Young Bomber Kobe Mutch has scorched the track to lead the way in the club’s two-lap challenge on Friday.

The 20-year-old – who debuted for the senior side earlier this year – was one of many players to impress on Friday as the squad was put through its paces at The Hangar.

On-baller Dylan Clarke and key defender Michael Hartley were not far behind Mutch and rounded out the placings from the main group on a day where a number of personal-best records tumbled.

GALLERY: Two-lap challenge

The challenge is run over an undulating near-kilometre-long track at the club, with each player completing two laps.

Some Bombers instead took part in a similar trial over softer track conditions on the main training oval, with tough midfielder Kyle Langford leading all comers.

Physical Performance Manager Justin Crow said several players showed pleasing improvement off the back of specific endurance training as many young Bombers put up impressive performances.

“We saw Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Aaron Francis, Matt Guelfi, Sam Draper – guys who were working hard on their aerobic ability and their endurance – show really good improvement, which was demonstrated by their times and their placings out there in the two-lap trial.”

Neither regular frontrunner Patrick Ambrose nor new Bomber Tom Jok took part in the challenge on Friday and Crow said the pair was among a group of players who had nothing to prove.

“Those two and a couple of others we didn’t run, because there was two kilometres of football we’d rather them work on.

“Sometimes there’s players that don’t have anything to prove in the running who we’d much rather spend our dollars on in terms of working on their football.”

Jok recently won a pre-season time trial at St Kilda prior to being drafted to Essendon, adding to his growing reputation as an elite runner, and Crow said it would have been a good battle between him and his more experienced counterpart if they had taken part.

“I believe he’s been running with some of Australia’s best athletes, so that would give him a good base to perform well, but Pat’s generally stepped up when challenged so it would have been interesting to see.”

Crow said setting up a separate trial on the oval was a precaution for players with certain injury histories.

“Some of our players have a history over a few years of different tendon complaints,” he said.

“Obviously the grass is a bit softer, so rather than take a risk and change the surface for those players we run them on the grass.”

Mason Redman and Jordan Ridley showed great toe to fill the placings behind Langford on the grass, but Redman unfortunately suffered an injury following the trial and scans have confirmed a fracture to his ankle.

Despite that disappointing news, Crow said the results of the time trial suggested the entire squad has returned to training in great condition ahead of the 2019 season.

“We’re really happy with how the whole group’s returned from the off-season.

“(We) loved how they ran today, their effort’s been outstanding and we’ll just keep pushing forward from here.”

TWO-LAP CHALLENGE TOP 5
Kobe Mutch
Dylan Clarke
Michael Hartley
Orazio Fantasia
Matt Guelfi

OVAL TRIAL TOP 3
Kyle Langford
Mason Redman
Jordan Ridley