Nopesport

Day 3 of the 2005 Scottish 6 Days competition was held on the Glen Feardar hill, to the west of that famous Royal landmark, Balmoral. Athletes were expected to contend with open land with limestone and contour features, and fast high visibility forest, all on the sides of a big hill which was steep in places.

Jules Dupoirieux of France had, for the last 2 days been down the bottom end of the top 10 on the M12A class. However today he made a break for the lead as he won the M12A course by nearly a minute over the former 3rd place, Cillin Corbett from CORKO. Third place went to the former leader, Peter Bray of Southern Navigators. George Hurford of BOK managed to retain the lead for a second day as he won the M12B course. Laurenz Elstner from Austria also retained the second place spot, only 41 seconds behind Hurford on the third day. Meanwhile Duncan Taylor from DEVON managed to make his running in the top 3 a little more secure with a run today putting him in third place, three and a half minutes behind Hurford.

At the top of the M14A leaderboard, where some of the positions were only seconds apart, Nottinghamshire’s Peter Hodkinson made a break for the lead, with a gap of nearly four minutes over his rivals. George Stevens of AIRE had to settle for second place again after a similar result yesterday, and the Day 1 winner who slipped a little yesterday, Huw Stradling of BOK came back with a third place run today. Viljam Liljeroth from Finland who won on Day 1 but mispunched on Day 2, came back to win the third day of competition on the M14B course. As the former runner in second place, Markus Dresel of Germany slipped down into 7th place today, Harry Nicholson from Nottinghamshire became runner up, over a minute down on Liljeroth. Third place went to Ruben Karlsen of Norway, who was seconds behind Nicholson.

After 3 days of competition in the M16A class there was more movement at the top of the leader board. Emil Joensson from Sweden, having improved his position on day 2 improved again to win the course on day 3. He was over minute ahead of Hector Haines from AIRE. Third place went to Kalle Walheim from Sweden, who was over 2 and a half minutes behind Haines, and moved up again from 8th position on day 1 and 5th on day 2. On the M16B course, yesterdays third place runner Donald Slater of INVOC won by a minute ahead of yesterday’s winner, Teige Malley from Derwent Valley. Meanwhile Oerjan Karlsen from Norway climbed four places from yesterday to finish today in third, 2 minutes behind Malley.

For Duncan Coombs, it was a return to the top spot after winning the M18A course on day 1 and making mistakes on day 2. He won his 7.2km course by running quicker than 6 minute kilometres, faster than on day 1. He was over three and a half minutes quicker than his Swedish rival, Linus Karlsson. Duncan was over 7 minutes ahead of third place, which went to Biel Rafols from Spain.

It was the end of ERYRI’s Delyth Darlington’s reign as the leader on the W12A course today as Florence Haines of AIRE went from third place on Day 1 and runner up yesterday to win on the third day. She was 28 seconds ahead of the former leader. Lucy Butt from SARUM who has had mixed results so far in the competition managed to get third place, nearly two minutes behind Haines. There was a new leader on the W12B course, Karoliina Karkkainen from Finland, who won the course by under 30 seconds. Yesterdays leader, Natalie Smith of Guildford slipped into second place, meanwhile Emma Young from TINTO who was runner up on day 1 was in third place today, over one and a half minutes behind the Finnish athlete.

Julia Blomquist from BAOC secured the lead at the top and smashed the opposition with an 8 and a half minute win on the W14A course. This extends the 5 minute lead she already had overnight. Trailing in her wake was Rebecca Harding of Happy Herts, who had also been fourth and third previously. In third place and 9 minutes behind the winner was Joanna Shepherd of INVOC, who only just managed to beat Blomquist by eight seconds on day 1. The leader on the W14B course slipped and the lead went to yesterdays runner up, Russian Ekaterina Chernyshova who won by half a minute over ESOC’s Eilidh Nolan. Still less than a minute behind the winner, third place went to Maria Quednau of Germany.

Catherine Taylor of CLOK made it three out of three wins on the W16A course, this time with a slightly bigger margin of over 3 and a half minutes on second place, which today went to Perrine Obstetar from France. Sophie Tritschler from Switzerland, who was previously third on day one and finished in fifth on day 2, was again third today, albeit just one second behind her French rival, Obstetar. Emma Liljeroth of Finland also managed to get a third win on the 3.4km W16B course, a good five minutes ahead of Katie Wood of AIRE. Having slowly improved over the last two days, Lynsey Thomson of STAG managed to claim third place, 6 and a half minutes down on Liljeroth.

The overnight top 3 of the W18A course switched round on day 3. Karin Persson from Sweden ran fast 8 mins/km to regain the lead, having lost it on the second day. Rebecca Roberts of SROC retained her second place position, only 40 seconds behind Persson. Meanwhile, yesterday’s winner, Rosemary Hodkinson of Nottinghamshire dropped back into third place, over 3 minutes behind Persson.

PeterB

Today's results can be found in full here.