Taggart and Wilkinson put 'em to the sword at Long Mynd
Lloyd Taggart
Lloyd Taggart and Vic Wilkinson both scored excellent wins at yesterday’s Long Mynd Valleys race, the opening round in the 2011 English Fell Running Championships. However, the manner of their victories were in complete contrast.
Taggart is in top nick this season, with some strong performances in the last few weeks. The Dark Peak man had also warmed up for yesterday’s race with a quick sprint around the Titterstone Clee hill race on Saturday, opening up his cylinders in preparation for Long Mynd with a four minute win in a 20 minute race!
Chris Steele leads the 'selection' at Long Mynd
Still, this was a mere prologue was what was to be a titanic battle in the closing miles at Long Mynd, with a 8-9 man group together for much of the 11 or so miles around the Stretton hills in Shropshire. But come the finish line the result was the same, as Taggart sprinted away from Borrowdale’s Chris Steele for a 2 second win.
Coming onto the last ascent a group containing Tim Davies, Rob Jebb, Taggart, 2010 English Champion Rob Hope, Graham Pearce, Oli Johnson, Tom Addison and Chris Steele were all together, led across the stream by 2010 British Champ Davies (we will try and get Tim’s story, as the Mercia man went on to finish a distant 18th come the finish). And it was on this last climb that the main protagonists were to play-out the final scenes as this great race came to a conclusion, with Taggart escaping to a narrow win.
“It was a really tough race for this time of year”, 4th-placer Rob Hope told MST. “It was all decided on the last climb, with Lloyd and Chris Steele just getting away a little, and Lloyd outsprinted Chis by a second or two. Then Rob Jebb came in, then me. I was going well on the climbs, but struggling a little on the descents today, but was pleased with my race.”
In stark contrast to the men’s race Wilkinson’s win in the women’s event was emphatic. After a great winter of cross country for her Bingley club the GB international mountain runner is obviously in fine fettle. Leading from the off she ploughed her was through the classy field to win, ahead of Calder Valley’s Helen Fines and local (Shrewsbury) runner Anna Bartlett. 2010 English champion Lauren Jeska finished fourth with Jackie Lee in fifth.
Victoria Wilkinson leaps at Long Mynd
Wilkinson’s 51st overall out of the 389 finishers can be put in context by the fact that she was a massive 7 minutes ahead of Fines, the winner of the final round of the British Championships at the Black Mountains last year.
Full results are online now, with some great images courtesy of Al Tye and Graham Spencer over at Fell Running Pictures.
