RICHARD Gleisner and Ruth Barton won two great Ballarat athletic traditions at the weekend by taking line honours in the annual Lap of the Lake.
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Gleisner won the Steve Moneghetti Lap of the Lake and Barton the Roseanne Brisbane lap, on a day in which some of the big names in Ballarat athletics were attracted to the well-worn Lake Wendouree running track.
Emma Sawall and Andrew Parker were the handicap winners.
In the women's event Kelli Baird, Paula Nankervis and Helen Stanton of the YCW club, and Michelle Hawkes of Wendouree, were prominent in the event, setting a fast pace from the start.
In other categories, Nicole Menhennet was the first under-16 runner across the line. Overall, the youngster finished an impressive eighth from 51 starters.
Ballarat Harriers' Heather Kearle was the first 45-plus runner and just managed to hold out top under-14 Eureka athlete Simone Born-Wells.
K. McGinness, of Eureka, was the first under-18 athlete to complete the course, just behind YCW's under-14 athlete Emma Davis, oand Wendouree's under-16 competitor April Lewry.
With team-mate Naomi Menhennet not far behind, Wendouree won the under-16 teams event.
The men's event drew 123 runners from all clubs, with invitation competitors swelling the field.
Eureka's Paul Fenn showed determination from the start as he slowly forged ahead of the rest of the runners early in the race and by the two kilometre mark had opened up a 40m lead over Richard Gleisner, with Shane Nankervis another 30m back.
further back, ahead of Eureka's Collis Birmingham a With runners all performing well and bolstering their club's competitive performance with the 51 runners that completed the course.
The men's event again saw a large contingent of 123 runners from all clubs successfully contest the Steve Moneghetti Lap of the Lake with invitation runners swelling the field even more as they were eligible like all the other athletes in the event to contest the Lap of the Lake by handicap.
Eureka's Paul Fenn showed determination right from the start as he slowly forged ahead of the rest of the runners early in the race and by the 2km mark had opened up a 40 metres lead over Richard Gleisner with Shane Nankervis another 30 metres further back, ahead of Eureka's Collis Birmingham a similar distance back with the remainder of the field closely bunched.
With these Eureka and YCW athletes battling for the leading positions Merv Johnstone and Kris Davis were the leading Wendouree runners and Robert Eyres and Mark Gibney were out doing the task for Ballarat Harriers.
At the 4km mark Gleisner was now looking threatening as he was now moving closer to Fenn with Nankervis also making a forward motion keeping his chances alive.
Collis Birmingham holding down fourth position and first under 18 athlete was now coming under threat of the field of runners closing in behind him.
Under 16 Eureka runner Sam Ellis was later to finish in 10th position, the first under 16 competitor just ahead of under 18 runner Anthony Burvill with all athletes running on strongly towards the finish.
After moving within eight metres of Fenn, Gleisner seemed to be in control as over the run and in just over a kilometre to go had moved into the lead and was pulling away from the tiring Fenn, who still had a comfortable advantage over Nankervis.
As Birmingham's threat by the runners behind began to disappear, he slowly managed to again pull away for a convincing fourth placing.
In the under 20 section Joel Birmingham of Eureka was just in front of Mark Canny and Jarrod Quick of YCW. Wendourees' Robert Jones and Neil Lewry were ahead of Vince Duffy of Ballarat Harriers in the 40+ competition.
Brian Harrison of YCW was leading the 50+ section from Eurekas' Robert Gray and Ernie Stewart, as in the under 14 section following Sam Gibb to the finish line were Eureka's Will Barber and Wendouree's Keegan Fitzgerald.
A second and fourth placing was looking good for the Eureka Club in the teams event as the runners charging home to finish appeared to have more athletes finishing ahead of their main opposition team YCW with a sprinkling of Wendouree and invitation runners splitting these teams.
