NICK DESPRES’ Telegraph Bay hillclimb record remains well intact, but one young lad last evening offered the possibility of it falling before he becomes old enough to buy a drink. Once the 84 contestants in the Abacus All-Terrain Challenge had suffered their two to three minutes of lung-busting pain, track stars Lee Merrien and Dale Garland attacked Despres’ mark of 1min 42sec.
Both men failed.
Merrien clocked 1-47 and Garland, bringing up the rear, 1-48.
Ahead of them series leader Steve Dawes posted 1-59 and his Division One rivals failed to break the benchmark two minutes, which so few have done.
But Matt Loveridge, just 14, showed everyone bar the two high-profile guests the way with a stunning 1-55, thought to be the fourth-fastest time in the seven years of the series.
‘Exceptional,’ veteran Paul Ingrouille described the youngster’s performance, Loveridge looking as fresh as anyone as he reached the top of the climb in the Jerbourg car park.
The women’s time-trial saw another junior produce a top run.
Gemma Mauger, 15, clocked the joint fastest time of the evening with 2-51.
Her time was matched only by Guernsey’s Aussie basketball star, Liz Kerr who is using the week to gauge her running fitness as she ponders a comeback to the sport she first cut a name for herself before concentrating on the hoop game.
Kerr, 31 this coming weekend, said the All-Terrain series was tougher than six games of basketball in six days to claim an Island Games gold medal.
‘With basketball you get to stop during a game and it is also a team game.’
‘This is the third race and I don’t have a lot of energy,’ said the woman from Sydney as she recovered.
‘I used to be rated nationally in cross-country and at 3k on the track in my under-18 days,’ she revealed.
With a 1,500m best time of 4-41 (the island record stands at 4-47) and a 3k time of 10min. Kerr obviously had a good deal of talent as a youngster, and as the series approaches halfway she is up to third in the women standings behind Louise Perrio and Frankie Middleton.
Article posted on 10th August, 2004 - 12.00am
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