 46:24. 9. Ian Montgomery, 47:11. 10. David Kinkead, 48:27. 11. Charles Kerins, 48:29. 12. Adrian Dale, 48:57. 13. Russell Crumpler, 49:31. 14. Daniel Mitchell, 49:45. 15. Shane Donovan, 50:56. 16. Gareth Watkins, 51:05. 17. Manuel Lamzas, 52:08. 18. Patrick Ormond, 57:07. 19. Graham Willis 57:18. 20. Howard Moore, 1:02:04. 21. Miguel Castellanos, 1:06:58. 22. Jim Cullimore, 1:09:51. 23. Stephen Beard, 1:10:41.
Women: 1. Tallulah Kinkead, 48:25. 2. Kay Reddy, 51:46. 3. Anna Kinkead, 53:02. 4. Rosmond Johnson, 55:13. 5. Claudia Ferrari, 56:21. 6. Darwn Peters, 57:13. 7. Natasha Ruscheinski, 58:36. 8. Sally Blackmore, 1:01:23. 9. Rhiannon Jones,1:02:32. 10. Barbara O'Neal, 1:03:08. 11. Ghislaine Hoogendijk, 1:04:12. 12. Clair Burke, 1:04:19. 13. Claudia Diaz, 1:10:59. 14. Jenny McConnell, 1:15:18.
Overall series results. Men: 1. Julius Farley. 2. Ian Montgomery. 3 Cirvin Andrews. Women: 1. Tallulah Kinkead. 2. Rosmond Johnson. 3. Clare-Louise Whiley.
