English makes it four in a row

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Jason English claimed a fourth consecutive win at the JetBlack 24-Hour Sydney race on the weekend despite an early challenge from Canberra's Ed McDonald. English won the event held for the first time at The Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan in Sydney.

Botanic Garden Director Caz McCallum welcomed more than 500 competitors from all over New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, as well as Queenslanders and racers from Victoria, who enjoyed the unique opportunity to race the first long distance mountain bike event ever be held in a botanic garden. The new MTB trail's "godfather", Horticultural Manager, Dan Bishop and organisers kicked off the race, with all eyes on the duel between two-time, 24-hour solo world champion English from Port Macquarie and the up and coming endurance racer Ed McDonald from Canberra.

English amassed 37 laps in 20 hours, 22 minutes and 37 seconds to claim the win on the 10km track, which was praised by riders to be one of the most challenging yet fun to ride tracks for a 24-hour race.

The first lap times soon confirmed that McDonald indeed was English's strongest challenger and they were close together until English made his move after five hours into the race, which had started at noon on Saturday.

McDonald managed also 37 laps to finish a respectable second despite competing on a bike with fixed gearing.

"All I knew was Ed (McDonald) would be there. I knew I would have to keep an eye on him," said English. "We started riding for the first few laps together. He went hard up a few hills but I wanted to warm up and get to know the track." Into the evening English had made a comfortable buffer between him and McDonald however by the early hours of Sunday morning, McDonald started to pull back some ground.

"I tried to look after myself. I was feeling pretty busted at that time," said English. Third overall was Benji Morris from Sydney's northern beaches with 34 laps.

New format: 6+6 H race

Canberra's Shane Taylor won the 6+6 Hour race category, which was hosted in conjunction with the JetBlack 24-hour event and cheekily dubbed the "endurance race with a pillow". Taylor completed 22 laps to beat Hornsby rider Dave Carter by 11 minutes. Third place getter was Phil Giles from Figtree with 19 laps.

Mel Hayes from The Junction won with two Canberra riders Karen Taylor and Shelley Dorey in second and third respectively.

Canberra women's pair Claire Graydon and Karen Foat won the female two-person team category with a remarkable 34 laps while Bathurst's Ryan Sargent and Michael Buttsworth won the men's two-person team on the same laps just 23 minutes ahead of the women.

The JetBlack 24-hr overall winners were a team of four, Project 63 from Sydney, recording an impressive 48 laps with Ben Fillingham, True Swain, Stuart Binns and Tim Kerle.

Among all the JetBlack 24 Hour racers, the fastest lap time of 25:23 was completed by a team of six rider, Troy Glennon from Sydney. Queenslander Robert Lewis claimed the fastest lap time in the 6+6 Hour competition with 22:59.

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