Hannah Drewett was back out competing just two weeks after the Weymouth 70.3 with a WIN at the Hever Castle Olympic Triathlon. Hannah was 10th overall (male and female) (BRILLIANT!) and has won the Castle Series for 2016! Simply superb racing Hannah!
Queen of the Castle (Series) 🙂 – Hannah!
A little further south, possibly even a few degrees warmer it was the City of Stoke Triathlon on Sunday. Tom Bishop also came home with gold like Hannah podiuming alongside Thomas Davis and Stuart Hayes! Katie Jemima Synge also podiumed at the same race coming second behind Emma Pallant – that’ll be stiff competition then! Congratulations to you both Tom and Katie!
Tom with an almighty win.
China Clarke has showed us his ability across all distances this year from IM Zurich in July to the sprint at the Brownlee Triathlon at Harewood House on Sunday. China was 20th out of 834 athletes in the sprint distance! AND that is after a night on the tiles on a stag do – so the question is…could he have improved on his position if he had stayed at home and watched TV and not gone out…or could he have not done so well sat immobile and bored in front of X Factor? Really well done China 🙂 you have had a super season! But where is your selfie China with the Brownlee Bros?!
China with fellow Jackpotter Matt Wilson and Tom Hughes (Tri-Mechanics – the magic doctor for body mechanics)
One of our age groupers and a few elites headed to the sun and extreme heat of Cozumel for the ITU Grand Final and World Champs for the age groupers.
Ian Gilham raced in the aquathlon as well as the triathlon and reports back to us as follows:
‘Started the week with a run out in the Aquathlon on Wednesday morning. Unusual format of a 2.5k run, 1k swim and a 2.5k run (due to there being no chance of a wetsuit swim) required a new skill in putting on goggles and swim hat on the run (and the unusual sight of people doing the first run actually in swim hat and goggles!). Had a decent race coming in 15th overall (nice one Ian!) though the heat and humidity by the end of the 2nd run was a wake up call of what to expect for the rest of the week. (Later that day the men’s U23 race was delayed as the temperature was 34 degrees and way above the maximum temperature for racing!!).
Thursday morning brought race day – setting up in the dark for a dawn start. A large wave led to inevitable scrum around the buoys and missing my wetsuit came out of the water in 40th place (we heard back in Blighty that the water was 28 degrees!!). Managed to organise a group of 8 on the bike with another Brit, and 6 other willing workers. Had a great ride – at one point we passed a group of Mexican riders from a previous wave who jumped on the back of our group. My new best friend from the Cook Islands went back and asked them if they would care to take a turn – they declined so he told them to jeff-off – and being polite hosts they did just that and we didn’t see them again – oh how we laughed!! Had a good run making up quite a few places but felt myself starting to “do a Jonny” with 1k to go so eased off a bit as I don’t have a brother…. 21st overall out of 65 starters… Not long now till the Duathlon season……’
Congratulations Ian on your year so far – a busy one!
Ian Gilham – Cozumel
Then it was the elites turn which has hit headline news internationally! (about time!). Adam Bowden had a spectacular race finishing in 10th in 1:47:55 – just less than a minute behind Henri Schoeman. Adam ran a 31 min 10k.Just fantastic!
Tom Bishop was also out in force finishing 33rd but just less than 4 minutes behind the race winner – times put things into perspective and just how fast these elites are going. Tom was 6th out of the water ahead of the usual Richard Varga – a tremendous feat!
Jess Learmonth held her own in the ladies elite race with the fastest swim and third fastest bike leg. Jess finished 30th in 2:02:55, just 3 minutes behind the winner Flora Duffy. Simply brilliant racing Jess!
Back in sunny Yorkshire it was the annual Ilkley Triathlon and it was a WIN for Tom Linton-Neal. This was Tom’s first triathlon 4 years ago! Awesome bike on the tough 3 lap course which includes an infamous hill!
Tom – winner – heading home to a chicken dinner 🙂
Mika Brown podiumed (silver!) in his age group at the same race and finished 5th overall! Mika had one of the one of the fastest swims of the day.
Matt Wilson scored a 5th in age group (same age group as Tom and Mika) – welcome back Matt!
Craig Boggon headed down south back to his home town of Gloucester for the Newent Triathlon:
‘I had my last tri of the year, a local one back home in Gloucester and at my old School. Newent was the first triathlon I ever did at 16 years old with a few school friend, 400m swim, 18km bike and 5km run. Back then my swim time including run to transition was 07:46. My cycle on the faithful hybrid was 38:26 including T1 and the Run was 19:02 including T2. Overall 40th in a time of 01:05:14. Fast forward 6 years and they’d gone back to fully manual timing system (which kept this event cheap!) Swim was 5:45! Bike on the TT including T1 was 30:46 and the run including T2 was 16:48. Overall 2nd in 53:19. So a little bit of an improvement… and 1:50 from first and 1:52 from the course record… I’m knackered though! It’s been a long season!’
Pop that kettle on and get yourselves a brew (Yorkshire!)…
…The golden sands of the South coast of England awaited some of our athletes on Sunday at the Weymouth 70.3. With blue skies, 18 degrees in the sea (I did not know our waters could get that warm) and little wind the inaugural Ironman 70.3 and Full races were bound to be a success.
There were 5 ladies in the female PRO female including our very own Hannah Drewett. Jenni Muston and Colin Hill raced in the age group fields – sadly Colin had to pull out of the race due to illness (we hope you are better now Colin).
With the Pros off just before 7am (two of the ladies might I add from Yorkshire!), the age groupers started on a rolling start immediately afterwards. The sea was like the Med with one loop for the 70.3ers and an Australian exit for the Full-ers. Transition was a bit of a run away before out onto the rolling, unforgiving hills of Dorset – which were stunning. The bike leg was a working one and continually broke athletes pace – nobody seemed to mind – it was beautiful. Onto the flat as a pancake run along the crowd lined seafront with 2.5 loops along the Esplanade and through the town. By this time the sun was beating down and we were all topping up our tans. A really lovely race…but we did have the weather on our side (unlike Vitruvian!).
Hannah had a brilliant race and finished as 3rd lady overall in 5 hours 1 minute – Hannah’s swim was exceptional – 7th overall (inc. men I mean overall) out of the water – she swam 25:02 minutes, biked 2:51 on a week old bike (!), and ran a 1:37 half. Many, many congratulations to you Hannah!
Jen didn’t do too bad either 😉 Jen was 12th lady overall, 1st in her age group (40-44), swim 34 (I’d like to say I was enjoying the swim too much and didn’t want to get out of the water looking at Han’s swim time but this would be a blatant lie!), biked a 2:53, and ran a 1:38 half – and wants to do the race again next year!
The Vitruvian Triathlon sparkled with gold through the pouring rain for Will Cowen as he smashed his way to a fantastic win in 3 hours 54 minutes! A full 4 minutes ahead of 2nd place! Will’s stats (watch and learn people): 24:10 swim (1.9k), 2:07:24 bike (52 miles), 1:20 run (21k). A brilliant race and win! Will is now crowned as the National Champion for Middle Distance 2016! Many congratulations Will!
Claire Pickersgill was robbed on the day with an injury that has been plaguing her in her calf and had to withdraw on the bike section – get that calf right Claire and the podium is yours next year 🙂
Gordon Kilroy popped a podium in his age group classification at the Leeds Triathlon on Sunday bringing home a silver and 16th in his age group overall. Gordon writes:
‘Due to an early set up for a concert next week, there were a couple of last minute changes. The swim was changed to a 2 lap course, which worked a little better than the original one lap. Transition was further up the hill which added a few minutes to the swim times. The bike course was unchanged, we had fun trying to get past a sportive that was sharing some of the route. The run still had the joy of tackling Hill 60 three times (ugh!), but at least the finish line was a bit closer. I finished in 16th overall and 2nd AG. An enjoyable and well organised race!’
And news in from Ben Garrard across from the Big Pond:
Challenge Penticton Canada 3k, 120k, 30k. Penticton is a super cool location and was the home of IM Canada. In 2017 it will host the ITU World Championships in all race disciplines. 2017 in Penticton will be an amazing multi sport experience it’s a great race location (get qualifying guys!).
All those pre-race nerves (I had a few having not raced long for a few years and not deciding until June to come and race) disappeared when the gun went off and the race is on. I swam a controlled 2 lap swim but was still pleased to find my way to T1. I had to dig deep on the bike and get my head sorted (unusual headache and stomach unhappiness) but I tried to relax, took on water, a little food and felt much better heading out on to the second lap. I rode really ‘cruisey’ knowing a 30k run could easily bring me down. By now the sun was firmly out and the temperature rising towards 80. I set off running and felt a million dollars, not something that happens very often. I couldn’t have been happier with my run performance and apart from a little leg muscle discomfort in the final 5k I ran super strong and consistent and way beyond my expectations to finish the race off. I had an amazing week here in Penticton and thoroughly recommend the location and this slightly unusual race distance.
Swim 52:32 Bike 3:45:59 Run 2:33:09 Total 7:20:05 21st in AG, 98th overall
ITU Edmonton ladies were off on the sprint distance on our screens on Sunday evening GMT with Jess Learmonth leading the way in style on the swim and out into T1 in first position. A hiccup with Jess’ helmet meant that she missed the front bike pack giving Jess and a 24th position and a speedy 58:34:30 but what a swim to be proud of – 9 minutes! Superb racing Jess!
The men’s race was just has nail biting with Tom Bishop coming into his own finishing 5th (seconds behind Jonny Brownlee who won the race) – to explain: Tom’s finish time was 52:10:20 – Jonny’s 51:39:90. Tom put in one of the fastest 5ks of the day with 15 minutes dead on. By golly what a race! Many congratulations Tom!
Adam Bowden, like Tom, was seconds behind the winners finishing 7th in 52:19:50 – this was racing at it’s finest! Thank you for the spectacle!
Heading back to sunny England, Tom Van Rossum (TVR for short and TVR for speed) headed straight for the podium at the infamous Helvellyn triathlon at the weekend. Even the Tour of Britain had a go at the climb ‘The Struggle’ yesterday. Whilst Wiggo did a Froomey in shocking conditions yesterday, TVR attacked the climb with clear determination…in his own words:
‘After a typically slow swim for me, I moved up to 3rd place coming off the bike and held on through the run, narrowing the gap on 2nd place but coming up a bit short and finishing 3rd overall (Editor: YEY!). The course is a brutal test, climbing up The Struggle on the bike and then exiting T2 to head straight up to the summit of Helvellyn via Swirral Edge. The unusual distances and route design make the race a tough but enjoyable alternative to the standard offerings on the calendar.’
Wiggins – Struggling on the StruggleTVR – attacking The StruggleSwirral Edge at HelvellynTVR – 3rd overall at Helvellyn!
Katie-Jemima Synge bagged a WIN at the Bala standard distance race at the weekend! Katie finished in a spectacular time of 2 hours 7 minutes AND was 15th overall finisher 13 seconds ahead of Emily Whitmore! What a win and what a race! Tremendous going Katie! Enjoy the Erdinger!
