Sky Points Guess and Mt Difficulty Ascent

Matt has a look at the Skyrunning New Zealand/Australia series points and Mt Difficulty Ascent.

Past the halfway way mark in the New Zealand/Australia Skyrunning series I got interested to see how the table was lining up for the last 3 races, who could improve who might win overall. The table hasn’t been updated since Buffalo but with those results easily available I added a few numbers together (hopefully correctly, maybe not) to have a look at the top 10 men and women. A MAXIMUM of 4 races each are to count.

The Women

Ignoring Landie Grayling who won’t be at another race in the series, Beth Cardelli has this sown up. Technically there are enough points at the Sky Rock ‘n’ Run at Mt Oxford and the Houslow Classic for Jo or Justine to sneak the series, but they would have to win both races and for Beth to be a no show. Beth is currently on the start list for Mt Difficulty as is Jo. Expect to see Fiona Hayvice shoot up the table with a few more points next weekend also. Gill and Julie will be involved with the Australasian Rogaine Championship on Hounslow weekend, so don’t expect to see them move up the table. Depending on where Justine Medin shows up again, she could substitute her Buffalo score with something a bit more substantial and seal a podium finish.

Mt Difficulty will be a bit of a lottery for the women with at least 3 lining up who would normally feature in the top 3 wherever than ran. Hopefully Beth is coming, she is currently a class above the rest and will deserve the series win.

The Men

This a bit more wide open, in fact it’s anyone’s guess. Again, Tom Owens is out and I think Blake is heading back overseas, as is the current front runner, Scott Hawker. But I have no doubt Scott will find time to add an extra set of points to his tally. Work as got in the way of Dave Byrne adding to his tally next weekend and I’d have tipped him for the 200 points- I’d go so far as to call him the early favorite for the 400 at Mt Oxford in November though. So he could jump to an 800+ tally. Andrius, Grant and John Winsbury are all lining up at Mt Difficulty. They will all pick up points although how many is open for debate and there are couple of other names on the start list that will disrupt any plans for a points grab.

I’d be confident in saying the mens table won’t be sorted until the 1^st half dozen finishers have crossed the line in the Canterbury Foothills later in the year.

* Dave has an asterix because he scored points twice at Buffalo, but only one is to count.

“The” downhill at Mt Difficulty, freefall straight down between the red tape.

About Mouth of the South

Matt Bixley has written 24 .

Outspoken and opinionated- which is great cause we never have to guess what is on his mind. “The Mouth of the South” started his love of trail running with a 8hr+ Kepler in 2004. Since then he has run 220+km in 24hr while representing New Zealand and now has 5hr50, top 10 finish to his name. You can follow him HERE on his personal blog

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