Nopesport

Touch Estate

When the going gets tough in Touch, the tough get going. Scott Fraser and Sarah Rollins won the UK Cup middle distance races at Touch on Saturday, after strong showings through the latter stages of the course.

The event proved to be a tough and technical season opener for the top class field, which included almost all of the British squad as well as a number of top overseas runners, tempted over by snow free competition and world ranking points on offer the next day. For many, it was the first proper racing of the season, and the technical terrain and middle distance format was unforgiving of small mistakes and hesitancies as many runners complained that their technique was rusty and struggled to get their orienteering up to race speed.

In the women's race Cat Taylor held a 40 second lead coming into the spectator control. Unfortunately that quickly disappeared after breaking her compass and losing 90 seconds over the next couple of legs, as well as confidence over the latter stages of the course, but it was still a strong showing from the Edinburgh University student in her first outing as a senior. It was instead Sarah Rollins who held the lead for the second half of the course, finishing just seven seconds clear of Rachael Elder in a time of 28:36, with Grace Grane a further 12 seconds down. Cat Taylor finished in 8th in a time of 30:13, just two seconds behind the top junior Mairead Rocke, with less than 2:30 covering the top ten.

Following his victory at the British University Championships a few weeks ago where he was impressive round the latter section of the course, Scott Fraser won again on Saturday after finding his form while others perhaps struggled. Scott said he was happy with the result but not with the performance, adding: "It took me until the spectator to get into the flow. Before that i was rushing decisions, consequently making lots of small mistakes". Certainly round the final loop he was the strongest and cleanest in the forest, winning five of the final eight split times on his way to opening an 18 second gap over Matt Speake to in in a time of 29:44, with Oli Johnson in 3rd, almost a minute back. The rest of the top ten in the men's race was, like in the women's, closely packed with less than 2:30 separating them.

The top juniors on the course faired well against their older counterparts, Pete Hodkinson finishing in 14th with a time of 33:13, seven seconds clear of Alasdair McLeod in 15th.

Touch Men's Course Part 1 - click to enlarge

Touch Men's Course Part 2 - click to enlarge

Men's Open: 5.400km 220m

Women's Open: 3.975km 155m

Full results, Winsplits, SplitsBrowser and  Routegadget.