Tough Guy Nettle Warrior (Winter 2002)
January 29 Wolverhampton

Report by Ade Clift

The last weekend in January and time for the Winter Toughguy event. Thankfully for the competitors, this year's weather although very muddy under foot and drizzling with rain, was nowhere near as bad as last year's freezing conditions.

There were quite a few top names competing and it was a year that saw the return of five times Champion Aled Rees. Lee Rankin was looking to better his position of last year as was Phil McConnell who was suffering with a little lack of sleep after the birth of his son in December. Hywel was there, as was defending Champion Geraint Florida-James and Summer Champion Neil Ashcroft. I had given my own entry to Roscoe Nash of netfit and it would be interesting to see how he faired after his six lap effort at Last Man Standing 2001.

The event started promptly at 11am and we only just made it to watch what seemed like a never-ending amount of competitors come over the top of the first hill. Thousands of people, some dressed in tartan kilts and wigs (it was a Braveheart theme this year) followed some way behind the top guys who all sprinted off at 100mph so as to get a good lead prior to reaching the obstacles.

Having watched most of the competitors disappear into the distance, we carefully made our way through the muddy paths to a better viewing position by the rope section of obstacles. From our viewing point, we could see the Tiger (the first obstacle) in the distance and it was just a case of waiting to see who was going to reach it first.

As soon as we heard the crowds of spectators cheering we looked to see who it was - Hywel, Geraint, Aled or someone else? It turned out to be Aled Rees and there was noone else in sight. It was an amazing lead which turned out to be some seven and a half minutes and there was no way that he was going to be caught.

As the next competitors made it through the obstacles, Geraint came through the Tiger just outside the top ten as did Lee Rankin but where was Hywel? Unfortunately, we found out later that Hywel had to pull out of the race with a badly bruised ankle. He was in second place at the time but realising that he would not catch Aled and may make the ankle worse, wisely made the decision to stop.

So with an unassailable lead, Aled went on to secure his sixth victory, followed nearly seven minutes later by Summer Champion Neil Ashcroft and third was taken by Paul Elias. Lee Rankin finished 16th, Roscoe Nash did exceptionally well to finish 36th and Phil McConnell finished just outside the top 100. The ladies event was quite close (certainly closer than the mens) with the High five girls Verity Butler and Gill Watson (joint winners in the Summer event) both finishing in the top five.

Check out the full results at www.toughguy.co.uk