Ghiorse vanquishes young pretenders

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Chris Ghiorse won the men’s title in the 2013 BVI Steelman vanquishing young pretenders with a finish time of 2:37:05. Gillian Howe won the ladies field with a time of 2:59:34 and all-girl G.I. Janes (Liezl Van Der Schyf, Lisa Adamson and Kat Crumpler) cleaned up the teams division with a fast time 2:32:01.

A challenging event to begin with, the strong headwind battered the competitors as they completed the 9 laps (40k) of Beef Island, leaving little spare for the run of 20k to finish the race. They had started with a 1.5k swim.

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Defending champion Richard Morgan retired due to a previous rib injury, visitor Alex Scheer surprised the field and finished second just over two minutes after Ghiorse. Newcomer and potentially fearsome Guy Williamson put in a very fast run time just under seven minutes faster than Ghiorse who “can’t run” but it wasn’t enough to make up for a slow swim time; he came in third, 55 seconds behind Scheer.

Chris Ghiorse, although 6 minutes off his record-setting time in 2007, has quickly bounced back to form after a long period of slothfulness. Sally Blackmore still holds the women’s record she set in 2011 with a a time 10 minutes faster than Gillian’s… but she’s getting faster…

Kat Crumpler posted the fastest run time of 45:46, Orano Andrews was the fastest cyclist at 1:03:10 and Antony Spencer was first out of the water after 26 minutes and 53 seconds.

Abridged Results

BVI Steelman 2013 Results (abridged)
Mens
1Chris Ghiorse2:37:05
2Alex Scheer2:39:15
3Guy Williamson2:40:10
4Antony Spencer2:41:34
5Russel Crumpler2:42:38
6Adrian Dale2:56:43
7David Kinkead2:58:11
8Richard MorganRetired
9Iain WalkerRetired
Womens
1Gillian Howe2:59:34
2Jules Potgieter3:01:09
3Kay Reddy3:12:32
Teams
1G.I. Janes2:32:01
2Doing It Wrong2:44:31
3Government House2:56:36
4Team F.A.B3:06:46
5Splash Dash3:03:27One bike lap short
6Girls Having Fun3:09:39