A strong cohort of Wight Tri members celebrated the August Bank Holiday by taking part in the Wight Tri Club Championship Triathlon, held from Gurnard Green on Monday evening, 26th August. The Club Championship event started with a 600m sea swim, which in true Gurnard style was a bit “lumpy”, with the athletes then mounting bikes to begin the 23.7km undulating cycle, which began with the climb up Shore Road to head along Rew Street and out to Porchfield and Shalfleet before turning left onto Forest Road and then back via Whitehouse Road to retrace the route back to the seafront. Back into transition they then donned their running shoes to complete a 4.8km run of two laps out and back along the seafront. There was also a choice of completing the shorter routes of a 250m swim, a 16.7km cycle that followed the same route but turned at the Lock’s Green Triangle and with a single lap, 2.4 km run – several triathletes also chose to mix the distances. The main Wight Tri Club Championship Trophy is awarded to the person closest to their nominated time regardless of which distances they chose to race. This was won by new member Steve Kerr, who completed the short swim, long bike and run course in 1:30:06, just 6 seconds over his nominated time. Dan Morgan was 2nd with 24 seconds over in 1:15:09 for the long course and Adam Greenen came 3rd, posting 27 seconds inside his nominated time of 1:20:00 also for the long course. However the individual race is run over the long course distances and right from the gun, the race was on! Mik Onions led out of the swim with unior member Henry Morgan close behind, both posting super quick times of 10:08 and 10:32 respectively. Almost a minute later the next trio of male athletes of Dan Morgan, Craig Wilson and Chris Till entered T1, followed by Andy Haigh and female leader Jan Fletcher close behind in 12:08. Kelly Moorman was the 2nd female to enter T1 in 12:25, with super-veteran Liz Dunlop next in 13:22. Super quick 38-second transitions by Henry and Chris were a joy to watch and were reminiscent of the Brownlee brothers, who often stole time on their elite rivals, enabling them to pull back some valuable seconds before they jumped on their bikes. There were some great bike splits posted by several athletes on this challenging bike course, which was made even worse by the strong south-westerly wind on the outward leg. However Chris showed his strength on the bike to post the fastest bike split of 38:17 to move into 2nd position as he entered T2 just 35 seconds behind Mik, who still held the led into T2. Almost 2 minutes later only 3 seconds separated 3rd and 4th place Dan and Craig, with new member Andy Haigh passing Henry to enter T2 in 5th position, again nearly 2 minutes down on 3rd. The race was on, with battles pursuing throughout the field. It’s often said that triathlons are won on the fourth discipline – the transitions between sports – and this was certainly evident today. A slow T2 from Mik saw him lose valuable seconds to Chris, who continued to steadily make up ground on him on the run. Posting a super-fast run of 18:19, he overtook Mik on the 2nd lap to take 1st Male overall award in a total time of 1:09:29. Mik came in 2nd in 1:10:06. The battle was also on for the last of the podium spots, with Andy and Henry chasing down Dan and Craig. However, Craig showed he is back to form and produced a solid run to finish in 3rd position overall in 1:13:23 just holding off a fast approaching Andy, who ran the 2nd fastest run (18:30) of the day to finish in 1:13:55 in 4th, and later realising that his slow transitions had lost him a podium spot. Henry won the battle of the ‘Morgans’ to take 5th in 1:14:44. In the female race, Jan was showing her bike and run strength to stretch her lead into T2, with a super 47:43 bike split and continuing this on to the run to take the 1st Female award in an overall time of 1:22:58. Liz was 2nd overall with Arielle Elton-Walters taking 3rd; both females having solid races to finish in 1:35:36 and 1:40:18 respectively. There were also some great performances produced by athletes who chose to do the shorter or the mixed course routes with many showing how much they have improved over this season. Claire Squirrel completed her first ever triathlon in style to take the fastest female overall in 57:55 on the short course route with new member Bernard Harrington-Vogt the fastest male, with a super swift time of 53:03.
“Thanks again to everyone involved in running the Club Championships on Monday and well done to all who took part. “It was fantastic to see such a high turnout of old, new and even joining-on-the-start-line members!” “We took the decision to bring the Club Championships forward to the August Bank Holiday, rather than its usual weather-dependent slot in late-September, and it really paid off thanks to the members who turned out on the day.”
Press Secretary Liz Dunlop adds:
“Wight Tri would like to thank all triathletes for taking part and making this such a memorable event. To see so many participate and also see the sport of triathlon being experienced at such a high level, with a high participation level, here on the Isle of Wight, is great for our sport as well as for the Island. There were many spectators who were on holiday and took time to watch and cheer on the triathletes.” “Huge thanks from Wight Tri go to the people who made it happen: Event Organiser Neil Cooper, Timekeeper Martin Goodall, Chief Marshalls Steve Dines and Kevin Winchcombe and Safety Officer Elaine Spear, who provided such great kayak support on the water.”
This is the last of the Wight Tri 2023-24 season events, but the new season kicks off in October with the Winter Duathlon Series. Further information will be available soon from the Wight Tri Facebook Page.