11:40am Saturday 27th June 2009
The 2009 season of the RR10 off road race series will be remembered for many reasons.
They include the fabulous weather that has greeted most of the six evening events held so far.
But there have already been some serious twists in the overall story.
Race number 6, hosted by Stubbington Green runners, was held at Manor Farm Park with the echoes of the mishap of the previous event still very much on runners’ minds.
Lightning did not strike twice and over 320 competitors toiled round the five mile course in extremely hot and dusty conditions.
The race itself turned out to be a Winchester-dominated night for the second time this summer.
With individual winner Gavin Smith and second placed David Knapman taking the field by storm very early on, their team triumph was always on the cards.
Smith’s first series win came back in April at the Victoria Country Park. Second team were Southampton Running Club, who packed their five5 men inside the top 20 home.
The women’s race was a repeat of several earlier evening encounters between Team Southampton’s Laura Brenton, who has now recorded fourwins in her four races (dropping their ‘home’ race) and New Forest runner Erica Fogg, who gave a good battle for the first three miles but failed to pull back the deficit in the latter part.
Winchester ladies scored their three team members in the first 10 places to win overall from Team Southampton and Southampton RC.
l The venue for race number 9 on August 5 at Lordswood Fire Breaks has had to be dropped.
The managing agents for the woodlands, Forest Enterprise, were asking a fee the RR10 league are unable to fund.
Discussions are under way to replace the venue in order to fulfill the season’s commitment of 10 races.
It looks highly likely that the newly opened Fleming Park at Eastleigh, around the former golf course land, is going to prove to be the host park that saves the day.
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