fcc:: classic final

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Another hot day was waiting for the Future Champions Cup finalists, many of whom had arrived early to spectate at the World Cup races. The courses were rather daunting for the younger runners, many of whom had never run a race as far as these classic races – 8.2km for the women and 10.7km for the men. The courses consisted of a number of long legs across the valleys, interspersed with short legs in the technical sections. The terrain allowed for straight line running and those who were prepared to take these routes were rewarded. However, with the start lists being run in reverse order from the results of the previous day, it was always likely that people would get caught and groups running together would be able to push each other on.

In the men’s race early leader Ben Stevens had a fantastic run, completing the tough course in 73.04. Having been the 4th starter, he had run through everyone in front of him, and his time was enough to put him in 4th place on the classic race. Other early starters with good runs were John Rocke (LEI), Matt Franklin (SO) and Iain Embrey (COBOC). As expected, the best times were procuded by those who had run well the day before. Yesterday’s winner Duncan Coombs had another excellent result, catching and passing James Tullie, Matt Dickinson and David Schorah. Neither James or Matt let this affect their performance, with James finishing 2nd and Matt finishing 3rd, the exact top 3 from the short race. Some unexpected runners claimed the other top 6 places, with Ben Stevens 4th, Iain Embrey 5th and Matt Franklin 6th.

In the women’s race, all of the top performances came from those who had excelled in the short race. Yesterday’s runner-up Cerys Manning got off to a flying start, winning the first leg and then catching up Lizzie Adams 6 by 6 minutes on her way to the 2nd control. From here on the pair of them raced round together, catching Helen Gardner at #8. Having proceeded to pull away from Helen, they made a large mistake at #14 allowing Helen to overtake them, and letting Alison O’Neil get almost within sight. However, a big mistake from Alison at the next control prevented her from catching the speeding group. Cerys and Lizzie pulled away from Helen again, and finished in emphatic style winning 14 of the 19 splits on the course! Cerys had an agonising 3 minute wait at the finish to see if she had done enough to beat Alison, but there was only one point on the whole course where she hadn’t got the fastest time. Despite Alison not catching anyone, she had done enough to get 2nd place. Lizzie and Helen, despite both getting caught, finished 3rd and 4th. Jessica Halliday, having not seen a single person on her course ran a controlled race to finish 5th, the same as she had finished on the short race. Further down the field, another group of runners gained from running together. Stefanie Blomquist had overtaken Liz Bridge before the 1st control, but Liz managed to claw back some time and get back in front by #5. Becca Roberts then caught the pair of them up at #8 having dropped Ruth Holmes who had caught Becca at the 2nd control. Liz, Stef and Becca then ran together for a while until Becca managed to pull away on the way to #12, where Jo Thompson was caught by Liz and Stef. Becca then lost time on the long leg to #14 and was caught back up, and after a few more attempts from some of them to pull away from the group, they all finished within 20 seconds of each other all taking positions in the top 12.

FCC Final Classic
Mens 10.7km 350m
1 Duncan Coombs MAROC 66:26
2 James Tullie RR/EUOC 70:56
3 Matt Dickinson DVO/SHUOC 72.54
4 Ben Stevens AIRE 73.04
5 Iain Embrey COBOC 74.41
6 Matthew Franklin SO 75.04

Womens 8.2km 280m
1 Cerys Manning SWOC/OUOC 64.23
2 Alison O’Neil NOC/EUOC 65.30
3 Helen Gardner WAOC 68.14
4 Lizzie Adams SOC 70.12
5 Jessica Halliday OD 72.13
6 Rebecca Roberts SROC 72.50

Mens Results

Womens Results

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