Saturday saw the Dambuster Triathlon (ITU Worlds 2016 qualifier) at Rutland Water and with an ALMIGHTY win from Will Cowen by SEVEN seconds – pure racing right to the end! Will clocked an 18:31 swim over the 1500mm distance, a swift 1:03:20 on the 42k bike and an impressive 34:41 on the run – total time 1:58:21. Absolutely tremendous going Will!
Will – hanging out at the beer tent!
Kathryn Dickinson was robbed of her race with a puncture coming out of T1 and called it a day after a long, slow bike – BUT Kathryn had the 4th fastest ladies swim time 🙂 – next race Lady Kathryn!
Tim Ashelford also popped a podium at Dambuster in his age category (is it rude if I say c. twice the age of Will?!) winning the Vet 50 category beautifully! Stats for Tim: 23:32 swim – 1:09:06 bike – 37:25 speedy run.
Not sure if Tim has drunk the wine and is being propped up here 🙂
Great racing!
Back in Yorkshire we have Craig (to)Boggon unleashing his speed at the Allerthorpe Sprint triathlon – Craig gives us details of the race as follows:
‘I was 4th today in a very competitive Allterthorpe Sprint tri! 1st position races for TFN and is going for the elite race in Liverpool and London! I was a second off him on the run! 17:09! My swim is usually the weakest! And with a mass start I didn’t do too badly! I was 9th out of the water! 11:36. In transition I made 3 more positions. Then out on the bike I made up 2 more! I could see the next two blokes in front of me on the straights! It was flat, fast and there was no wind! I had the 3rd fastest bike. (whoosh!). The run was much the same again! I made one more position before the turn around point! I could see 2nd and 3rd at certain points on the run! I pushed to have the second fastest run time at 17:09. I finished 4th overall! Coincidentally the top for were all 20-24! Hard race today! Very happy with my result and I know where I need to go for the Ripon and Liverpool!’
Best of luck with your next races Craig – tough competition at Allerthorpe – you came back with an excellent result!
Grab a pot of tea folks, get comfy, you are in for a good read….
The WTS finally arrived in Leeds over the past weekend (in case you had not noticed!) and what another fantastic show Yorkshire put on (1st one being the Tour de France!). The atmosphere on Sunday morning in the city centre was a happy electric. Conditions were a little humid, damp in places, slippy on the roads in some places. If the elites do not mind we will crack off with the age groupers first as they were out the blocks first. And if the men do not mind we shall start with the ladies first as always should be the case.
Chloe Scotchbrook and Claire Pickersgill wowed the crowds in their eye catching Jackpot kit over the standard distance course. Chloe had the 3rd fastest swim of the entire ladies field and Claire had the 5th fastest bike of the entire ladies race! Chloe finished as 7th lady overall and 2nd in her age group (20-24) – a triumph indeed! Claire finished as 20th lady and 5th in her age group (30-34) – we have since had a chat about her run…not sure what happened there but it was agreed it would not be repeated 😉 TREMENDOUS going ladies, absolutely tremendous.
Chloe clouting the run!
Onto the men and we had one Jackpot athlete in the sprint distance. Richard Knell-Moore clocked a 20th overall and bagged a 1st in his age group! This is just immense! But it did not stop there!
The standard race for the men saw more Jackpot athletes out to battle with yet more podiums in age groups:
Eddie Howarth, 17th overall and 1st in age group (40-44)
Colin Hill, 22nd overall and 1st in age group (45-49)
Tim Ashelford, 37th overall and 2nd in age group (50-54)
Paul Freeman, 155th overall and 24th in age group (45-49)
China Clarke, 180th overall and 31st in age group (35-39) (AWESOME run China!)
John Swallow, 1010th overall and 104th in age group
What a beautiful set of results is that. Many congratulations to you all 🙂
Tim speeding to a podium!The Royal wave from John!
Onto the elites! Jess Learmonth we love your style! 1st out of the water, 1st on the bike – by golly did you work hard on the bike! It made for fantastic watching (thank you!). Jess finished 10th overall – TOP TEN! Three and a half minutes behind Gwen Jorgensen – BRILLIANT!
Adam Bowden and Tom Bishop in the mens race (and what a race!) gave it their everything. The adrenaline was seeping through the television into people’s lounges – spectators including me are still buzzing now! Adam finished 7th overall just two minutes behind Alistair Brownlee with a run of 31 minutes (!!!!!!) and Tom 20th overall just 3 and a half minutes behind Alistair with a run just under 34 cracking minutes. You must be pleased with those performances boys – again, wonderful racing and wonderful watching.
Lastly, we have Matt Hallam back with another win at another duathlon (it’s about time Matt – you haven’t done a race for at least two weeks 😉 – in Matt’s own words:
‘On Sunday I completed my first middle-distance duathlon which is what I’ve been training for the past few months. The race, known as ‘The Little Pig’ is a shorter version of the Pig Ultra Duathlon organised by Brutal Events. The race consists of a 6 mile mountain run, 55 mile rolling bike route and a 10 mile hilly trail run.
The race began at 7am with what was meant to be a 6 mile run (3 miles up, 3 miles down) up to the summit of Cadair Idris and back to transition. However due to rain and thick cloud cover the run had to be shortened to about half a mile from the summit so ended up being about 5 miles in total. I got to the turnaround in first but knew I might struggle to stay in front on the descent. The rain made it very tricky descending on wet rocks with some very steep sections. One of which I lost control on and up running off course through some heather and somehow managed to avoid falling or hitting any big rocks. Just after this I had one minor fall but nothing serious. I got back to T1 in second place about 40 seconds behind the leader.
The bike route was mostly all on main roads but with it being so early there wasn’t much traffic. It was mostly rolling hills which suited me. For most of the first half there was a tail wind but I managed to regain the lead about 10 miles in. At this point the rain started to get heavier and it was really pretty grim, lots of surface water and poor visibility, also regretting not putting on an extra layer in transition. The last half of the bike was mostly into a headwind with more uphill, which was tough but probably helped me build up a bigger lead. Everything seemed to be going ok until about 5 miles from T2 when I got a front puncture. Decided to carry on in the hope I’d have enough time in hand to still be in with a chance of the win. Managed to crawl back to T2 riding on the rim of my front wheel, strongly not advised. I was still in the lead but had no idea by how much.
Started the second run and felt pretty good, still couldn’t see second place so I was confident I could hold on. However as soon as the run went off road I got a bit worried as there were no marshals at all and was relying on spotting arrows which was tricky in fog running through a mixture of fields and off-road paths. In the end I managed to hold on and actually extended my lead on the second run to just over 7 minutes.
Longest event I’ve ever done and by far the toughest.
Total time – 4:49:44, Run 1 – 51:15, T1 – 1:08, Bike – 2:38:00, T2 – 1:09, Run 2 – 1:18:11′
Hot racing and hot sunny weather made for good racing for Jackpot over the weekend.
Ian Gilham was back out again (I think that is the 4th weekend on the trot!) – this man will travel. Blenheim was his race of choice this time:
‘AG 2nd at Blenheim Sprint distance yesterday in a time of 1.22 – my second 2nd place in a week… Grrrrrrrrr. Had a decent swim in a mixed age group wave,  dodged the assorted mountain bikes and choppers on the bike course and managed to make up a few places on the run.
Raced at Blenheim this year as it was exactly 10 years ago that I did my first ever triathlon at Blenheim – came 89th in my age group then in a time of 1.42, so 10 years older, 20 minutes faster and 87 places higher. Shouldn’t’ complain I suppose!!’
Katie Synge raced in the ladies elite wave coming home in a tremendous 5th overall!
Pleased as punch in the photo below!
The mens elite race saw 4 of our Jackpot elites in a cloud of dust. Aaron Harris finished just a minute (59:12)  behind the winner and Lord of Triathlon Alistair Brownlee – WOW! David Bishop finished 4th, just under two minutes behind Alistair in 59:47…nice work David! Next in and close to David was Chris Perham in 7th position in 1:00:28 and finally Jack Hall in 22nd and 1:03:03. Fantastic racing! Would have made for great spectating. A league of their own!
Let’s now head to Spain where the ITU World Duathlon Championships took place over the weekend. Craig Boggon and David Morley represented GB in the standard and sprint races respectively. Craig has sent news back to us of the race:
For some reason the organisers seem content on giving heat stroke to the standard distance athletes! This is three world championships in a row where they have set the standard athletes off going into the hottest point of the day! And a longer course meant for a tough day! I (Craig) had a strong first run but onto the bike and a lack of hydration caught me cramping in calf’s and shins! Still pumping out the 2nd fasted bike splint in the age group! Cramping badly going into T2 I managed to hold on for 4th! Hard day in the heat!’. Great going both of you. We do have a photo of Craig’s sunburnt back – awaiting permission to post!
Next up – one of the ones we have all been waiting for – LEEDS! ITU next weekend!
Let’s kick off in sunny Lisbon where Tom Bishop, Heather Sellars and Jessica Learmonth were racing on Saturday in the elite races and Alistair Cooke in the Age Group race as part of the ETU European Championships weekend. Tom finished as 3rd Brit with a fantastic swim coming out of the water in 7th, just seconds behind the infamous Richard Varga, then notching up a few places to 4th on the bike with after riding like the wind for the team, and finally finishing in 19th, just over two minutes behind the winner Gomez. A tremendous race.
Tom Bishop – working hard for the GB team in Lisbon
Onto the ladies where Heather Sellars finished as 2nd Brit home and 7th lady, just over a minute behind the winner and team mate India Lee. You must be pleased with that performance Heather! Jess finished in 20th position, quoted as a disappointing day for her and gave it her all – still an exceedingly fast race Jess! 🙂 A huge well done from Jackpot HQ!
Alistair Cooke had the race of his life in the standard distance on Sunday at Lisbon. Against high competition, Alistair popped a 22 minute swim, a 1:05 bike and a 35 minute run (FAST!) and finished 12th overall in the 35-39 age category and 4th Brit home. A fine race Alistair!
Alistair – proud!
Back in Little Britain and down to Bosworth Water in Leicestershire and we have a WIN! From Claire Pickersgill! Claire stormed to victory over the (long swim long bike) standard distance race and off road run run in road shoes (some lovely blisters to match) leaving competitors in the dust. Claire finished over 6 minutes ahead of the 2nd lady! What a race! Just superb racing! Next race for Claire will be in Leeds in a couple of weeks. Watch out ladies 🙂
Claire – WINNER!
Ian Gilham in search of his place for Kitzbuhel for the 2017 European Champs nailed it at the Shropshire Triathlon on Sunday finishing 2nd in his age group in the standard distance race…’had a good swim (found some good feet for a change) solid bike but the wheels came off for a bit on the second half of a hot and hilly run – tried to chase down the leading guy in my age group but happy to hang on to my second place in the end’…GREAT GOING IAN! And congratulations on your place for Kitzbuhel!
All the shires – Tim Ashelford was 2nd overall at the Hertfordshire standard distance Triathlon on Sunday! Racing around in a Number ‘1’ was not adding too much pressure to his day!
Tim – SILVER!
Finally, Tom Linton-Neal (with a nicely mending broken toe if you will remember the x-ray image) raced to gold at the Chorlton Cross Triathlon. The course was a 750m in Chorlton Water Park, a 15km off-road bike followed by a fast 5km run. Tom finished 2 minutes ahead of second position!
Tom – WINNER!
A great weekend of Racing for Jackpot. Next week…news from the Duathlon Champs in Spain!
Sunday saw sprint races at the Southport Triathlon (BUCS Standard distance champs as well as ITU Age Group Qualifier) and down at Eton Dorney AND the sun was shining!
Will Cowen (Loughborough University) raced to 7th overall in a time of 1:56:10 at Southport including a speedy 36 minute 10k, and completing the race in just over 5 mins behind race leader. Tremendous racing Will!
Chloe Scotchbrook (University of Leeds) raced to 17th lady overall in a time of 2:23:18 (superb swim in there!). Top racing Chloe 🙂
And some top photography from the day:
Further south at the Nuffield Health Eton Sprints , Mika Brown and Ian Gilham (hot off the plane from Yokohama) both put in fantastic performances. Mika smashed out a very speedy race, finishing 8th overall and 3rd in age group – this means a qualification spot for Mika for the ITU World Champs in Mexico this year. Great going Mika!
Ian Gilham in the same race popped a 6th position in age group.  Ian did not have the swim he hoped for which meant because this was a draft legal race, he could not get in a fast pack on the bike. This in turn meant Ian would have had to run like Mo Farah on the run section! Lots of learning for everyone with the drafting idea – especially when Ian is back to the standard distance (non drafting) next week in Shropshire chasing an age group spot for the Europeans in Kitzbuhel in 2017. Well done Ian and best of luck next week!
