Man Beats Horse

Rob / 24.06.2004

When Huw Lobb finished the recent William Hill Man V Horse Marathon in 2.05.19 he became the first runner to beat a horse in the race, and won £25,000. (The first horse home was Kay Bee Jay, ridden by Zoe White, in a time of 2.07.36.) The cash was the longest running unclaimed sporting prize in the UK (this was the 25th race) and Lobb received huge media coverage for his achievement.

The next fastest time, which also beat the horse, was by Royal Marine Mark Croasdale, who crossed the line in 2.06.00. Croasdale has been running Man V Horse for over 10 years and has won many times, including last year in a time of 2.11.16. Before this year he’d been the closest to beating the horse, coming with a minute of doing so over the hilly 22 mile course which runs from Llanwrtyd Wells in Mid Wales, but when he finally succeeded Lobb finished 41 seconds quicker and scooped the prize!

Lobb is an elite marathon runner who races with Bedford County Athletic Club and this was his first attempt at the Man V Horse, which had 500 runners and 47 horses competing this year. He managed to break away from the pack at about the 10-mile mark but as it’s not a staggered start he had to wait 15 minutes on the finish line to find out he’d won the race and the prize. Not surprisingly he said he was “ecstatic” and added he might use some of the money for training holidays in the winter.

The sponsors, bookmakers William Hill not only had to pay out the prize money, but also all the bets taken that a man would finally win – at odds of 16/1. \'This is a fantastic achievement which I have always believed could be done in the right circumstances\' said Graham Sharpe, their spokesman.