After an hour and a half of running and 25 gruelling kilometres, only 10 seconds separated the first two runners in the Burnie Trophy House/Troy Atkins Accounting Professional Cross Country Club of Tasmania’s Iron Man Classic at Forth on Sunday.
Shearwater runner, Ben Hoare, who was one of the strong favourites for the event, held on to beat the rank backmarker, Thomas Murton, in a very exciting race. Hoare, whose father Chris had won this event back in 1993, was delighted with the win. He was not confident of winning until the final 200 metres, despite having taken the lead with about 2 kilometres to run, as he knew Murton was closing fast.
The race starts and finishes at the Forth football ground and takes in a circuit in the Forth Valley which includes some big hills after a gentle flat first 10 kilometres along Wilmot Road.
Sarah Hiller, off a front mark, lead for most of the race. She was closely pursued by Aileen Powell with Gerard Leary also looking a possible winner at the halfway mark at Melrose.
However there was no denying Hoare as he powered through the field until taking the lead on the downhill return to the Forth township.
Brad Taylor, Matthew Atkins and Mark Saint-John all ran excellent races to finish within the top six.
Thomas Murton (1:28:52) was fastest male with Sally Haynes (2:03:38) fastest female.
Earlier in the morning the winners in the nominated time events were Lisa Purton, Will van Rooyen and Laura Wilson.
3 Comments
Sarah Hiller · 19 June 2016 at 4:32 PM
Congrats to Ben. A well deserved win.
Peter Hoare. · 19 June 2016 at 7:49 PM
Great run. Well done.
Stuart Wilson · 19 June 2016 at 8:02 PM
Well done ben wasnt there due to virus but obviuosly a top run congrats from a bloke who has been beaten into second place twice in this event by a Hoare!! Lol Stu Wilson