Nopesport

Day one of the Purple Thistle in South Glen Affric was tough with very few runners getting close to 10min/km. Conditions were near ideal with only a few, admittedly heavy, showers catching the later starters. Even the midges were reasonably scarce.

The Mighty Thistle 12.7km was won by Mark Nixon in a remarkable 1:40, 14 minutes ahead of Dave Godfree and who beat Jon Musgrave by 2 minutes. Mark's Run was the more remarkable as yesterday he ran the 1999 WOC classic route in 2:20 Sarah Dunn was the first woman and Simon Gardener got a special prize for persistence - 4:04

The Big Thistle was won by by Steve Nicholson in an impressive 1:25, ten minutes ahead of Duncan Grassie and a further 6 minutes back, Nick Green. Helen Gardner finished in 1:49.

In the Medium Thistle (misnamed in my opinion) Graham McIntyre won in 1:04 for the 5.4 km. Lena Kask amd Fran Hoare were 2nd and 3rd.

The Small Thistle was won be Florence Haines with Morag McIntyre and Morven Dean also received prizes.

Sasha Cheplin won the 3.5km Baby Thistle at 10.5 min/km and Max Ledlie was 2nd.

Brooner said that tomorrow's times should be shorter - but then added that there was a bit more climb!

SIman