Our February AD Member of the Month (MOTM) ran, waded, sprinted, jogged and traversed her way to winning this award with a gruelling but remarkable performance at the World Age Cross Country Championships earlier this month.
Naomi Tancred represented Australia over two days in multiple races at the Championship. Day 1 saw her partnered with Glasshouse Ultra Marathon Winner Ben Blackshaw to compete in the Mixed relay against the World’s best Athletes. The team used Day 1 as a track feeler and made sure that Day 2 was to be the pinnacle.
With the temperature hitting 36 degrees Celsius the team hit the course with gusto, finishing the course with the 11th spot and setting the scene for Day 2’s run.
With the temperature becoming more “bearable” (35 degree Celsius) on the next day, Naomi set out on the solo 6 km course completing the mud and obstacle-based race in the blistering time of 28 minutes and placing herself at the 7th position overall in her respective age group in the World Age Cross Country Championships.
This course itself has been described as one of the toughest courses in Cross Country’s history, again putting into perspective Naomi’s backbreaking effort.
It might pleasantly astonish our readers that Naomi wasn’t a fan of running back at the time, but over the course of a few years, she has now propelled herself to being in the top 10 athletes of the world in Age Cross Country running.
Congratulations Naomi on your amazing result and on winning the Tattersalls’ February AD MOTM!
Naomi is now in running for our 2023 Sports Person of the Year award.
