Wellings eyes Australia Road Running Championships win to end stellar year

NSWIS runner Eloise Wellings is hoping to finish 2016 on a high note at the Australian Road Running championships in Adelaide, just a month after completing a stellar performance at the Olympic Games.

Tomorrow’s 12km Sunday Mail City-Bay Fun Run will double as the Australian Championships, where fellow NSWIS Olympian Madeline Hills will join Wellings on the start line. Olympians Liam Adams (VIC) and Brett Robinson (SA) will also be present to contest the men’s race,

After placing ninth in the women’s 5000m and 10th in the women’s 10,000m at the Rio Olympics, Wellings said she is still processing her stunning year, but hoped to add a national championship victory onto the list before the end of the season.

“I’m kind of processing how well the year has gone now that I am back. I was so happy with Rio. I felt like I executed everything well, my race plans, my preparation, the lot, really. I kept a level head and focused on the process. By getting it done each day, the work was complete when I lined up at the Games and I benefited from that preparation,” Wellings told Athletics Australia.

“I’ve run this race three or four times now, and have won it the last couple of years. It would be great to do a fast time and close out my year on a high. There’s no reason that I can’t, I’m fit, have had a great season to now and am ready to have a good crack on Sunday.”

Fittingly it will be NSWIS’s Madeline Hills who looms as Wellings’ largest challenger. Like Wellings, Hills had an impeccable Rio campaign that saw her finish seventh in the 3000m steeplechase and 10th in the 5000m final.

“I’m really looking forward to getting out there to race Mads (Hills) again, and the other girls, too. I welcome the competition and we’ll all be looking to have a great hit out,” Wellings added.

For more information on the Sunday Mail City-Bay Fun Run, please click here

Not only will there be athletic race action taking place in Adelaide tomorrow, Sydney will host the Blackmores Sydney Running Festival (click here). In the top end, Darwin will hosts the world’s richest road mile race, the Mitchell Street Mile (click here) where the winner receives a handsome $7500 prize for the third time.