RESULTS

Netfit Challenge 2003
David Lloyd, Watford, 28 June 2003

Results (also available from www.netfit.co.uk)

The David Lloyd Fitness Centre in Bushy near Watford played host to the second annual Netfit Cross-training Championships at the weekend (28th June 2003). The event this year would help raise funds for the charity of Blind Sport, in a fantastic venue and with more than 200 competitors competing in the three categories of Novice, Open and Elite, it was sure to be a great day. Pretty much all of the top male and female cross-trainers over the past few years were there to battle it out on the day and quite a few newcomers proved that they may well be a force to be reckoned with at future events.

Unfortunately, this was probably the first time that treadmills were not to be included in a cross-training event, but it didn’t seem to detract from the fierce battles taking place in all five lanes. This meant that there were to be eleven disciplines which included alternate squat thrusts, recumbent bike, shoulder press, stepper, sit ups, bench press, upright bike, step ups, bench jumps, row and shuttle runs (with wieght carry). All the disciplines were completed in that order with ever increasing weights, reps and distances from the Novice to Elite category.

All of the Novice competitors that I spoke to on the day said that they had enjoyed the competition, even though it was a pretty tough one, and I thought that it was nice to see so many Novice competitors and new faces at a X-training event. Graeme Lloyd, the spokesperson for the charity Blind Sport did fantastically well to take second place in his first ever cross-training event, the top spot being taken by Pat Dooher just 30 secs quicker. Naomi Peters took the ladies' title in a time that was only just outside the mens third place finisher, Paul Lissenburg. Jo Holloway and Hannah Wright took second and third respectively. The step up from Novice to Open Category seemed to be a big one and with the exception of a few, most of the competitors were seasoned athletes who had competed in X-training events before.

Having personaly been drawn in the first heat against my fellow Stroud training buddy Donnie Ellis, it would be interesting to see how much Donnie had improved, having trained with Lee Rankin over the past few months in preparation for his (Lee’s) TV appearance in The Hercules Challenge (due to be shown on the BBC later this year). Well, I guess days of training including 4-5 hours of mountain biking and running had suited him well as he pulled away after the first bike and I never really got the lead back. My day was unfortunately marred by a reoccurrence of a calf tear during the box jumps and so once again I had to settle for a DNF next to my name.

As the heats went on, the finish times were getting faster and faster, although not many people were seen running the 13 shuttle runs with the 15kg disc weights in either hand. The end discipline proved to be more of a farmers walk (a la world’s strongest man) type of event and a real ‘killer’ for most after the row.

The Ladies Open title was won by Michelle Parson’s protégé Helen Barnett. Helen was the only person (including the men) to go under 20 mins! Sally Simpson did well to just edge out Dawn Ratchford and took the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Mark Glock hung on to gold in the mens event from the fast improving Paul Cooper and Hywel Davies’ protégé Paul Fisher took the bronze in his first ever competition!

Many tongues were wagging during the Open category as to how on Earth were the Elite ladies going to carry the same 15kg discs as the Open men and how were the Elite men going to manage 25kg discs?

The first heat of the ladies race saw a fantastic battle between Phillipa Armitage, Sue Regan and the tallest lady in the race Jemma Broadgate. The girls were neck and neck all the way to the final discipline and all girls produced a gutsy performance, Jemma pulling away on the rower and winning the heat easily in the end. Jemma would now have to wait and see what the second heat could do and if she could hang on to a top position.

The second heat once again provided a much anticipated match up between Michelle Parsons and Multi-Xzone winner and former European triathlete Sarah Coupe. Also in this heat were Jaqui Macquisten (3rd member of the Bupa fitness ladies team) and multiple X-training event winner herself, Becky Ceil. There was a little pre-race talk, that because there was no runner, perhaps this tipped the scales towards Michelle slightly. This may well have been the case, as Michelle seemed to be a little quicker on all the weighted disciplines, but Sarah would pull away on each of the cycles and eventually on the row for a decisive lead going into the shuttles. With a four-lap lead on the shuttles, I must say that I was well impressed that Sarah ran all 13 laps (with slight pauses for grip adjustment) even though she didn’t have to for the win. Michelle hung tough for a well-earned second spot and the neck and neck battle between Becky and Jaqui continued. A slightly quicker row by Becky meant that she would take the 3rd place in this heat, with Jaqui just a few seconds behind. Although Becky and Jaqui were to push themselves to fantastic finishing times, neither was quick enough to beat the time Jemma set in the previous heat and so they had to be content with 4th and 5th respectively.

The mens Elite race was going to come down to who could max out on the cardio exercises and still have enough in ‘the tank’ to get the 50 rep bench press out. Not many guys got the bench in one hit and this seemed to be the difference, reflected by the overall positions. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hywel went on to take yet another title with Steve Quick almost a minute behind in second place. Organiser of the event Roscoe Nash proved that running around organising people and making sure everything ran smoothly, did not detract from his performance by taking the third place from a very tired looking Lee Rankin.

So all in all, a fantastic event, loads of great racing and most importantly, lots of new faces. Even if most of them looked a little worse for wear at the end of the shuttle run, I’m sure they will be back for more. Well done to the Netfit team for the organisation and smooth running of the event and so to the next one ...

Ade Clift

	Womens Intermediate	Time
1	Naomi Peters	12.40
2	Jo Holloway	13.11
3	Hannah Wright	13.50
4	Sarah Connoley	14.02
5	Lucy Ceil	14.12
6	Margaret Wade	14.52
7	Debbie Wilkinson	14.52
8	Emma Chilves	14.58
9	Christine King	15.06
10	Claire Chambers	15:09
11	Inese Edgcumbe	15.15
12	Anna Fishlock	15.22
13	Ci Swain	15.22
14	Frances Walton	15.24
15	Macarena Young	15.42
16	Dina Macoy	16.02
17	Marion Eagles	16.20
18	Cathy O'Connel	16:21
19	Nikki Burns	16.28
20	Veronica Blythe	17.05
21	Sam Brown	17.59
22	Terry Parkinson	19.08
23	Valeria Gore	21:04

 

	Mens Intermediate	Time
1	Pat Dooher	11.45
2	Graham Lloyd	12.16
3	Paul Lissenburg	12.36
4	Anthony Powell	12.47
5	Mark Drury	12.59
6	Philip Young	13.02
7	Jon Tennant	13.07
8	Tony Millard	13.12
9	Keith Ible	13.19
10	Tom Renault	13:22
11	Nick Grimer	13.26
12	Ryan Coyle	13.34
13	Brian Botting	13.38
14	Mark Waller	13.47
15	Nigel Pinney	13.53
16	Paul Rickleton	13.57
17	Ryan Freckleton	14.08
18	Steve Spearing	14:08
19	Michael Cleary	14.09
20	Kevin Cooper	14.22
21	Mark Glock	14.25
22	Derek Ireland	14.30
23	Huw Neale	14.55
24	Rick Meadows	14.56
25	Ben Wardon	15.03
26	Micky Dyer	15:04
27	John Adams	15.24
28	Bob Ferrey	17.28
29	Anthony Wright	18.27

 

	Womes Open	Time
1	Helen Barnett	19.23
2	Sally Simpson	20.17
3	Dawn Ratchford	21.33
4	Beverly Scarth	21.41
5	Sue Turner	22.14
6	Kim Harvey	22.15
7	Carmel Bassett	22.20
8	Gemma Miller	23.04
9	Caz Secular	23.50
10	Rosie Donaghy	24.06
11	Julie Cox	24.35
12	Diane McBrown	25.32
13	Carly Connolly	25.46
14	Cathie Barrett	26.12
15	Heather Maddocks	26.56
16	Val Sharland	30.15

 

	Mens Open	Time
1	Mark Glock	20.31
2	Paul Cooper	20.45
3	Paul Fisher	21.41
4	Trevor Thompson	22.09
5	Marc Carson	22.13
6	Peter Byrne	22.21
7	Simon French	22.22
8	Tony McGarr	22.38
9	Jeff Leigh	22.43
10	Richard Fenwick	22.50
11	Steve Chissel	22.51
12	Donnie Ellis	23.04
13	Tony West	23:07
14	Steven Bonnett	23.17
15	Andy Lett	23.34
16	Marc Scriven	23.37
17	Peter Davidson	23:47
18	Steve Dowse	24.08
19	Simon Bellinger	24.14
20	Lee Hickman	24.16
21	Sylburn Miller	24.30
22	Gary Nicholls	24.43
23	Nick Randle	24.56
24	Dave Tams	25.15
25	Dave Coard	25.15
26	Trevor Simpson	25:22
27	Robert Soanes	25.32
28	Richard Vidgen	25.44
29	Phil Walker	25.50
30	John Bennett	25.57
31	John Hansen	26.10
32	Graham Smitham	26.16
33	Tony Fountain	26.29
34	Darwin Bleach	26.40
35	Farouk Vawda	26.52
36	Steve Hyland	26.53
37	Michael Tresise	27.29
38	Mario Pretie	27.49
39	Lee Holdaway	27.59
40	Jonathan Cooper	28.06
41	Phil McBrown	28.56
42	Dave Middleton	29.33
43	Nick Hudson	29.35
44	Anthony Meehan	29.46
45	Mark Kipping	29.47
46	Tony Howes	30.06
47	Eddie Carlin	31.23
48	Leroy Tyrone Valentine	31.30
49	Clive Wilsden	31.35
50	Chris Granville	32.07
51	Stephen Smith	32.32
52	Frank Thame	33.14
53	Cornel Grant	35.20
54	Dave Mercer	38.24
55	Ade Clift	Retired
56	Paul Burns	Retired
57	Ricky Munster	Retired
58	Matthew Jackson	Retired

 

	Womens Elite	Time
1	Sarah Coope	25.41
2	Michelle Parsons	28.24
3	Jemma Broadgate	30.13
4	Rebecca Ceil	30.19
5	Jacqui MacQuisten	31.07
6	Philippa Armitage	32.52
7	Sue Regan	33.48

 

	Mens Elite	Time
1	Hywel Davies	26.14
2	Steve Quick	27.07
3	Roscoe Nash	27.10
4	Lee Rankin	27.42
5	Adam Horder	28.58
6	Kirk Gibbons	29.08
7	Will Whitmore	29.41
8	Cai Britton	29.45
9	Glenn Cooke	30.07
10	Nik Kandola	30.25
11	Micky White	30.38
12	Gary Nicholas	30.44
13	Leondro Natale	32.02
14	Andy Wood	32.22
15	John McAvoy	32.34
16	Steve Watts	33.28
17	Paul Holdaway	33.34
18	Phil McConnel	34.12
19	Adrian Scragg	34.54
20	Chris Salmon	35.06
21	John Percy Did race - no time Will update soon.