Red hot running at the fifth annual Launceston Ten

Article by Chris from tasendurance.com

Forget the cold. It was red hot running at the fifth annual Launceston Ten.

They were all there! Who? The winners of all the big Tassie road races going head to head over the fastest 10km road course in Australia. Reigning Launceston Ten champ’s Martin Dent and Nikki Chapple, Burnie Ten’s #1′s Liam Adams and Lara Tamsett, Run the Bridge winner Lee Troop and City to Casino’s best, Grant Page and Mel Daniels.

In ideal racing conditions the race began with 10 male runners including Martin Dent, Liam Adams, Lee Troop, Tim Rowe, Michael Johnson, Grant Page, Josh Harris, Pat Smith and Dave Thomas established themselves in the leading pack with Jackson Elliott leading them through the first kilometre in 2m 51s. By the 4km mark (11m 35s) Lee Troop started to turn the screws with the leaders whittled down to five. Some of the Tasmanian’s were falling off including Page and  Harris, with Smith pulling out.

By the 5km turn around point Troop, Adams and Dent had made the decisive break with a split of 14m 28s. Lee Troop has been training heavily for the Gold Coast marathon where he will attempt to qualify for his 4th Olympic games, decided his best chance of winning today was to use his strength to take the sting out of the potenetially fast finishing Adams and Dent who were able to hang on through 6km (17m 09s) and 8km (23m 12s). As the race moved towards the final kilometre Dent had fallen off the back leaving Adams and Troop to slug it out. Down the final straight Liam Adams was able to find another gear and take the title in 28m 57s from a galant Lee Troop (29m 04s) and previous champ Martin Dent third (29m 15s). Adams was able to hit the after burner with a very fast 2m 46s last kilometre. “Troopy was really pushing it after 5km and I was just hanging on to the back.” stated a happy Adams after the race.

This win keeps a good record intact for Adams after a win at the skins big V 10km in Melbourne recently along with the Burnie Ten title last year. After suffering from a chest infection which has affected his performances in the last year, Adams is confident he will reach form for the national cross country titles and Zatopek 10km in December.

The lead up to the women’s race has had much interest with three time Burnie Ten winner Lara Tamsett making her first appearance in Launceston to take on race record holder and two time winner Nikki Chapple. These two and English woman Abigail Bailey distanced themselves early in a head to head showdown. As the race progressed Tamsett was able to drop Chapple and finally Bailey to take the title in 32m 42s with Bailey 32m 50s and Chapple 33m 07s. Tamsett has a big future at the age of 22, and will be making her half marathon debut on the Gold Coast in the next few weeks.

The race also doubled as the Tasmanian 10km road title, with plenty of our locals lifting to mix it with Australia’s best on a very fast track. Launceston’s David Thomas ran the race of his life so far to be first Tasmanian to finish, and 4th overall in 29m 42s, knocking off a few mainlanders along the way. Maybe his newly shaved head gave him some extra help. Josh Harris is also knocking on the door to go to the next level with a quick 30m 36s for second, and Grant Page not having his best run for third in 31m 07s. Local distance running has a promising future with 16 year old Jacob Birtwhistle finishing fourth Tasmanian in 31m 18s, which was a fairly large PB.

The womens race was also a great showdown with last years fastest Kate Pedley and form athlete Mel Daniels of Hobart having a close race, with Daniels taking the honours in 34m 52s from Pedley only 10 seconds behind in 35m 02s. Another big improver is Launceston school girl Natalia Smith  who was third Tasmanian in 35m 50s.

There is talk of the race changing location and starting in the city next year, which would mean that the race records may stand for some time.
Article by Chris from tasendurance.com

Results will be available at the Launceston Ten site.

Find yourself at Tas Run Photo’s if you were in the race.

More photo’s are available at the tas endurance facebook page