Rover Dream Team Finals 2001
21 October
David Lloyd, Birmingham

Report by Ade Clift (Future Fitness)

The David Lloyd Health Club in Birmingham hosted the annual Dream Team Challenge at the weekend. Not for the first time, some well-known household names were in attendance. Several Olympic Champions had put together two teams, one male and one female team in order to compete against the seasoned cross-training specialists. How did they get on? I think it was an eye opener for the Olympians!!

Among the competitors were Karen Pickering from the world of swimming, boxing champ Audley Harrison, and Jason Quealy, our first gold medallist at the Games in cycling. There was also the sprinter Darren Campbell, Jonathan Edwards of triple jump fame, the decathelete Dean Masey and gold medallist rower James Cracknell, to name but a few. Some real talented athletes from British record holders through to World record holders in their own sports.

The day's events included the gym relay where every one completed a section each. The sections were: versa climber, 60Kg x 40 reps bench press, sprint cycle, shoulder press 30Kg x 40 reps, 150 box jumps, and the weight carry (mens events).

Several of last years teams had once again made it through to the final including
Lillie Road, Mini-Muscle, several David Lloyd teams, and, of course, the Netfit boys.
After our (Team Future Fitness) efforts last year, we had reluctantly decided to not enter a team this time, although two of our guys did take part. Phil McConnell had competed as part of the BG Max team, who just missed the final by virtue of a dubious decision on the sprint relay change-over, and Lee Rankin helped the Netfit boys out (like they needed it!).
Perhaps surprisingly, this year only one of the two Netfit teams made it to the final, leaving Roscoe Nash with the unenviable decision of which six to pick for the big day.
As it turned out, Andy Evans had sustained a hamstring injury and apparently Roscoe was also injured on the day. This leaving poor old Steve Quick sidelined - It's better watching anyway Steve!!

How did the Olympians do in the gym relay? Well, Darren Campbell really enjoyed himself on the bench press, just about managing to squeeze them out after several stops (apparently, he too was injured). James Cracknell wished his arms weren't so long on the shoulder press. On the weight carry Audley made the 120Kg dumbbells look like toothpicks, but despite this they placed close to last.
Netfit made no mistakes at all and were the winners of the first event, closely followed by Lillie Road Fitness and Mini-Muscle 1.

The 1.75 mile outdoor run proved to be an exciting race at the finish with the majority of final places being decided on the 100m uphill finishing straight. Welshman Rich Jones won the event easily for netfit and could almost afford to walk the last 50m. Netfit also had a few other top 20 finishers providing them with yet another over all win and top points. At this stage Lillie Road and Mini-Muscle were still in contention and were both reputable swimming teams. Which leads us to the 6 x 75m swim relay.

First off in the swimming events were the ladies. Now, with Karen Pickering in the ladies Olympian team, all they needed was one or two others to be reasonable and they would have 'cleaned up'. Unfortunately the last leg competitor turned out to be a brilliant runner and her three lengths breastroke meant that they finished in last position. Perhaps the men's Olympian team would fair better.

Having declared before hand that he could not swim, Darren Campbell opted out of this one, leaving Jonathan Edwards and Audley to do the business. I thought Audley swam quite well for a bloody big guy who obviously doesn't use swimming as part of his training routine. However, much like the ladies, Jonathan Edwards' breastroke cruise meant that the men's Olympic team also finished in last position.

Netfit to their credit put together six fine performances to take top slot in the swim relay, from Mini-Muscle 2 and David Lloyd Bristol. They were now stretching away, but how would they all do in the individual performances?

The strength test proved to be a crowed puller with Audley entertaining the masses. Top points for personality, unfortunately the little 12 stone guy next to Audley continued to press out 120Kg, which meant that short of Audley breaking 200Kg, he would only finish near the bottom of the rankings.

The bleep test proved to be a mandatory win for the Netfit boys Richard Jones and Glenn Cooke who both reached well into level 12.

The rowing proved to be the crowed puller of the day. What was James Cracknall able to do along side a very intimidated looking Dean Masey? There had also been some incredible rowing earlier, not least by the Netfit pair of Lee Rankin who rowed a PB of 6min 27secs and Nick Lloyd who managed a phenomenal 6min 10secs. The boys were separated from the Olympians by the pair from Mini-Muscle 1 Charles Harris, who rowed 6min 16secs and his partner 6min 21secs. Less than a second separating second and third place! ... and to the Olympians: Dean Masey rowed a very creditable 6min 32secs with what had to be the worst technique of the day. What did Cracknall do? To the delight of the cheering crowed, he absolutely cruised a 5min 54secs to take their first top place finish of the day.

The ladies event saw an incredibly strong all around performance by Sarah Coupe's Bodyworks team, the girls winning the bleep test easily. Sarah did well in the row to place mid table but could not do too much about the Olympian rower who cruised 7min 10secs! Many PB's were set on the day including X-Zone Silver medallist Michelle Parsons with a 7min 32secs, well done 'chelle!

At this stage it was still very close for the top overall position between the ladies teams of Bodyworks, SIS and two others. It was slightly different in the mens event as Netfit had such a commanding lead that they only needed to beat one team to take the over all title again. Thankfully for them, the ladies Bodyworks team made no mistakes and became the over all winners of the event for 2001.

As with the ladies race, the mens was fast and furious. The roof nearly being lifted off by the atmosphere which was coming mostly from the Mix supporters. Jonathan Edwards was obviously happier on dry land, providing a lightning quick leg for the Olympians. Like the ladies event, it proved to be close as an individual event, but the overall title was predestined to go to Netfit for the fourth year in a row. The boys from Lillie Road Fitness picked up the silver medals and a great performance by the guys from David Lloyd Cheadle took the bronze.

So, a fantastic day's competition and the standard just seems to be getting better and better. Of what I consider the main Cross-training team events of the year
(Ultra-fit, X-Zone, UK Tropicana Champs and The Dream Team Challenge), I make that:

Netfit 2 Team Future Fitness 2

Well done on an excellent performance by Netfit and all other competitors,

See you in 2002!!!

Ade Clift