Diver defending her Aths Vic XCR'15 Series lead in Ballarat

SINEAD Diver will be striving to increase her lead in the Athletics Victoria XCR’15 Series in Ballarat today.

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She is the class runner and defending champion in the women’s open 15 kilometres around Lake Wendouree and clear favourite to claim the state road title.

Diver has a massive year ahead of her.

She will make her debut in Australian colours in the World Championships in Beijing in August, having been selected for the marathon.

From there, the Irish-born 38-year-old’s next goal will be the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

Diver, who runs with South Melbourne Athletic Club, heads the XCR’15 Series

open women’s champion athlete points table after

taking out the cross-country event at Warragul earlier this month.

This was the first individual event of the season.

Diver took maximum points ahead of Sarah Klein (Frankston) and Virginia Moloney (Collingwood).

This gave her seven straight wins in XCRseries races, having being crowned champion last year in only her second season competing in the series.

Courtney Scott is Ballarat Regional Athletic Centre’s leading chance in the third round of the series. While Scott did not run at Warragul, she knows this circuit well.

Nic Van Raaphorst and James Attard shape as Ballarat’s leading hopes in the men’s open 15km event.

Van Raaphorst made an encouraging start to the season.

He finished ninth to Nicholas Weightman (Geelong) at Warragul to clearly be Ballarat’s best performer.

Other Ballarat leading lights today:

Men: Paul Burge (40-plus), Alistair Ham (50-plus), Sam Williams (under-16), Nicholas Fidler (under-16), Harry Sharp (under-16). Women: Angela Williams (40-plus), Tahlee Van Roosmalen (unde-16), Amy Canavan (under-14).

Athletics Victoria will not know exactly who will be competing until runners register today.

david.brehaut@fairfaxmedia.com.au