If you were near the finish line of the Dodzy Memorial Enduro on Sunday, and witnessed Sam Blenkinsop almost chase down Justin Leov you may have been a little confused when the final results were read out and Kieran Bennett was announced the winner with Justin in second just one second behind. Both Justin and Kieran were pretty positive Sam had beat them and after some number crunching, reviewing of finish times, talking to the starter and reviewing the start times of riders near Sam, it’s clear that he didn’t register a start time in the final run, meaning he went from a podium finish to last in the results.
Organiser Nick Crocker stated: “We can be confident to a 10 second margin of what the riders’ actual times were and are happy to change the results on that basis”.
Kieran Bennett had this to say: “Watching Sam hunting down Justin at the end of stage two and three we all felt like Sam had the win pretty well wrapped up so obviously I was confused when I was announced as the winner and Sam wasn’t even in the top three. I felt bad there had been a stuff up with his time and I’m really glad it has been all sorted out and now he has got the trophy he deserves. I’m still really stoked to be second and to even be on the same podium with Sam and Justin is a massive achievement for me.”
And Justin Leov had this to say about the outcome: “It was obvious Sam had won to me and it’s why I said something at the podium. I was counting the time gaps each stage and he was putting in consistent runs. I knew the speed I had was fast but crashed in the first two stages, one of which I counted 20 seconds before I could get back up on course.”
The final results see Sam Blenkinsop some 30 seconds ahead in first place with Kieran Bennett in second and Justin Leov in third. Final times on the results page will be updated soon.
And out of all the 250 racers out at Wairoa Gorge over the weekend this timing mishap happened to one other rider, Sam Knowles, and it turns out he was also in podium contention for the Masters category. After reviewing start times around his start, the Masters podium changes a little with Hayden McKay still in first, Sam Knowles in second and Ben Shayler in third.
Originally posted in Spoke Magazine.