More scores to add to the board from the British Championships at Liverpool from this weekend.

Adam Bowden took a bow winning the men’s elite sprint race in 54:58 (!) with Tom Bishop also podiuming (new verb I think) in 3rd finishing in 55:23. Add to that Chris Perham in a very close 5th in 55:46, Aaron Harris in 56:16 and David Bishop -who only the week before nailed the London Triathlon with an almighty win – in 12th in 57:12 – real racing looking at how close these times are. Top racing!

Over to the ladies and Jess Learmonth and Heather both podiumed with a silver and bronze respectively! Jess finished in a very speedy 1:01:44 and Heather very close behind in 1:02:02.  We need a new silverware cupboard at the Jackpot HQ! Wonderful racing ladies!  Many congratulations!

It does not end there!  We had three of our age groupers in the standard race and Ian Gilham kindly gives us his own account of the race for him:

‘…I was 6th in my AG (super wrinklies) national champs today.

Not the best preparation in that I thought I’d entered the sprint distance until I got the start list through earlier in the week – who said “preparation is the key to success”? (!!!)

Lost the lead group in the swim so ended up by myself doing a billy-no-mates 1500m, that is apart from a couple of thousand jellyfish keeping the spirits up (were these the same jellyfish from Mallorca?!)! Got through the amazingly long and complicated T1 and made up some time on the bike despite being passed by ridiculously massive peletons with not a draft-buster in sight. Grrrrrr.

Got passed by a few folks late on the bike but got a couple of places back in T2 and out onto a decent run in perfect conditions – frustrated to miss a sub-40 minute run by a couple of seconds but pleased with 6th place. Now off to train in the sauna in preparation for Mexico next month.’ Well raced Ian and we shall look forward to hearing about Mexico!

Craig (to)Boggon whooshed to 4th on his age group (25-29) with an overall time of  2:01:46 including a tremendous 34:24 run! Craig was 20th overall 🙂 Brilliant!

Tim Ashelford popped an age group podium with a 3rd! Great great great! Tim finished in a speedy 2:08:23! Congratulations Tim!

Gordon Kilroy was also out to play after his recent visit to the Alpe d’Huez long course triathlon. Gordon popped a 22nd in his age group with a time of 2:15:28.

Two weeks until the National Relays! Jackpot have a few teams registered for Saturday and Sunday – there should be some glorious racing there!

The Big Smoke saw some of our athletes – David Bishop, Jessica Learmonth, Heather Sellars, Aaron Harris and William Cowen – race to podiums at the London Triathlon at the weekend in the elite race!

David raced to Gold in the Olympic distance (pardon the pun!) race with an incredible run split of 32 minutes (!) – well, it was all incredible really.  Posting a 17:45 minute swim, followed by a 52:09 minute bike, David was ahead of 2nd position by over a minute finishing in 1:45:13!

Still in the mens race, Will Cowen raced strong finishing in 1:53: 24 just ahead of team mate Aaron Harris who finished in a tremendous 1:53:51. A brilliant set of results and performances to match!

Switching to the ladies, Jess finished less than a minute behind the ladies race winner but posting the fastest swim split and bounding to second place in 1:57:13!  Heather shot to third place in 1:58:02. Just WOW!

Colin Hill scored 4th overall at Allerthorpe Classic Olympic distance on Sunday and 1st in his age group (45-49!). Super racing Colin!

A bit of an international weekend for some of our Jackpotters this weekend just passé…Alpe D’Huez and Ironman Maastricht beckoned.

John Swallow, Gordon Kilroy and Eddie Howarth headed to the Alps for the long distance event. With a 2.2k swim, a hilly (!) 115k bike and half marathon, the sun welcomed our athletes (by the way – this was to celebrate John’s 50th Birthday!) for a loooooong day of racing.

Eddie was the first Jackpotter to finish in a time of 8 hours 6 minutes (fast!); John and Gordon finished together (how did that happen?!) (Gordon has just got over a broken collar bone and ankle!) in 10:18 after a gruelling bike and tremendous racing. Eddie finished 27th in his age group, 195th overall; John 50th in age group and 648 overall; Gordon 133rd in age group and pipped John at the post 647th in position (how mean! On his birthday!)! Well done chaps!

In Masstricht, Max Hazell was 9th in his age group (AWESOME!) in 10:36 with the following splits: 50:47 swim (how fast?!), 5:37:05 bike and a 4 hour 2 minute marathon.  Max was 14th overall out of the water! Max describes the race as follows:

‘Swim was okay, got out with the front guys. Got carried away at the pointy end on the first bike lap and paid for it big time for the rest of the day. I’ll make up for it at the next one I promise.’

Swim was more than okay Max but we shall look forward to your next Ironman!

Castle Howard to be precise, and Zurich and Ellerton Park. Another good and punchy weekend for Jackpot Racing.

Colin Hill was crowned King of Castle Howard at the Sprint Plus race (800m swim – 46k bike and 8k run) finishing FIRST overall in 2:06:11! Colin’s stats: 14:13 swim, 1:17:26 bike and 32:40 run.  SUPERB racing Colin! Colin was ahead of probably one of the best team names I have heard of yet: Team Ali’s Stag Do, (2nd time lucky) – there you go. In case you are in need of an idea for a stag do 🙂

The standard distance saw Hannah Drewett strike SILVER and finish in a time of 2:31:08 with the bike leg being long at 45k. Hannah’s stats for you data analysts: 21:49 swim, 1:22:21 bike (hilly!) and 45:19 run. WOW!

Team buddy Will Cowen was also out in action at the standard distance scoring 7th overall in an incredible time of 2:21:47 (21:59 swim, 1:12:44 and 45;243 run)  – super tough competition and super racing.

And now to Zurich and to the man who has the best pout on the team, our very own China Clarke literally skipped over the finish line (having problems embedding the video footage currently!) at Ironman Zurich! It was China’s first Ironman and what a race he had!  Posting a 1:17 swim (BRILLIANT!), China smashed out a 5:37 bike and then a 4:15 run completing the race in 11:28:49 🙂 What a race China – you must be over the moon! Though we see you are now sunning it in Nice!  We are over the moon for you!

Back to the sticky and hot UK and we head up to Northallerton for the Steelman Middle Distance Triathlon. Claire Pickersgill and Jenni Muston were out in force however Jen was doing the swim and bike only as part of a relay. Claire scored a glorious 4th overall lady and 3rd in age group and FIRST CLASS HONOURS in gutsiness and determination…the swim was a strange one for most athletes looking at the results. Everyone spoken to described the swim as a washing machine – it’s a small lake about the size of a washing machine – it just was not a nice swim. Onto the bike and 10 miles in, one of Claire’s tri bars decided to undock itself leaving her in the drops for the last 48 miles (still scoring one of the fastest ladies bike times).  Onto the run and it is now sweltering. After the first lap, Claire had to stop at the feed station with stomach issues…a bit of vomiting, stuffing down oranges and drinking water in a frenzy, Claire was on her way again. Claire, you so deserved a podium overall. Tremendous racing 🙂

Jen was in the same washing machine, thank goodness there was no tumble dryer. The bike was an interesting one with 6 miles of the 58 on newly gravelled roads – average speeds were hit for all competitors.  It caused frustration and mechanicals for a few athletes. Jen had the fastest ladies bike time – va va zoom!

Lastly, Tom Linton-Neal raced at a mid-week super sprint at Ellerton Park last week…according to Tom, finishing in a disappointing 8th overall AND ripping his tri suit….8th is still a top ten 🙂

Some of our elites were out putting on spectacular shows at the weekend at home and abroad (and one age grouper!).

The World Triathlon Series took place in Hamburg over the sprint distance (750m swim, 19.8k bike and 4.96k run). Mario Mola picked up first position in 52:19 – Adam Bowden was 21st…in 53:28! Just how phenomenally close is that! Tom Bishop was close behind with 54:49. Outstanding racing Adam and Tom!

In sunny Derby the Jenson Button Trust Triathlon took place with a few different distance races.  David Bishop and Katie-Jemima Synge both scored silver in the 400m swim, 20k bike and 5k run. David popped a 50:02 seconds behind Ben Dijkstra (49:47) and Katie-Jemima 57:27.

Jenni Muston was back out to play after fracturing a metatarsal back in March. Jen also popped a silver (silver is in fashion this week!) at the Doncaster Standard Distance triathlon and a 1st in age group. Jen described the lake as the cleanest lake she has swum in (not hard when you train in Pugneys just off the M1 in Wakefield 😉 ); the bike flat as a pancake (she’s used to the hills of Yorkshire – check Strava for Jen and Claire Pickersgill for QOMs 🙂 ) and windy and the run hot hot hot. Pleased to be going home with a trophy.

Next week! Ironman Zurich and our very own China Clarke!