X-Zone 2001
May 19-20 RAF Cosford

Report by Ade Clift (Future Fitness)

For full X-Zone results see GymTrack (www.gymtrack.co.uk/xzone/results/results.htm)

See MPEG movie Hywel going up the rope (1.3 mb) and the finish of the Womens final (1.0 mb)

A fantastic weekend's competition, that once again proved to be one hell of a test of fitness endurance and I believe with the new equipment used, really did find 'the top two' in the Country.

Hywel on the stepper

A brilliant performance by Sarah Coupe to hold off our own Michelle Parsons by just a few seconds all the way down the course and win this year by the narrowest of margins. Sarah has obviously worked tremendously hard over the past year on her upper body strength, hence her ability to cope with the weights sections at both Ultra-fit and X-Zone. This proved to be the difference on the day and only the athletes who possessed both a high level of cardio-endurance combined with great upper body strength would prevail.

An excellent performance by Allison Elliot a former cyclist from the Tropicana Gym to take a deserved 3rd place, after saying that she would be happy to just make the final.

The result of the mens event was not a surprise, but it did prove to be controversial. Hywel led pretty much all the way - as expected - and with a 1 min 28 sec lead on the rower, nobody was going to even get close. He did slip up on the bike, though, and obviously has been watching too many old western movies. With Hywel finished, it just left the rest of the guys to battle it out for second and third places.

Where on earth did Steve Quick get that bike finish from? He got on to the bike over 30 seconds behind Lee Rankin and James Stephenson. A brilliant comeback to take third spot.

The bike Lee Rankin (centre)

 

Which brings me to the controversial bit of the mens race. James Stephenson held on to the top of the treadmill at least seven or eight times (the look that Hywel gave him said it all) and it looked like the shoulders would prove to be the undoing of James - or so we thought. He must of come down to the tops of his ears at least three times, with the rest of the reps coming down nearly to the top of his head and poor judging led to him being able to do all of the reps easily.

The final 'nail in the coffin' proved to be the rope (his undoing two years ago). James didn't quite make it and so encurred a time penalty (at least, we though it did). The race ended with Hywel winning, James in second (to be adjusted by time penalty), Steve Quick in 3rd and our Lee Rankin in 4th . Because the final times were so close this would unfortunately mean that James Stephenson would now be 4th, and rightly so.
At the end of the race, James had learnt that he had a time penalty and like a gentleman, shook Lee's hand and congratulated him on his 3rd place finish. This decision had been confirmed by race commentator Stuart Leng and pretty much approved by all the competitors, Stephenson included. So, it was a bit of a shock when the results were read out and in pretty much the worst case of unsportsman like conduct, James Stephenson stepped up to the podium and picked up the 2nd place prize. Did he have a guilty conscience? He couldn't get out of the room quick enough, not even waiting for the photo shoot!

Mens Winners Hywel Davies (centre), James Stephenson (right), Steve Quick (left)

 

Just why the judges let competitors get away with this is beyond me and perhaps when James Stephenson grows up a bit, he will realise that he is a good athlete and does not need to cheat to earn his position!

On to the teams, which once again threw in a little controversy. After last year, when teams were swapped and changed around from heats to finals in order to save the best five for the final. We were told that we were not allowed to do that this year, which would have been fine, had we been told before the heats and not afterwards.

The Future Fitness team, which would have included Hywel for the final, had to stay the same as the heats. Luckily Lee Rankin had done the heats (only because we couldn't get another rower) and so he was OK for the final. This may well have upset Netfit too, as they would obviously have saved their individual finalists for the final of the teams.
This was probably the reason that they opted for the Pro-sport team instead, although the lure of an easy £10,000 and some good publicity for Roscoe's guys also may well have had something to do with it - 'nough said!

We were all aware that some teams had changed from heats to finals. Mind you, some had to, as team members who had competed in the heats had actually left for their long journeys home already. We were not too bothered as Team Future Fitness who were sponsored by the supplement company SIS, had qualified in top spot by nearly two minutes in the heats. Sticking with the same team for the final, we finally managed to win one of the top events (4th place in all of the top events last year was no fun!)

I personally felt a little sorry for the Babes from Hell (last years defending champs) whose runner had put the shoulder press on 50Kg! Why, oh why, didn't one of the team question him? Christ, I wouldn't have put it on 50Kg from fresh! This unfortunately meant that they didn't qualify for the final, but I'm sure they will be back next year (the girls made up for their disappointment in the individual final.)

…and so to the Tropicana Champs!!!
I hope most of the top guys and girls will be there, especially as it may be the last one, due to the take over by LA Fitness.

Future Fitness - team champs (and Netfit)

Can Sarah Coupe take all three top titles this year?
I don't know if Hywel will attend this year as he has the small matter of the Summer Toughguy the next day, but if he is there, the rest of you guys had better bring a gun!

See you there……

Ade Clift
Team Future Fitness