Saturday saw Jenni at the Brownlee Triathlon, a last minute entry after team mate Claire Pickersgill had won the spot in a competition but was off to London for a cream tea. A cracking start in transition before the swim when Jen pulled out her wetsuit…or rather pulled out her man’s wetsuit (Chris G being 6’4”…Jen 5’10”).  Into the swim, an exotic 13.1 degrees, one of the slowest swims, might have been something to do with a bit of drag and carrying extra water.  Out of the swim, gashing her foot on the gantry, onto the monster run out of transition with the bike and back into safe territory. A hilly ish course, a 4 lapper totally 26k, followed by a muddy off road 5.1k run saw Jen finish 5th lady overall and 1st in her age group.

Matt Hallam was back out yesterday in full finery at the Hade Edge Duathlon near Holmfirth finishing with a WIN! And 5 and a half minutes ahead of the second place. Putting in a chronically speedy first run, Matt steam rollered through the remainder of the race obliterating the competition. Fantastic going Matt! Not sure if this upsets the in house podium table… 😉

A tale of two cities…Chicago and Hartlepool…

Let’s head to Lake Michigan where the sun was shining…until there was a freak storm…and then the sun was shining and beating down on 500 British age group athletes who travelled to Chicago for the World Champs.  Two of our Jackpotters – Mika Brown and Chris Brown – raced their hearts out in hot climes last Thursday in the sprint edition of the race. Both were up against stiff competition, and the size of Chris’ age group was near on ridiculous! c. 150 athletes in his age group alone! Mika put in a sterling performance finishing in 1:07:05 in more than warm temperatures – Chris though commenting after the race ‘so very fed up with hot races this year’ ranked half way in his massive age group and was way up there in particular on the bike section. Well done chaps 🙂

Then to the Grand Finale still in Chicago where Adam Bowden took to the stage finishing 26th overall, just minutes behind the winner Mario Mola and put in one of the fastest bikes of the day. The race marks the official end of the season for Adam in triathlon on the WTS circuit.  Many congratulations to Adam from your team mates at Jackpot Racing!

And to the other extreme…the North Sea and Hartlepool for the Big Lime Sprint Triathlon.  The notice board before the race said the water temperature was a balmy 14 degrees C – Jenni Muston will be the first to argue it was colder. Swimming amongst the local jellyfish (squillions of them!), most athletes lost feeling in feet and hands to jump onto the bike (transitions need attention Jen – that said, this was the cosiest transition ever) which took athletes along the flat coastline before transition onto the very flat run. Finally defrosting in the run, Jen finished as 1st lady, 5 minutes ahead of 2nd lady.

Let’s head straight to Tenby…where Tom Van Rossum (TVR) had the race of his life yesterday at IM Wales and is currently sat waiting patiently or not so patiently to hear if he has got a slot for the worlds in Kona. WOW! Tom on his bike sends fear into athletes…and by golly did he put his foot down yesterday.  Finishing 3 minutes ahead of his target time, Tom came out of the swim in 1:11:06, the bike 5:39:27 moving him from 284th on the swim to 37th on the bike (!) and the run 3:21:57 moving Tom further up the field again to 24th overall and 6th in his age group.  What absolutely fantastic racing.  We really hope you get that slot for Kona…we will keep you readers posted!

And then all hail Max Hazell!  AMAZING race at Challenge Weymouth yesterday…first long distance triathlon and he scores a 9:40!!!  Max was 12th overall and 1st in his young spring chicken age group (18-24). No official results as yet as Max’s timing chip failed during the race…is this the start of big things to come Max?

Then back to Yorkshire, sun filled Yorkshire and the Leeds Triathlon where Colin Hill was out racing again! Colin finished 5th overall and 1st in his age group at the standard distance race at Roundhay Park.  This was just two minutes behind the leader. Fantastic racing Colin! Again!

Saturday saw Ady Stott fly the Jackpot flag at the Nidderdale Sprint triathlon.  Swimming 2 lengths too many and needing counting lessons, Ady finished 6th overall and 2nd in his age group (40-44).  Apparently the bike was too twisty and potholey for Ady!

Next weekend brings yet more racing…we head to Chicago for the Worlds and Hartlepool for the sea triathlon.

Ben Garrard kicked off the weekend for us on Saturday back at Allerthorpe in the sprint distance, checking out with a podium in his age group – 3rd vet 40 which he was super happy with!  Matt Pears was robbed of a podium with a puncture after leading out of the swim. Great going both!

On this same fine day, Max Hazell pulled out a win at the Cotswold Triathlon (Tri Ferris) over the sprint distance, putting in 90 seconds over second position. Kieran Hill also had a lung buster of an event, finishing 4th, just missing out on 3rd and a podium.

The sun shone for Cat Jameson in Bala at the standard distance race yesterday which Cat has a habit of winning over the last few years.  And Cat did it again yesterday! We are currently awaiting results…. Cat’s season this year has been just utterly tremendous.  Bala was a European qualifier for 2016. Tom Linton-Neal finished 109th overall and 22nd in age group – that is with a sub 25 minute swim and an hour bike! A few fast ones over in Bala this weekend then!

Heading North to beautiful Helvellyn, Jonny McLean took to the scene!  Finishing 25th overall and 17th in his age group, Jonny was up against tremendous competition at the notoriously hard race which includes ‘The Struggle’ hill climb on the bike section towards the end (20%!). Jonny had one of the fastest swim times of the day and a very rapid run. Great racing Jonny!

A little further afield, we head to Romania. David Bishop took to the choppy waters (click on the link below just to see how choppy!) at the Constanta-Mamaia ETU Triathlon Premium European Cup and put in a sterling performance finishing 6th overall in the standard distance race, just two minutes behind the race leader. Heather Sellars equalled David’s position in the ladies race and was the only female Brit racing!

Finally, late last night for us in Blighty, Tom Bishop took to the race scene over in Edmonton for the final in the World ITU Series. Tom was one of the fastest in the swim, hot on Gomez’ toes and just nano seconds behind.  And what a blisteringly fast run! 15:53 over the 5k distance in the pouring rain. Adam Bowden followed Tom finishing 27th overall in less than a minute behind Tom….the times show just how close this racing is at this level.