Race Report W/E 19th May
Only a week has flown by and we have a bevy of triathlons to report on again. The main event of the weekend was the Club Sprint Champs out at Eton Dorney rowing lake, but we also had middle distances, some mountain racing, and a TT in the mix.
Eton Sprints – Club Champs
Compared with last year’s small turnout (in the midst of Ironman Austria prep) this year we had a proper Club Champs race on our hands. A smashing field of 27 raced (post a few late drop outs, and one missing ful-on-tri peep who failed to log his club on his entry). All this and a cheer squad led by Sarah Watts, Christian Bergara, Eimear Toomey and Jim Pengelly. Our band of sprint racers (with club entries) were: Pim Kalisvaart; Richard Curling; Jon Green; Will Manns; Martin Bruwer; Rob Argles; Nick van Praag; Joe Coleman; Mark Sempers; Charlie Muir-Sands; Fiona Sander; Stephen Flexer; Faye Sanders; Amanda Pirie; Richard Bridger; Sybille Schorm; Nicky Huskens; Matthew Lee; Katherine Montserrat; Alejandro de Miguel Solano; Eszter Szadeczky-Kardoss; Robert Carder; Gemma Pugh; Jemma Coles; William Averill; Megan Whewell; and, yours truly (clinging on).
Not only did we have a fine turn out, but statistically we smashed the overall standings and the results of other major clubs out racing. A fantastic advertisement for the club!
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Pim, Richard and Jon Green came in as the top 3 men – Pim winning the top Sprint prize (and coming in 2nd overall!!), whilst Jon collected Rob’s curly wurley on the day prize as the only one of the three not to dash off home. The race for men’s spot was fierce, notably Jon Green desperately throwing in a furious bike and run to offset a slower swim, but Pim laid down some highly consistent splits across all 5 legs to stay dominant in 1st throughout the event. In fact, the only person stopping him claim 1st overall was former club member Paddy Tiernan (who specialises in Sprints and eating Roast Chicken).
Fiona, Faye and Amanda came in as the top 3 women – Fiona winning the top Sprint prize (and 5th woman overall) and collecting Rob’s second curly wurley! Whilst Fiona dominated the women’s race, Faye and Amanda battled it out for 2nd and 3rd, with Faye stealing 2nd on the run.
We also had a number of Category podiums. Rich winning M30-34, Rob winning M50-54, Fiona winning F20-24, Nicky winning F25-29, and Faye winning F30-34! Pim, Jon Green, Amanda, and Sybille all landed 2nd and 3rds too!!
We also had some fine racing, not just amongst all 27, but with our first time Tri-ers, notably Megan who calmly put her months of training into a strong performance with her trademark smile! There is one person missing (no club listed), for whom this was also a first – so come forward and claim your kudos!
LATE ETON ADDITIONS: Sneaking in by doing the SuperSprint event, we also had Jane Muir-Sands (also racing her first Triathlon!!) and Mark Parrett (winning 2nd in his category, and coming 7th overall!)
LATE LATE ETON ADDITIONS: Tom Masters (who very kindly updated the race calendar, but didn’t add the club to his entry) was also racing in our Mate’s Wave, and also completed his first triathlon – apologies for the delayed update and congratulations Tom!!
Snowdonia Slateman
Out in the flat lands of the Welsh mountains, Shaun Wood was taking on the Slateman Savage event in Snowdonia. As if racing around Snowdonia wasn’t enough, this event offers competitors the chance to do a Sprint Tri on the Saturday, followed by a Standard distance the day after.
Shaun smashed both, finishing 3rd overall and podiuming in 3rd in his Category too!
Barcelona Ironman 70.3
Over in Spain, several of the club took on an Ironman middle distance in Barcelona: Karl Boehm; Eoin Griffin; Alberto Lazaro; Jamie McCanny; and, Filippo Conti. Sadly, Karl wasn’t able to compete, but the other three all notched up some fantastic finish times. Jamie coming in sub 5hr 30min, and the others well under 6hrs.
Well done to (nearly) all for registering as Ful-on-Tri. Filippo – if it’s possible to update or use the club on future races it will help us garner those all important Ironman club points!!
Outlaw Nottingham Half
In what is billed as the UK’s “fastest selling triathlon”, a number of the club were racing Outlaw’s Middle Distance event based around the National Watersports Centre at Holmepierrepoint Nottingham. Racing were: Jon Green; Ken Murray; Katie McCreadie; and, John Church. We did have a further 6 entrants, but unfortunately none of them made it to the start line.
Jon was first in for the club, making up for the struggles the day before, coming in 29th overall and just missing out on a podium place, finishing in a tyre burning time of 4hr 29min. But, Ken wasn’t far behind, and with a bit more bike power and run speed would have given Jon a real run for his money (also finishing only 2 away from a podium)!
Katie finished strong in a little over 5hr 30min (just 4 shy of a podium), with John a mere 14 minutes behind. That’s some powerful all round middle distance racing from everyone!!
And, everyone raced visibly for the club too!!
TATA Steelman
Over in Wales, Ceri Ruzzi was racing in the TATA Steelman Standard distance triathlon, not far from Port Talbot. Out of 303 competitors, Ceri finished in the top 3rd, coming in as 16th woman, 12th in her race category, in just over 2hr 31min!
West London Cycling Time Trials
In the next instalment of the WLCC TT races, we had a small band of Ful-on-Tri peeps riding to time trial glory: Kerstin Mogull; Francesca Hunt; Stuart Montserrat; and, Alexi Calvert-Ansari. Alexi came in first for the club in under the hour, with Kerstin in second (this time with less flexible TT bars we hope!!). Great times from all out there in the early Sunday morning hours!
UNDER THE RADAR – LATE ADD-ONS:
Hackney Half Marathon
In the former badlands of East London, Sian Morgan, James Ellis, and Katie Marsh wore their ear-defenders for Emma Guthrie’s one woman cheer-squad in the Hackney Half Marathon. James Ellis raced out of his little socks to finish in just under 1hr 12min. Both Sian and Katie had quick races, with Sian finishing just under 1hr 38min and Katie coming in quickly behind in just over 1hr 40min!!
Grafman Middle Distance
Out in Cambridgeshire, apparently located near the “ancient Village of Buckden & St.Neots”, the Grafman Middle Distance Triathlon was taking place. Our somewhat publicity shy duo of Carolina Lanza and Brannigan Barrett were both out racing, and finished well. 4hr 40min for Brannigan, and 5hr (and a narrow miss on a podium spot) for Carolina!!
Challenge Lisboa Middle Distance
Racing what was billed as “one of the fastest” middle distance triathlon events, Jonathan Saunders and Andrea Sala were out in Portugal. Both finished very quickly. Jonathan landing a 4hr 44min time (and only a few shy of a podium spot), whilst Andrea notched up a 4hr 54min PB. Well done both!! – but don’t forget to add the club on your race entries.
Gothenburg Half Marathon
The Swedes are renowned for being well organised and meticulous – perhaps in a more casual way than their Germanic neighbours to the south, but certainly to a plan and method. In this year’s half marathon in the southern city of Gothenburg, chaos reigned. Our very own Johnny Williams stumbling into the race after 7 weeks of training (which to be fair isn’t bad for the casual runner), and not only turning up late (not so late he couldn’t run) but also using a different named entry. I would like to say he ran swiftly and smashed it – this may well have been so – if not for that fact that he ran under the name Henrik (a kind of popular name that side of the North Sea). Anyway, well done for making it there and making it round!
That’s all folks! Message me on fixtures@fulontri.com with any omissions or extras, and don’t forget about the race calendar and tagging your race entries with Ful-on-Tri!! And, if you are having challenges in using the website, you can just email me instead – if nothing else, it helps me keep track of you all in a more timely manner – plus, if you’re interested in club prizes, there are points at stake if I never capture your Triathlon result – you snooze you lose.