This Sunday members of the Professional Cross Country Club of Tasmania head to Forth for the toughest race on their calendar – the Burnie Trophy Centre/Troy Atkins Accounting “Iron Man Classic”.
Although not the longest race of the season (that being the Marathon in a few weeks’ time) this 25 kilometre race which commences and finishes at the Forth Football Ground is a great challenge. It involves a circuit in the Forth Valley which includes the tough Paloona Hill and the infamous “Hamstring Hill” at Melrose.
The top chances will be runners who have done a lot of kilometres in training and who are proven over this sort of distance and terrain,
Among these, club champion Thomas Murton, Mark Saint-John, Greg Smith and Ben Hoare stand out.
These runners all finished close up in the 16.5 kilometre Burnie to Ridgley run recently and could well fight out the finish. Saint-John was, in fact, a very close second in that race. Murton rang an excellent time of 32:40 in the Launceston Ten last Sunday to show he is in top form, but he will be giving a start to the other three and will have his work cut out.
Other chances include Bryan Tuit while Rebecca O’Garey and Sally Haynes will fly the flag for the women.
Runners are advised that due to the flooding at the Forth Football ground, the club rooms and showers will not be available after the race as usual.
Entries have closed for the race which will start at 9:00am. There will be nominated time events at 9:15.