Inter-Regional MTB Championships
Location: Hadleigh Farm, Essex
Event: 4-6 October 2013
Report: George Gilbert
The third and final day of the 2013 Inter-Regional MTB Championship saw the 14 teams representing the 10 English Regions, Scotland (North and South), Ulster and Wales compete in two cross-country events over the Olympic XC Course in Hadleigh, Essex.
With two days of competition already beneath their belts, the XC races provided the teams with the final test of their tactical, physical and technical prowess.
In the girls race, Ffion James of Wales won in a thrilling sprint finish just holding off National Champion Emily Wadsworth of Central by a bike length as they chased down the final straight. The final spot on the podium was equally well contested with Amira Mellor of Yorkshire just holding on to claim third place.
In the boys race, there was another incredibly close race, this time however the sprint went the other way with Thomas Craig of the North West passing Frazer Clacherty of the North East a few metres before the line to take the win. Mark Mcguire of Scotland North rounded off the boys podium in third.
In the overall team competition, Scotland North extended their already commanding lead to be crowned the 2013 Inter-Regional MTB Champions. The silver medals went to the North West who were also well clear of the chasing field.
As the overnight positions suggested, there was a fantastically closely fought mid-table battle with eight teams all in the hunt for the third spot. The East Midlands, who had held the third place coming into the first race of the day, slipped back however as Wales and Yorkshire took the advantage in the first race, and then Yorkshire closed the gap again in the final race - Wales however had done just enough to take home the bronze medals.
Behind them, in fifth spot were the North East, closely followed by Scotland South, East Midlands, South, South West and West Midlands. Central claimed eleventh place just pulling ahead of another very tightly spaced grouping at the bottom of the table between Eastern, South East and Ulster.
Congratulations go to all the teams for an amazing three days of racing; it is an enormous credit to the respective regions and nations that the standard of this event keeps on rising each year. Thank you also to all the staff, officials and other volunteers whose hard work enable this event to happen and provide such an outstanding platform for the strength and depth of youth cycling talent we have to flourish.
Results:
Boys’ Cross-Country
Girls’ Cross-Country
Inter Regional Championships
Please credit www.britishcycling.org.uk and link back if you use any of our race results.
British Cycling would like to thank the organising team, officials and everyone else who helped promote this event. Our sport could not exist without the hundreds of people, many of them unpaid volunteers, who put in many hours of hard work running events, activities and clubs.
