TAS runners make their presence felt at City2Surf fun run

The largest school team in the world’s largest fun run by a country mile, the students made their presence felt along the 14km route.

First home for TAS was Sam Jones of Gunnedah in 56:12, knocking more than 30 seconds off the previous record for a TAS runner and improving his time of last year by over four minutes.

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Jones maintained an average pace of four minutes per kilometre and finished in the top one per cent. The Year 10 student was 38th of 1217 in the male 16-19 category, and 671st overall of more than 67,000 finishers.

“I was hoping to make it in 58 or 59 so to come out with that was pretty cool. I tried to push it up Heartbreak Hill as hard as I could, then paced myself to save a bit for the end,” Jones said.

“When I passed a clock that just ticked the hour since the start of the first runners, I just went for it.”

Not far behind was Emerson Browning in 57:33, 14th home of males aged 13-15 years. In a stunning race, Disa Smart, the first girl finisher for TAS in 1:00:35, was ninth of 1134 in the female 16-19 category.

The next TAS girls, Katie Allen and Bronte Garcia, both finished in 1:27:53.

“Because I was in a faster start group I wasn’t having to weave and dodge as much as the start – it also wasn’t as hot as last year so made for better running conditions. I’m really happy with my time but having gone so close to the hour I would have loved to have gained an extra 35 seconds somewhere, but overall I was really pleased,” Smart said. 

The bulk of the TAS team finished inside 1:45:00.

“Almost half of TAS students from Years 6-11 entered, and that huge interest in being part of something that is so much bigger than just themselves says something about their courage and willingness to pursue a personal challenge,” TAS organiser Jim Pennington said.

“It’s a great credit to them that a school from 600 kilometres away from the city can end up fielding one of the largest teams in a world-recognised event.”