Ollie Hollands has added the Victorian cross country title to his sport resume with a blistering performance that has officials still checking their record books.
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The St Monica’s Year 6 student blitzed the best in the state for his age last week running the 3km course at Bundoora in 9 minutes 20 seconds.
Hollands took the lead on the first climb in the run and then maintained his 50-metre advantage for the final two kilometres.
The son of former Wodonga Bulldogs coach Ben Hollands beat his nearest rival by 11 seconds.
Hollands, 11, burst on the running scene last year with a third at Victorian cross country titles before finishing fourth in the nationals in Western Australia.
He also narrowly missed making the 800-metre national track final last year.
But unlike his competitors he continues to mix his sports – including footy, cricket, golf and if he had his way basketball.
“Footy is still my favourite, running is up there but so too is cricket and golf,” he said.
“Usually we have footy training Wednesday and Friday, most times we run on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays before cricket academy.
“A lot of the others at the state and nationals are just runners – that’s all they do.”
Hollands said he learned from last year’s nationals where a slow start meant playing catch-up.
“I was around the top-7 just after start, then we broke away in a group of three and when we got to a hill I got away from the other two and held that 50-metre lead for the rest of the race,” he said
“Most of the kids I knew from either last year’s cross country and another from the national 800m so I sort of knew what to expect.”
Mum Lisa is hoping for a hill course at the nationals to be held at Moonee Ponds in late August.
“Last year the course at Bunbury was pretty flat, really just two laps of a school oval but Ollie really excels in climbing the hills, so that would help,” she said.
“He just seems to have a big engine and climbs any rise with so little effort.
“Obviously he has natural ability but to their credit he and his brother (Elijah, 13, who finished 15th at the Victorian cross country in his age group at Bundoora) train pretty hard.”
