Scotia leads the way in Italy

[madmike]

Park World Tour Italy Day 1, nopesports update:

Scotia an excellent 2nd behind Lysell in M21E with Rocky 5th just in front of Osterbo and well clear of Hubmann.

Srollins 5th behind 4 Swiss Girls and 10 secs up on Tess in 6th.

Strider still trying to convince the officials he started 2 hours late we are not listening And even if he gets his 2 hrs back he is still behind Murgatroyd!

Mr Srollins 2nd on M35 (4 secs quicker than Srollins for same course- severe map geeking going on now) Madmike in 10th on M35, OK, I admit it there were only 13 runners and 3 of them had 1 leg.

The top guys well under 4 mins/km and some bloke called Jorgen Martensson or something like that leads M50.

The circus moves off to the picturesque park of Villa Doria Pamphilli for the middle distance tomorrow (it will be overplanned like today methinks having seen the distance).

Last event there was planned by err......madmike in Jan 2012 so no excuses for not beating at least one person with all his limbs. Sunday will see Villa Borghese sprint race, which will be around the park where I run 3 or 4 lunch times a week - another place where I will struggle to find a credible excuse for my inepitude

[madmike]

Hot, fast and more hills than yesterday. Another 2nd for Scotia today behind Lysell 17 secs or so over 32 mins) with Rocky not to far back after holding the early lead. Undoubted star of day was Tess who had a really nasty fall on the way to number one, picked herself up and ended up finishing 3rd splitting the Swiss girls (well done you). good run also from Srollins who was 4th so all 4 Brit elites are there or there abouts after 2 of the 3 stages, with Scotia looking well set to be on the podim over the 3 days and Tess, SRollins and Rocky all contending at the sharp end.

And for the age groupers - Strider got up in time to make his start and Mr Srollins won M35 to take the overall lead with madmike beating the 3 guys with one leg and even one with the usal number of limbs.

Formal results should be available later this evening.

[madmike]

Scotia 2nd, Rocky 5th. Rocky 17 secs behind Osterbo but 17 secs infront of Mueller. Strider in 33rd getting 90 secs back on Paul M in 36th.

Tess 3rd only 81 secs down on Ines Brodman with Srollins 25 secs and one place back from Tess.

Good run today from LOG's Amanda Roberts on W50 too with 8th place. Mr Srollins does indeed lead M35 after comfortable victory today.

[madmike]

Scotia ran well today but Lysell held on to win and take the title. Rocky remained 5th with Mueller sneaking the final podium place.

Tess and Srollins both ran well today but with few seconds only seperating the top girls little changed. Tess got the third slot on the podium and Srollins outperformed Birgitta to get 4th place outright.

Mr Srollins smashed the M35 field for the overall win and Amanda Roberts continued her strong performances in W50.

Madmike was allowed to start one minute after Innes, 2 minutes after Rahel and 3 after Tess - and never saw any of them again Orienteered as close to technically perfectly as you can (helped by good prior knowledge of the area and having put out some of the controls) and still was 6/7 mins down on the top ladies - they where shifting.

An incredibly hot day but in summary, the 4 British Elites all did extremely well (and 3 of them with lots of mileage in the legs from the training camp the week before). Looks like it could be a good season for all 4 - hope so. moreover, the LOG gang seemed to have a blast too.