Haglofs Open 5 Adventure Race - Shrophire Hills

Open5 Finale in Shropshire

Press Release / 10.05.2013

The seventh and final event in the Haglofs Open5 Series of 5 hour Adventure Races took place on Sunday 5^th May from Church Stretton in Shropshire. Being the last race of the season, not only were there some great Haglofs kit prizes on offer to the winners, but there was also the event series trophies to be decided.

The planner for this event was Jim Rounsley who managed to design a course with plenty of ups and downs, from calf straining uphill running to quad screaming mountain bike trails to the top of the Long Mynd. Having said that, there were also some superb single-track downhill sections and some delightfully flowing, grassy downhill trails to relieve that lactate build-up.

At registration, competitors studied their maps and carefully planned their routes, trying hard to find a way to avoid too many ascents. At first glance, the mass of contour lines made the thought of clearing the course, quite a feat. Many of the top racers opted to miss a few of the low point run controls, in order to leave more time for the tough bike stage. However as the bike trails were all firm and dry, times were fast. Quite a few racers finished early, but having dropped run controls on the first stage, failed to completely clear the course.

Tim Higginbottom of Haglofs UK was the only racer of the day to clear the course and managed to score some bonus points for getting to the finish in less than 5 hours – he scored 664 points in total. He was closely followed by Alex Pilkington in 2^nd and Alan Hartley in 3^rd place in the male solo category. In the female solo category Julie Suddel l from the Go Outdoors team scored the highest points – 385, with team mate Vicky Harold took 2^nd place. Diana Fearnside was 3^rd.

Over to the pairs categories – Rosemary Byde & Lucy Harris came home as top scorers again with 574 points, which placed them equal 8^th on the overall scoreboard. Hot on their heels were the Castleberg Outdoors team Jill Eccleston & Sharon McDonald and in 3^rd Sue Booth & Louise Hanley. In the male pairs, For Goodness Shakes - Simon Enderby & Alistair Morris missed only one control scoring 595 points, but with 25 minutes to spare, I bet they were kicking themselves they didn’t bag the remaining 5 pointer to clear the course. Matt Unsworth & Gary Davies were close on their heels scoring 588 points, while Andrew & Adrian Savery came home in 3^rd place.

The mixed pair category was won by Melissa Farrant & Jake Spooner with 535 points, while in 2^nd place, Nicola McLeod & Tobias Whitmarsh from Team adidas TERREX scored higher, but lost a huge 60 points due to being late back. 3^rd place went to Caroline & Nick Dallimore.

The Haglofs Open5 Series prizes were also presented at the Shropshire prize giving. The best 3 scores from the seven events counted and the winners were awarded as follows:

Full results can be found on the Open Adventure website and photographs from the days racing can be seen on the Open Adventure Facebook Page.

The next series of Haglofs Open5 Adventure Races will start in October 2013 and continue each month until April 2014. Meanwhile racers can test themselves over 2 days in both the Lake District 2 Day Adventure Race and the Wales 2 Day Adventure Race. Or for a longer challenge, how about taking on the Coast to Coast Adventure Race, crossing through 3 National Parks by foot, bike, kayak & a tiny bit of swimming!