Dragon's Back Race
The 3rd Dragon’s Back Race Closes
Rob Howard / 26.06.2015
The Berghaus Dragon’s Back Race wrapped up this evening with the presentation ceremony at the Llandeilo Rugby Club.
Race Director Shane Ohly spoke about the spirit of the event. “The competitors set the tone for the race,” he said, “with their attitude and approach and it’s a pleasure to be with so many friendly, happy people who are simply motivated to run in the hills. I know there are friendships made and tears shed (by racers, organisers and marshals) and that everyone will have memories to last a lifetime from the past week.
“The statistics of this race don’t lie, the distance and ascent mean it’s a very, very tough race. This year we had 300 applicants, accepted 150 and had 129 starters – with 60 full course finishers. That is a great result which I’m really pleased with.
“I have to speak about the amazing volunteers too who have worked all week, usually from 5am in the morning to 1 or 2 in the morning. There are 30 of them and we had over a 100 applications, so they are the crème de la crème of race volunteers! And of course we couldn’t have done this without the support of our sponsors, particularly Berghaus who do so much to support the race.”
He then called all the finishers up to receive their Dragon trophy, every one getting a huge round of applause and some having a particular story or importance to the race. The racers who had travelled so far to come to Wales, the furthest from Australia, one who returned after missing a cut-off in 2012, Littledave Cummins who is a regular Ourea Events volunteer and collected his trophy in a dragon costume, Joe Faulkner the only 3 times Dragons Back Finisher and father and son, Glenn and Huw Davies.
When he came to the top 6 Ohly pointed out that 3 of the top 6 finishers were women and the highest placed of these was Jasmine Paris in 2nd overall.
He called up Joe Faulkner to present the prizes for the first male and female racer, to Paris and Jim Mann, and each collected an iconic Dragon trophy, that both have shown such endurance and skill to win.
You can find the full results on www.dragonsbackrace.com ... and if you want to enter there are details of the next race, which is in 2017.
SleepMonsters
