Courtney Powell did something rare on the night of the 14/11/13. She led a championship race from the gun to the tape.

In that time she did not let any of her opponents put one foot in front of her own. It was utter domination on a cold windy night in Melbourne.

Coming out of the first bend it was Powell in the lead, Sarah McSweeney 2^nd and Karinna Fyfe in 3^rd as the first 400 was covered at 3:05 pace. This immediately split the field into 2 distinct packs, a front group of 6 and a second group of 7.

By the 1km mark of which the split read 3:14 the front pack was down to 5 with Amelia Aslanides moving into 3^rd ahead of Fyfe.

By 2k this was down to a front 3 of Powell, McSweeney and Aslanides as Courtney led them through in 6:35 with a slightly slower 3:21 2^nd km split. And the top 3 placings would eventually come from this group of 3 as they had opened a sizable lead over the rest of the field.

At 3600m Powell decided to really drop the hammer and pull away from the rest with a sub 80sec 400 which no one else could respond to taking her through 4km in 13:16.

By now attention centred on whether Powell could run a 16:40 or better for the distance which would give her a World Junior Qualifier for 2014 in the Mecca of distance running Eugene, Oregon. It was a formality really as Powell ran her fastest k split of 3:13 in the last 1k to take out a commanding win in 16:29 and earn that WJQ in the process.

In the Placings:

Amelia Aslanides was 2^nd in 16:45 with Sarah McSweeney 3^rd in 16:49.

I thought it was a super run from Aslanides as she spent most of the first 3k running just off Powell’s right shoulder in lane 2. At the time I thought not the best strategy on a windy night but with 3 laps to go she took 2^nd place off McSweeney and never relinquished it from then on

All the winners medals were presented by Victorian 2013 Cross Country Champion Steve Kelly.

The Breakdown