The weekend’s mixed weather conditions didn’t prevent plenty of race action by athletes from Hitchin-based triathlon club Team Trisports.
First up, Gemma Sargent secured a superb third place finish in her age-group at the Blenheim Triathlon on Sunday. The event, held over the sprint distance of 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run saw Sargent, who is part of the club’s Development Squad system that sees selected athletes receive bike and equipment support from Letchworth-based multisport shop Trisports, set a great time of 1:19:55 at the iconic Blenheim Palace venue. Also competing at the famous race, Dave Welch finished in a time of 1:29:15.
Elsewhere, veteran athlete Adam Laycock continued his superb run of form this season by finishing third in the 40-44 age-group, and 17th overall, at the Weymouth Middle Distance Triathlon on Sunday. The 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run held no fear for Laycock, who covered the gruelling race distance in an outstanding time of 4:30:04.
Again on Sunday, nine athletes travelled to Emberton Country Park to compete in the British Sprint Triathlon Championships.
Finishing first for the club, Sean Bradley clocked a great time of 1:13:51 to finish ahead of team-mates Mark Young (1:16:10) and Chris Priestley (1:16:43). Next across the line, Anna Holden came home first of the club’s female competitors in a time of 1:17:23, closely followed by Steven Moakes in 1:17:44. Veteran athlete Jackie Perry used her early season marathon training to put in a good time of 1:20:42 to finish ahead of the club’s remaining competitors Elodie Irving (1:21:49), Tim Smith (1:22:02) and Anna Priestley (1:25:36).
Switching sports, Rob Wilson took to the start line of the Manchester Wheelers Open 50 mile TT at the weekend and set a great time of 2:06:30 and an average speed of 23.7mph in his first ever 50 mile TT on a rolling course layout and against a high quality field.
Preferring to keep his weekend endeavours water-based, Kevan Armstrong raced the 3.8km Box End Swim and set a new PB time of 57:43, an improvement of over four minutes on last year. Also taking part, Drew Lowrie swam the course in a time of 1:15:50.
A week earlier, Andy Chatterton raced at the Xterra European Championships in Sardinia, Italy. The Xterra event, which consisted of a sea swim, mountain bike and off-road trail run saw Chatterton have an eventful race. Despite soaring temperatures and a crash on the bike leg that left him bloodied and bruised, Andy still produced a strong finishing time of 3:33:35 and will now wish for better fortune at the next Xterra event in France on 11 July.
And finally, Mike Russell ran the Hatfield Broad Oak 10k and finished an excellent 81st out of 1276 finishers in a time of 38:37, just 2 seconds outside his 10k PB.
