Allston, Shepherd win Australian 3-Days
Hanny Allston and Dave Shepherd both secured comfortable victories at the Australian 3-Days with victories on Monday’s final day, held in technical goldmining terrain.
Allston was particularly impressive, extending her already substantial margin to fourteen minutes with a three-minute victory. She fell three seconds short of winning all four races. There was a change behind her, as Grace Elson lost three minutes at the first control, opening the door for the consistent Anna Sheldon to squeeze her out of second place overall after a see-sawing final-day contest.
Shepherd’s final margin was not as great — seven minutes — but he did manage to win all four stages. His closest rival on the last day was Grant Bluett, who was out of overall contention after failing to finish on Sunday. Eric Morris and Rob Preston both had solid runs on the last day, consolidating their second and third overall places respectively.
Simon Uppill continued his dominance of M20, extending his lead by another four minutes to twelve over Chris Naunton and Ryan Smyth. W20 was closer; Sophie Barker and Ainsley Cavanagh both made their bids for glory with the two fastest times of the day, but overnight leader Kellie Whitfield was close enough to hold most of her four-minute break, with Cavanagh just holding off Barker for second.