Race records went tumbling at Taronga Western Plains Zoo on Sunday for the seventh running of the Dubbo Stampede.
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New male and female records were set in the 5.3 kilometre Dingo Dash and the 10km Cheetah Chase, while Alex Matthews took a massive six minutes off his own record in the 42.2km Rhino Ramble marathon.
Paige Campbell made an emphatic return to the zoo course by reclaiming her records in the Dingo Dash and Cheetah Chase.
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In the 10km Campbell wiped one minute and 27 seconds off her previous result, and more than a minute off the record set by Olympic steeplechaser Vic Mitchell in 2017.
She also took 39 seconds off Mitchell’s 2017 5.3km record, running it in 17 minutes and 53 seconds.
Campbell maintained a “nice, steady tempo” averaging 3:20 kms, and was happy with her results in slippery conditions.
“There was so many people out there supporting and cheering you on,” Campbell said.
“It’s a great atmosphere, even though it’s raining everyone is happy and exactly! We should be!”
The perfect running conditions were not the only reason for Campbell to feel grateful.
“Really dry, it’s been a pretty tough 12 months,” the Warren local said.
“We’re feeding cattle all day, every day, so it’s really good.”
The win also doubles Campbell’s point score in the NSW Regional Distance Running Championships, catapulting her as high as equal fourth after she took out the Orange Running Festival earlier this year.
Meanwhile Canberra’s Josh Torley extended his lead in the regional championship with a win in the Cheetah Chase, his time of 32:42 shaving 11 seconds off the course record.
We'll have a running festival every weekend if we need to.
- Paige Campbell
The winner of the 2017 Zebra Zoom half marathon also took out the Dingo Dash in another record time (16:28), although he was pushed harder than he would have liked.
“Bryce [Anderson] was sort of pushing me really, at the start I was a bit worried,” Torley said.
“But he’s been a little bit injured so that gave me a little bit of an advantage.
“At the start of the 10 Mitch [Williamson] pushed me … I was worried probably about one kilometre in … but by the turnaround out there I was pretty confident.”
Torley was forced to run 3:05 kms at the start of the 10km, before being able to relax his pace back to 3:19 by the second half of the race.
“It’s a great event,” he said.
“It’s good to see they actually put the money up which a lot of bigger runs, like the City2Surf, they don’t really bother with that.
“It’s nice to see they’re willing to give back.”
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