Nopesport

WAOC Chasing Sprint, Ampthill Park, 9th May

WAOC's second attempt to bring the thrill of the head-to-head competition
of a chasing sprint to East Anglia's masses was held at Ampthill last
weekend, and looks set to become an annual event. While the park is
small, it has a good mixture of open and wooded areas as well as some
surprisingly steep slopes, so some challenging short courses could be planned.

In the Men's Open class, East Anglian champion Rolf Crook (WAOC) built up
a two minute lead in the prologue, ahead of the CUOC pair of Alan Elder
and Ash Bown. Meanwhile in the Women's Open Helen Gardner (WAOC) headed
Rosemary Dyer (CUOC) by a similar margin. The Veteran Men's class was a
much closer competition, with Simon Errington (HH) leading Neil Humphries
(WAOC) by seven seconds, with Clive Street (HH) just two seconds further
behind.

The real fun at these events comes with the chase, of course, since nearly
all competitors started within a ten minute period, and with the first
500m of the course visible from the start most had a target in sight.
Both Rolf and Helen proved to be the class acts and were able to not just
maintain, but extend, their leads in the Open classes. There were some
closer finishes further back in the field, but few changes of position -
catching up is one thing, getting past is another!

As expected after the prologue results, the Veteran Men's race proved the
best spectacle, with Simon being pushed hard but hanging on to finish
seven seconds ahead of Clive. The fastest time on the chase was recorded
by Peter Haynes (SLOW), who closed the gap to the top three by a couple of
minutes but for whom the finish came too soon. The Veteran Women's class
was won comfortably by Nicola Gardner (WAOC) whilst the Junior classes
were won by Tim Street (HH) and Clare Woods (WAOC) in disappointingly
small fields - I'm sure there must be more juniors out there who would
enjoy the competitive element of this type of event.

For full results see WAOC website

MarkC.