Round three of the Superseries today discovered the tough; 50% of the men didn't complete the 14km, 600m course, and the womens course (9km, 400m) was won in 50% over the target time. As a result Auckland's Rob Jessop overhauls Jason Markham for the lead, and Penny Kane (Dunedin) draws level with Rachel Smith.

World No. 9 Carsten Jorgensen was the first to finish, and his time of 121 gave anindication of what was to come. He thought that some of the kiwis might beat this timebut as time ticked by without the expected arrivals it began to seem less likely.Until Rob Jessop arrived in 109, to take the NZ classic-distance title. Darren Ashmore was third two minutes behind the Dane, but no-one else got within a quarter of an hour, and half the field of 24 runners didn't finish. For some this would be a strategic decision, with the short and sprint-distance races both tomorrow, and both having equal weight in the series.

The first woman to finish was Rebecca Smith, but it was expected that several of the others could beat her time of two hours. However twin sister Rachel's ETA came and went, and many-times champion Tania Robinson was only able to improve on the time by 5 minutes, 40 minutes above the target. Eventually the later-starting Penny Kane (Dunedin) arrived, to win the day by 2min and retain the classic title she earned last year at Pukaki. But Kane had run with the after-effects of the flu and required attention by first aid staff, which makes her run much more impressive; and suggests that on a good day, several of the top women could have got much closer to the target time.

So Jessop moves into the series lead with a 4-point margin over Jason Markham (who had come 8th in the forest today). Jorgensen is third and Mark Lawson moves up from 7th to 4th.Kane's win makes the women's class really exciting, because she draws level with Rachel Smith; while Lara Prince and Lisa Frith are equal on third. And in the teams competition Northern Knights have caught up some of their deficit to Southerly Storm, and will probably make up more during the rest of the week. The question is, how much?

Full results are on the event website
http://auckoc.tripod.com/ea2003/classicresults.html