By Stuart Leng

The Camberley Ice Breaker 2010

Lloyd Millichap organised his first competition last year, predominantly as an in-house club competition. This year having moved the venue just down the road into a fantastic new sports hall, he decided to try his hand at a national competition. He was rewarded with a full house of 72 entries and maybe Sunday might just be a better day for many athletes with no traffic worries and more people not at work.

The morning kicked off at the very unsocial hour of 8.30 with some of the judges going down the course. Farouk Vawda raced local athlete Olivier Jacquet, who has improved continuously over the last year. Olivier was an easy winner and his excellent time of 16:47 was to ultimately give him 12th place. Craig Horsfield set off two and a half minutes behind Mike Jones, caught him on the Shoulder press and finished with a superb time of 15:55. However, he had picked up three 10 second penalties for his foot not crossing the line on the shuttle runs and this lack of concentration actually cost him 3rd place. In saying that, Craig looked right back to his best form of 2009.

The Men's Intermediate category then followed with a healthy 18 entries. Martin Parrish, who had provided a van to help transport the kit, raced first and found the going tough in 20:29. Thereafter, the times were very competitive and Gary Dorman had a very good race against Phil Brown with Phil edging  it by 10 seconds in 11:16. William McKeever was a new name from USA and he put in a very accomplished performance in 11:28 in an excellent race against Olly Sturt with 11:09. Sean Blyth then had the better of Gareth Rees all the way down the course until the shuttle runs and Gareth's ultimate running superiority won him the race by 23 seconds in what was then the fastest time in 10:43. Carlo Zoccolli was always chasing Alan Taylor's tail in the next race and Alan , a very accomplished athlete at this level, took the overall lead with 10:10 and ultimately finished 4th. Sam Manning, a young athlete of immense promise raced the experienced Phil Penfold in the penultimate race and it was very competitive all the way down the course. Sam took command in the last few disciplines and his time of 9:48 was to give him 2nd place, with Phil 2 seconds behind Alan Taylor in 5th. The very consistent Stacey Cross, who travels to just about every competition raced Hampshires David Lightower in the final race. David's superiority on the bike gave him a 30 second lead which he held to take victory in 9:34, with Stacey finishing 3rd in 10:04

There were just 7 entries in the Ladies Intermediate, with six being from the local Fitness First. All the competitors put in good times and Gabi Silva just edged Fros Andreou by 1 second for 4th in 12:01 despite picking up a penalty on the shuttles. Helen Knowles and Melanie Roberts had a really good race for 2nd and 3rd, with Helen finishing the stronger in 11:11 and Melanie achieved 11:45. Becky Robert had to race on her own and she powered down the course with her excellent shuttle running proving a major difference. 10:20 was a quality time and her training for tough guy had obviously benefited her. The nightmare of Hampshire truly buried!

There were just 7 entries for the Ladies Open, but with Nicky Humphrey being ill and two local no shows, only 4 actually took part.In saying that, we were provided with two very good races. Amber Anderson and Sarah Connolly swapped places frequently down the course, but Sarah ultimately had the edge by just 6 seconds in 18:17.

The final race between two of the greatest campaigners in the history of the sport was always going to be a difficult one to call. As expected, Trudi was just a little bit quicker on Chest and Shoulder and superior body weight also gave her the edge on the bike. Becky couldn't pull it back on the run and was 19 seconds behind in 16:13. Another classic performance from Trudi in 15:54.

There was a very healthy entry in the Men's Open. Nigel Hodges,a very progressive and capable athlete was racing way too early in Race 1 and slaughtered Mark Williams with a time of 16:32, giving him a top ten finish with 7th. He will be knocking on the door later this year. In Race 2, David Tutt also looked to be racing too early and his time of 17:34 was too hot for Roy Summers.. There were two Ultrafit stalwarts Shaun Flood and Dave Hall in Race 3. Dave's superior strength, including one of only four knock the shoulders out in one hit, gave him victory in 18:09. There was another good race to follow, with Andy Watson, an Ultrafit and Tropicana competitor losing out to Simon Bartlett by 11 seconds in 18:40. The next performance of  note was Ian Jennings who comfortably beat Russell Stenning with a really good time of 17:32 and that performance was highlighted when the ultra consistent Gary Nicholls won the next race in 17:06.

Now we were into the last five races and Simon Bellinger against Adrian Scragg looked a classic battle of the strength athletes. Adrian hadn't raced since Dragons 2006, but had lost none of his ability and he finished comfortably ahead by 49  seconds to finish 4th in 15:44. Nelson Anderson against Jamie Spencer looked a difficult call but Jamie was strangely out of sorts in 18:51 with Nelson, Mr Consistency an overall 6th in 15:59. Dan Edge, who has only recently returned to the sport and with only one Open race behind him, was being put under a little pressure by racing late against Martin Carter, who himself hadn't raced at all last year. Martin just edged it by 10 seconds in 16:34 only 2 seconds behind Nigel Hodges and one behind Simon Bellinger!

The penultimate race saw the welcome return of Andy Lett against the much improved Steve Dowse. Steve edged it by 18 seconds to take an excellent 3rd place and the key station was the bike, where Steve built up this lead. The final race featured Steve Mead, fresh from a gem of a performance at hampshire and Richard Vint, who was returning from an achilles operation last August. Richard had obviously not wasted his time out and his upper body power was as equally as impressive as his cardio ability, which has been so impressive. He was one of the four to go straight through the shoulders and was a very comfortable winner in 14:08 and he would have taken some beating on this performance. Steve had another great race and should be proud of his 2nd place in 15:04.

An excellent start to the year and I am sure there will be another healthy turnout at Brighton