Race news: 28.09.2009 Written on September 28, 2009, by matt.
Wins for White and Swinburn tops a weekend of variety
Nick and Natalie win in Sheffield Turbo X race, Jebby fails in bid for straight-eight, podium places for Symonds, Owens and Simpson on Scottish and English fells, whilst Anna Frost is runner-up in Bergen
Clean sweep at Saab Salomon Turbo X
It was a repeat performance for GB international mountain runners and SSOT members Natalie White and Nick Swinburn at this weekend’s Saab Salomon Turbo X race in Sheffield – following the pair’s winning runs in Mugdock a fortnight earlier…
After a cool start to the day in Wharncliffe Woods the sun broke through by the time the 10 a.m start had come round and the 400 starters were bathed in sunshine for the 10 miles of mud, bog, sand, rocks and tree roots that have become synonymous with these events.
Saab Salomon’s men were well to the fore with Nick Swinburn, Rob Hope, Ricky Lightfoot and John Heneghan holding the first four spots after the first mile. At the end of the challenging 10 miles Swinburn had a reasonably comfortable lead over second placed Lightfoot, and Heneghan in third. Rob Hope ran in for fourth, with SSOT team boss Tim Lloyd running into a highly creditable 6th place finish.
Described by men’s runner-up Ricky Lightfoot as one of the “best courses I have run this year” the conditions were challenging even for the elite competitors on course. Swinburn spoke after the race stating that he had found this race even harder than his victory in Scotland earlier in the month, and that he had to work hard to keep Ricky, and third-placer John at bay.
Natalie White had no such problems in the women’s event, winning by two and a half minutes from Calder Valley’s Anne Johnson, with third place going to Laura Lombard. Again Natalie stated that the course was excellent, very boggy and a real challenge.
The Kendal-based athlete is honing her form before her trip (along with Ricky) to the last race in the 2009 World Skyrunner series race at the 23rd Mount Kinabalu ‘climbathon’ race in Malaysia on the 24th and 25th of October.
Rob Jebb is beaten in Three Peaks cyclo-cross event – after seven consecutive wins!
Yes, that’s right, Rob Jebb was indeed beaten on Saturday as he aimed to put the Three Peaks record number of wins even further out of the reach of future champions. However, it wasn’t to be for Jebby as he was beaten by former World Cup MTB rider Nick Craig, in what was a sprint finish after nearly three hours of racing!
Ben Bardsley rode to a strong seventh-place finish on the course that takes a similar route to the fell running version, of which Jebb is also a multiple-winner. All winning streaks have to come to an end at some point, however we are sure that the tenacious Rob Jebb will be back for another crack at his eighth win next year.
Andy and Tom come back down to earth
After one of the most memorable performances ever (by any members of the Saab Salomon Outdoor Team) at the TransAlpine Run some two weeks ago, coming back to domestic action was always going to take some adjustment for Andy Symonds and Tom Owens. However, they both ran strongly for second and third places respectively at the Two Breweries race in Scotland on Saturday.
Tom and Andy with Scott Fraser
They can have had no quibbles about being beaten by a world-class orienteer in the shape of Scotland’s Scott Fraser either, as youngster Fraser has been in superb form in recent weeks.
It will be interesting to see how Tom and Andy carry their tremendous condition into the Autumn, and we are sure that there are a few more victory’s in the pipeline for these two in the remaining few months of 2009.
(NB – I am reliably informed that the guys went at least 1 mile ‘off-course’, so a 2-3 would probably have been a 1-2- ED)
Robbie ‘arrives’ at Scafell, and Anna continues her charge in Bergen
In very different races, on different terrains and in different countries, it was a similar outcome for newly-crowned Commonwealth mountain running champion Anna Frost, and Deeside youngster Robbie Simpson.
Barely a year ago 17 year-old Simpson was just emerging as a top Scottish junior. A year on and Robbie has emerged as one of the brightest prospects in British fell running. He underlined this on Saturday as he ‘arrived‘ on the English senior scene by finishing second in the classic Scafell Pike race – beating former British fell champ, and Saab Salomon man, Simon Booth into third place.
All of this comes after a season that has seen Robbie finish top British junior in the World Mountain Running Championships, and an amazing 16th overall in the SENIOR race at last weekend’s Commonwealth championships. Surely next year will see this tremendous talent make an even greater mark on the fell and mountain scene.
Anna continued her great comeback in 2009 with a very strong second place in the Hochfelln Berglauf race in Bergen, Germany. The New Zealander finished runner-up to the new GP World mountain running champion Andrea Mayr, and can consider this another superb step towards to her end-of-year goal of the Everest Marathon.
