Jack and Charlie win as Steve Guy seals Off-Road Champs –
22 September 2019
The Williams boys lead the way in the 3k at Black Hill
Since 2015 we’ve adopted this event as our warm-up for the forthcoming cross-country season and over the past five years Wimborne athletes have racked up some impressive performances (especially in the 3k and 5k races).
The Black Hill Run is a friendly, and extremely well run race over a challenging course. Having enjoyed a week of unseasonably warm weather the forecast for race day was not encouraging. The thunder and lightning did not materialize but there were some downpours. Despite this, with almost no wind, conditions were great to run in.
Numbers were down for the juniors 3k race, just 12 runners. Half of the field was Wimborne athletes. Congratulations to twins Jack and Tom Williams who claimed 1st and 2nd places. Third place went to the only non-WAC athlete in the first seven – Freddie Kimber of Poole Runners. Ten seconds back from Freddie was Luke Mogridge, but 1st girl, Evie Fuller kept him honest all the way to the line, she was just three seconds away. Next in for us was Noah Dance on his WAC debut (his red vest was fresh out of the bag that morning) and Imogen Rawles was 2nd girl a further four seconds back. Tom and Evie had both competed in this event in 2018. Both saw huge time gains from last year, Tom by over a minute and Evie by more than two minutes!
The 5k was won by Wimborne’s Charlie Davies, he’d won the 3k race in 2017. Tom Fuller, winner of last year’s 3k, was second. Ollie Rawles’ 3rd place ensured that all the podium places were claimed by Wimborne athletes. Early front runner Ben Vessey, who’s in his 20s, stayed ahead of Jay Dunn and denied Wimborne’s ‘Young Guns’ (16, 15, 15 and 14 respectively) a clean sweep at the head of the field. Jay had been 6th in 2018 in the 3k so 5th in the 5k was a big step up. Rob Rawles completed the WAC team with an 8th place finish meaning all our runners finished in the top half of the field.
The 5k and 10k races took place as a mass start of just shy of 300 runners. The 10k race formed part of Wimborne AC’s Off-Road Club Championship and there were valuable points up for grabs. Steve Guy, as first WACer home, secured the maximum 50 points for the championship. This puts him in an unassailable lead, having already recorded maximum points at the Tarrant Valley 10, the D’Urberville Dash and The Beast.
Our youngest guy in the 10k, seventeen year-old Josh Jack, saw an improvement of more than two minutes from last year. Meanwhile Daryl Davies, who represented Run Blandford here but is second claim WAC and will be representing us in the cross-country leagues, was next in. This was his second 10k race of the morning, he’d earlier competed in the Trust 10 from Knowle Beach, Studland! Mike Jurd’s result here looks to have secured him the runners-up spot in the club’s Off-Road Championship.
Graham Whiffen and Brendan Dunn completed the WAC contingent. Graham has just moved up an age-group, and is one of the cross-country team’s most long-standing competitors. Brendan stepped up from last year’s 5k when he came 2nd man.
With the Black Hill Run as our cross-country taster the early races in our season will be over comparatively easier courses, although bigger tests lay ahead later in the season.
3km race (12 finishers)
1 – Jack Williams – 13:06
2 – Tom Williams – 13:43
4 – Luke Mogridge – 15:06
5 – Evie Fuller – 15:09 – First girl
6 – Noah Dance – 16:10
7 – Imogen Rawles – 16:14 – Second girl
5km race (19 finishers)
1 – Charlie Davies – 24:12
2 – Tom Fuller – 24:26
3 – Ollie Rawles – 25:08
5 – Jay Dunn – 25:52
8 – Rob Rawles – 28:28
10km race (276 finishers)
26 – Steve Guy – 46:41
35 – Josh Jack – 49:20
44 – Daryl Davies – 50:32
47 – Mike Jurd – 51:07
91 – Graham Whiffen – 56:41
108 – Brendan Dunn – 59:12
