Nopesport

Spring Cup Weekend

The second race of the Spring Cup weekend has been and gone. The standard for the classic race was much higher than the previous day’s night race due to the status of World Ranking Event. Nine of the world’s top 25 ranked men ran in H21E1 (slightly longer than H21E2), and ten of the world’s top 25 ranked women ran in D21E.

Times were particularly fast, the winner of the H21E covering the 12.0km in 57 mins, and the D21E course of 8.3km being won in 46 mins.

There were still a number of top British performances, and with the Elite courses being the spectacle of the event, this was the main attention for the day, and GB were well placed in these courses. Jamie Stevenson, Great Britain’s world sprint champion had a fantastic run to catch up Swiss international David Schneider and top Australian Troy de Haas, and they powered round to give Jamie 2nd place, a good start to the season in front of some of the world’s top athletes. Dan Marston had a good run to confirm his place as one to watch for international stardom this year in 11th place. One of the top performances from a Brit came from first year M21 Matt Speake, who had a fantastic run to gain 13th place on H21E1, just 3 mins behind the winner, and in front of the Finnish world champion Pasi Ikonen.
There was a shock in the D21E results as multiple world champion Simone Niggli-Luder DIDN’T win, though she was beaten by a fantastic run from top Swede Jenny Johansson. Sarah Rollins had a good performance to put her just inside the top 10, and she certainly gained from starting 1 minute in front of Johansson.
In the H19-20E Switzerland’s junior world champion Matthias Merz showed that his winter training has been going well, winning by 24 seconds from a trio of Norwegian’s. No spectacular runs from the Brits, though steady performances were had with 3 runs inside the top 33.
Mhairi Mackenzie had yet another top run in the D19-20E class, 4th place, just 2 mins behind Swedish international Helena Jansson.
H17-18E saw two top performances from British runners, with Oleg Chepelin in 5th place and Scottish team-mate Scott Fraser just behind in 7th.
D17-18E had another couple of storming British runs, with Cerys Manning leading the way in 8th place, and Helen Gardner less than a minute behind in 11th.
Tim Tett was Britain’s only win of the day, with a fantastic run on H40A to win by the rather small margin of 9 seconds.
Here are the British results from the classic race:

SPRING CUP CLASSIC RACE

D17-18E
1. Ane Linde OK PAN ARHUS 38:04
8. Cerys Manning TEAM GB 41:44
11. Helen Gardner TEAM GB 42:35

D19-20E
1. Helena Jansson IF HAGEN 42:13
4. Mhairi Mackenzie OK RAVINEN 44:36
20. Alison O’Neil TEAM GB 49:51
35. Liz Bridge TEAM GB 52:57
40. Suzy Robertson SHEFFIELD 54:05
55. Kathy Van Hee SHEFFIELD 61:35

D21E
1. Jenny Johansson ULRICEHAMNS OK 46:16
2. Simone Niggli-Luder ULRICEHAMNS OK 47:07
3. Minna Kauppi ASIKKALAN RAIKAS 47:29
=8. Sarah Rollins OK TYR 49:12
=39. Claire Ward TEAM GB 55:17
46. Helen Winskill TEAM GB 55:54
55. Kim Buckley OK RAVINEN 56:55
=63. Helen Palmer OK RAVINEN 57:29
76. Jo Stevenson SODERTALJE-NYKVARN 58:20
77. Jenny James SYO 58:21
=82. Pippa Whitehouse HERTS OC 59:06
89. Aislinn Austin TEAM GB 59:28
=105. Rachael Elder SHEFFIELD 61:25
=105. Jenny Whitehead TEAM GB 61:25
110. Hannah Wooton SHEFFIELD 61:50
113. Christine Currie SCJS 62:34
126. Laura Daniel OK RAVINEN 64:39
128. Clare Leventon SHEFFIELD 64:59
138. Alice Bedwell BRISTOL 67:35

D21A
1. Helen Martinsen IL GULAR 46:22
27. Martha Taylor SHEFFIELD 53:53

D35A
1. Carina Svensson EKSJO SOK 42:59
5. Sarah Hague CLOK 52:58

D45A
1. Lene Jensen HELSINGOR SOK 35:50
21. Alison Saunders HERTS OC 53:50

D50A
1. Ann-Britt Goransson ALMBY IK 37:27
5. Hilary Bloor TEAM GB 40:52

D60A
1. Jytte Kongstad FARUM OK 36:02
6. Susan Marsden HERTS OC 68:05

H17-18E
1. Mikael Kristensson OK TORFINN 41:48
5. Oleg Chepelin TEAM GB 45:46
7. Scott Fraser SAVEDALENS AIK 45:46
62. Daniel Tett SHEFFIELD 56:23
81. Tom Bray SCJS 61:02

H19-20E
1. Matthias Merz SWISS O-TEAM 50:31
22. Mark Saunders TEAM GB 55:46
30. Mark Nixon TEAM GB 56:31
33. Graham Gristwood TEAM GB 56:48
43. Chris Sellens TEAM GB 57:51
49. David Hodkinson TEAM GB 58:55
58. Daniel Halliday SAVEDALENS AIK 60:44
78. Rob Little SHEFFIELD 66:51
91. Colin Olivant TEAM GB 75:28

H17-20A
1. Adam Andreasson VANERSBORGS SK 53:19
8. Sam Evans SHEFFIELD 60:56

H21E1
1. Mats Haldin HALDEN SK 57:21
2. Jamie Stevenson IFK GOTEBORG 58:10
3. Jani Lakanen DELTA 58:14
11. Dan Marston BAEKKELAGETS SPK 59:59
13. Matt Speake OK TISAREN 60:39
17. David Brickhill-Jones HALDEN SK 61:01
48. Nick Barrable OK RAVINEN 62:52
56. Matt Crane ESPOON SUUNTA 63:10
76. Allan Bogle HALDEN SK 63:56
98. Ed Nash TEAM GB 65:38
102. Oli Johnson ESPOON SUUNTA 66:01
=107. Ewan McCarthy GO-NADS 66:18
110. Andy Etherden OK RAVINEN 66:32
128. Clive Parry FREDRIKSTAD SK 68:24
138. Neil Marston NYDALENS SK 70:27
141. Rob Baker SHEFFIELD 70:51

H21E2
1. Andreas Johansson HALDEN SK 62:57
5. Ben Rattray CLYDE 64:16
21. Murray Strain TEAM GB 67:42
27. Nick Morgan IL TYRVING 68:10
66. Neil Northrop SHEFFIELD 72:16
67. James Hargreaves SHEFFIELD 72:21
98. Niall Bourke AIRE 77:17
99. Duncan Archer HERTS OC 77:26
104. Ian Cumpstey LUNDS OK 80:12
115. Andy Middleditch SHEFFIELD 84:43
DSQ Pete Hodges SHEFFIELD
DSQ James Furness SHEFFIELD

H21A
1. Thierry Matthey IL GULAR 55:47
14. Phil Winskill SHEFFIELD 61:39
16. Stewart Caithness CLYDE 62:35
25. David Currie SCJS 64:35
=27. Ben Roberts GO-NADS 65:18
43. Alastair Brunton CLYDE 70:05
58. Ed Nicholas GO-NADS 74:06
61. Brian McCarthy GO-NADS 75:21
DSQ Jock Lawther GO-NADS

H21AM
1. Carl Waaler Kaas IL TYRVING 40:51
20. Ian Marsden HERTS OC 59:56
25. Jon Marsden HERTS OC 61:36

H35A
1. Bjarne Hoffman KOLDING OK 53:03
4. Dave Rollins OK TYR 54:24
16. Ifor Powell BRISTOL 65:00

H40A
1. Tim Tett SHEFFIELD 44:41
31. Mark Adams HERTS OC 60:27

H45A
1. Rolf Lund HELSINGOR SOK 39:42
11. Charles Daniel BRISTOL 46:11
67. David Saunders HERTS OC 65:17
DSQ Mark Saunders BRISTOL

H60A
1. Bengt Bergman LUNDS OK 32:07
=23. Keith Marsden HERTS OC 48:17