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!’
