Shannon Jones (Cockatoos) on the way
to 3rd place in W21E
The 2009 season of the SILVA National League opened today in the Adelaide suburb of Wynn Vale. The race was a sprint event which required a switch from high speed running to technical nous. It produced some tight racing, especially mid-field.
It was again Julian Dent who showed the men how it’s done with a commanding 45 second victory over the only person who seems able to threaten his dominance of the local scene – Simon Uppill. Starting a minute behind Uppill, Dent pushed hard during the early stages to get within sight of him and maintained his speed to take the victory. Grant ‘Frogga’ Bluett’s grey streaks may be showing, but his speed has not diminished and he took third. Nick Andrewartha had the performance of the day with a surprise fourth.
Similar to Dent, Hanny Allston was far superior to the rest of the field and took a 40 second victory. Allston, who has recently returned to Australia after a year long stint in New Zealand, overcame sickness to open her account for 2009. Jasmine Neve flew out of the start to taken the opening split then settled into her race and was good enough to take second only one second ahead of the smiling assassin, Shannon Jones.
Lachlan Dow had a barnstorming run to win the junior men’s and take sixth overall. Ainslinn Prendergast was the quickest junior girl and ninth fastest overall.