Woodford’s Jo Brischetto after winning the Kanangra Classic 50km Ultra trail run on Saturday.
Two Woodford athletes claimed top honours in the Kanangra Classic 50km Ultra trail run on the weekend.
Brendan Davies and Jo Brischetto put the Mid-Mountain on the endurance racing map after convincing wins in the gruelling event on Saturday, October 20.
Davies won the men’s event in 3hr 59minutes while his training partner Jo Brischetto took out the women’s race in 4hr 46minutes.
Proving her endurance mettle, Brischetto backed up to compete in the 50km mountain bike event the following day finishing with a combined time that saw her take out the duathlon title over all female and male competitors.
For Davies, victory in the Mountains Sports event at Kanangra Boyd National Park came on the back of a convincing win in the 100km Great Ocean Road trail run on Saturday, October 13.
The 35-year-old smashed the course record at Victoria in a time of nine hours, 16mins 44secs — more than 30 minutes ahead of second-place getter Damon Goerke.
“It was a good win. I’m in really good shape at the moment,” said Davies who will compete in the 100mile Great North Walk between Sydney and Newcastle on November 12.
Although the jump in distance will test his capabilities, his red hot form should hold him in good stead next month. The teacher was unfazed at going into the Great Ocean Walk event as the race favourite — a tag he didn’t claim himself — and broke away from the field just 10km into the race.
“For the rest of the race I was just on my Pat Malone . . . [but] I kept thinking they’re just around the last corner so I keep my momentum and focus,” he said.
With a perfect training ground on his doorstep in the Mountains, Davies was running up to 140kms a week in the lead-up to the Great Ocean Walk. Unsurprisingly, he thinks daylight savings is “a godsend”.