w w w .in si de H A LT O N .c om O A K V IL LE B EA V ER W ed ne sd ay , A ug us t 1 7, 2 01 1 2 8 MISSON ACCOMPLISHED: Thomas Podruchny displays his medal from the San Francisco Marathon. The race was the 150th marathon completed by the 74-year-old Oakville resident. While Podruchny failed to complete his first marathon when he was 42, he has finished every race he has started since then. Last year alone he finished 16 mara- thons. Thunder to expand volleyball program with boys The Oakville Thunder is expanding its program with the addition of its first boys' team. The Thunder will have a boys' 16-and-under team for this season. The club is looking for all-around athletes that want to work hard and develop their skills. The goal of the club is to help them improve their skills to allow them to continue to play after high school. The club will be working with Sport Specific Training (SST) to help players make gains in speed, vertical jump, strength and power. The team will compete throughout Ontario in four 16U tournaments, two 17U and U.S. AUU elite/competitive tournaments. The team will be coached by former international beach volleyball player Ron Caughlin. Tryout dates for players born in 1996 or earlier are: Thursday, Sept. 8, 6:30-8:30 p.m. and Tuesday, Sept. 13 and Thursday, Sept. 15 from 8:30-10:30 p.m. Tryouts will be held at the Oaklands Regional Recreation Centre, 53 Bond St. Zerons score big harness victories Its been a good month for the Zeron family. Rick Zeron drove three-year-old trotting filly Peach Martini to her second straight Gold Final title last Thursday. Zeron, who took last year's O'Brien Award as Canada's horseman of the year, took Peach Martini to the front early and stayed there, holding off Eagle Canada down the stretch to win in 1:56. Zeron conditions Peach Martini for his partners Michael Katz, Stephen Waldman and Rojan Stables. In her two-season career, Peach Martini has won almost half of her 20 starts, with nine victories as well as seven second-place finishes and a third. The filly has career earnings of $566,927. Earlier this month, Zerons son Scott earned the big- gest stakes win of his career, driving 26-to-1 longshot Machapelo to victory in the $300,000 Battle of Waterloo at Grand River Raceway. Sitting in third, Zeron and Machapelo made their move down the backstretch to win the two-year-old pacing colts race in 1:54.4. It was a one-two finish for the Zeron family as Rick, drove Two Guys to a second-place finish. "I was confident in his abilities to definitely be up close to the racing and finish top three for me, Zeron said after the victory. "Carl (Jamieson)'s horse (Warrawee Needy) is an outstanding horse, I'll see what happened when I watch the replay, but I was looking for him down the backside. I could only hear my dad coming at me and I was just ecstatic with the performance of my horse. Scott was a finalist for driver of the year at last year's O'Brien Awards. PHOTO SUBMITED