The women got a 3 minutes start ahead of the man and only Reuben Stoby was able to catch them. PHOTO: Dean "The Sportsman" Greenaway
Reuben Stoby and Katrina Crumpler were the top men and women's finishers in Saturday's Blenheim Trust 5K Series tour stop on Beef Island, where the women had a three minutes start on the men and only Stoby managed to get to the line before the first woman.
Stoby-whose aim was to catch all the women-meandered the course from Long Bay Beach past the airport and return in 17 minutes and 56.6 seconds.
"The only thing is after I caught them, I slowed down a bit, but I wanted to run a faster time," he said. "It wasn't hard trying to catch them. I paced myself really well and I was just patient keeping an eye on them."
While he wanted to go faster, Stoby said he has been joined by his wife and child and had been spending time with them. "I was only able to do one speed session for the week," he said. "I still have that sub 17 5K in mind and I'll get back to training by next week."
Crumpler who held off Rosmond Johnson to with the women's division in 21:50.6, in a speed work tune up for the upcoming Boston Marathon, said she didn't want Stoby to catch her.
"He caught me well before the line and I tried to keep up with him, but he's too fast," she said. "I kind of knew he'd catch me and that was fine. It was a fun race. It was one of the closest ones in a long time. Rosemond was right behind me and I thought she was going to overtake me around two miles. She tucked in behind me and pushed me along and I stayed ahead of her but only by a few seconds."
Crumpler who has two training Marathons under her belt already this year, said she's aiming to do slightly better than the 3:23 she did in Boston a year ago. "It will depend on weather conditions on the day," she said. "We'll see. I'm just going to enjoy it really."
Final Results. Men: 1. Reuben Stoby, 17 minutes, 56.6 seconds. 2. Julius Farley, 19:21.5. 3. Guy Williamson, 19:46.9. 4. Martin Trott, 20:50.5. 5. Daniel Mitchell, 21:29.1. 6. Shane Donovan, 21:43.9. 7. Adrian Dale, 21:51.8. 8. Zebalon Mclean, 22:42.1. 9. Reu Rymer, 22:43.6. 10. Stefano Tasking, 22:57.1. 11. Patrick Ormond, 23:15.4. 12. Luka Chalwell, 24:04.3. 13. Claudius Rhymer, 24:51.0. 14. Gabriel Obregon, 26:02.0. 15. Dennis Delacruz, 26:36.6. 16. Luke Plummer, 26:37.4. 17. Dennis Versoza, 26:37.9. 18. Sammy Potgieter, 27:17.0. 19. Teejay Torres, 29:09.8. 20. Jim Cullimore, 30:29.2. 21. Howard Moore, 32:00.6. 22. Barry Leon, 36:34.7.
Women: 1. Katrina Crumpler, 21:50.6. 2. Rosmond Johnson, 21:55.4. 3. Melissa Brunner, 22:51.5. 4. Kay Reddy, 24:20.3. 5. Lauren Julien, 24:34.0. 6. Melisande Rowe, 24:41.5. 7. Juliane Potgieter, 27:17.9 8. Cayley Smit, 27:20.0. 9. Zoe Bickerton, 28:14.1. 10. Vanessa King, 29:52.7 11. Claire Santillan, 31:13.4. 12. Nedy Ador Dionicio, 31:40.1. 13. Saungie Liburd, 33:22.6. 14. Ghislaine Hoogendijk, 38:45.7. 15. Sydney Smith, 39:01.0. 16. Barbara Pinnock-Smith, 39:09.1.
Power Walkers: 1. Shirley Liburd, 47:14.9. 2. Dawn Nagar, 59:09.5.