SA siblings set for national cross country and race walking titles
SIBLINGS Joe and Bethany Cross will tackle a rare distance double this weekend while challening the nations’s best young endurance athletes.
JOE and Bethany Cross will tackle a rare distance double this weekend while challenging the nations’s best young endurance athletes.
The SA siblings will travel to Wollongong to represent the state in Saturday’s Australian Cross Country Championships.
The Stoneyfell teenagers will back up that effort by competing in the national Winter Race Walking titles the next day.
“It’ll be tough, but if we get the recovery right hopefully it won’t be too bad,” Bethany, 16, said.
“I really enjoy getting out there and competing – distance has always been what I’m drawn to.
“I started doing this because I loved it and I keep doing it because I love it.”
The duo is part of the 22-strong SA cross country team.
Joe will take to the grass, dirt and hills of the University of North Wollongong’s 4km course in the under-16 division, before Bethany lines up in the under-18 class on the same track. They will hit the streets of the Illawarra city 24 hours later for their respective 5km junior race walks – events Joe won in 2015 and Bethany took out two years earlier.
“The thing I’m looking for in both races is a personal best time,” Pembroke student Joe said. “As you get older, everyone is getting bigger and stronger, so you’ve got to keep improving.
“It’s certainly not getting any easier for us to win those events.”
State champions Max Stevens and Fleur Wellings headline SA’s open cross country team, while Isaac Heyne will look to add the under-18 title to his Australian 3000m crown.
Bethany hoped the work she and 14-year-old Joe had put in with running coach Peter Dean and race walking mentor Bob Cruise would come to fruition.
“It’s certainly good to always know that I have a training partner in Joe,” the St Peter’s Girls pupil said.
“We always set each other goals, but we don’t really compete against each other.”