Mason pulls away to secure fourth victory
FOUR races in and Ed Mason remains unshaken as the leader of this year’s OSA Recruitment All Terrain Challenge.
There were few surprises at the front of yesterday’s undulating circuit race around the Nature Trail as Mason immediately assumed the division one lead, tracked closely by Carl Holden and James De Garis.
Shortly after the halfway point, Mason surged into the lead and continued to gradually pull ahead for a 15min. 32sec. victory as Holden took second in 15-51.
The youngster has remained undefeated so far despite good competition from the defending champion and today’s track steeplechase event will play right in his favour.
‘It went well, I thought it would be a bit tougher – my legs didn’t feel great today but I got through that intact,’ Mason said.
‘It was another good race with Carl, I’ve had three very good races against him.
‘I’m feeling confident for tomorrow because, well, it’s my speciality track event so I should do quite well in that.’
Even closer was the battle for top woman, as four figures immediately took up contention nestled within the division three race.
Vanessa Rodrigues had to share her winning time of 19-39 with Mel Nicolle after the duo finished inseparably close in a sprint up the final hill, but Rodrigues remains top woman overall by a mere 11 seconds over Nicolle and is clearly enjoying the friendly rivalry the week has offered so far.
‘Our aim is to support each other rather than just to run hard and it’s good fun,’ she said.
‘It’s working out nicely for both of us and I think we are bringing out the best in each other.’
Consequently, neither the men’s or women’s overall leads have changed since the opening round last Sunday.
Bur more surprisingly, top man Mason’s biggest gains of the week came in Tuesday’s extra short and sharp Jerbourg Steps hill climb.
Mason started quickly and just about missed out on a sub 2-00 clocking as main rival Holden finished 12 seconds behind, doubled to 24 in the general classification system.
Tina Bury clocked 3-15 to take the women’s honours as Rodrigues fell just short with 3-18, but the latter still managed to make marginal gains on next contender Nicolle.
