Photos from left: Shannon Jones, Grace Crane, and Matthew Crane
After a relatively quiet period during the 2020-21 Series, the 2019-20 Series winner, Shannon Jones, won race eight in the 2021-22 Runners Shop Twilight Series at Palmerville Heritage Park on Wednesday, her first win for nearly a year. Interestingly, the top 10 on corrected time included an equal number of men and women, and a number of competitors who have never previously been in the top 10.
The across the line results for the two Moderate courses were:
- Moderate 1: 3.3 km, 15 m climb, 20 controls: Men: 1. Matthew Crane 16 min 09 sec, 2. Paul de Jongh 16 min 44 sec; 3. Andrew Kerr 19 min 14 sec; Women: 1. Grace Crane 19 min 38 sec, 2. Shannon Jones 19 min 48 sec, 3. Clare Lonergan 24 min 39 sec.
- Moderate 2: 2.7 km, 15 m climb, 17 controls: Men: 1. Joshua Mansell 18 min 28 sec, 2. Ken Mansell 19 min 24 sec, 3 Phil Walker 19 min 49 sec; Women: 1. Vicky Mansell 24 min 21 sec, 2. Liz Abbott 28 min 22 sec, Monique Jeacocke 30 min 39 sec
The full results are here and at Winsplits, and maps and photos are on Facebook.
After the handicap factors were applied, Jones was a clear winner with a corrected kilometre rate of 4 min 24.48 sec, by far the fastest for this Series and one of the fastest ever. The top 10 competitors in Race 8 were:
| Competitor | Handicap | Corrected km rate |
| Shannon Jones | 0.7280 | 4 min 24.48 sec |
| Grace Crane | 0.7600 | 4 min 33.79 sec |
| Matthew Crane | 0.9300 | 4 min 35.59 sec |
| Paul de Jongh | 1.0000 | 5 min 07.03 sec |
| Phil Walker | 0.7000 | 5 min 09.41 sec |
| Mary McDonald | 0.5504 | 5 min 18.96 sec |
| Clare Lonergan | 0.7200 | 5 min 25.65 sec |
| Matthew Stocks | 0.8800 | 5 min 28.45 sec |
| Bruce Bowen | 0.6280 | 5 min 33.84 sec |
| Valerie Barker | 0.4928 | 5 min 33.17 sec |
The Dent family’s absence and the increase in the best scores to five, enabled Matthew Crane to extend his lead to six points over his wife Grace, but with still five events to go and the best seven scores to count, any one of about five competitors could still win. The top five with the best five scores are:
- Matthew Crane AO A 620
- Grace Crane AO A 614
- Hayden Dent RR A 607
- David Stocks BS A 602
- Paul de Jongh BS A 599
The current standings for all competitors are here.
The next event in the Runners Shop Twilight Series will be on Wednesday 2 February 2022 at Campbell Parklands.