Following their success at the London Triathlon in early August, Laura and Nick Curwood returned to Dorney Lake over the Bank Holiday weekend, bringing glory back to the Isle of Wight and Wight Tri.
Competing at the Arctic One Para Triathlon Festival at the iconic Olympic rowing lake, they took part in their own individual super sprint races on Saturday, with a fun relay capping off the day.
Nick’s wave, the able-bodied super sprint athletes, was the 1st of the day. Upon entering the lake, he took off onto the swim and took out the other triathletes with apparent ease; with a 400m swim time of 7 minutes 33 seconds, he was first out of the water and flew off onto the bike segment without a 2nd glance. Whilst his fellow athletes were still coming out of the water, Nick was carving out an elite performance on the bike and completed the 10k course in 16 minutes 18 seconds.
The final leg of the race took him out onto the 2.5k run in record time; with a run time of 10 minutes and 1 second, he not only achieved a new personal best by almost 3 minutes but came first place in his wave and achieved an overall time of 36 minutes 20 seconds, an astonishing 20 minutes ahead of the 2nd-placed competitor.
Laura went off next in the para super sprint wave and started off the 400m swim by smashing through the water in 7 minutes 14 seconds and being the 1st competitor in her wave to emerge from the lake and into transition. After shedding her wetsuit, Laura then headed out onto the 10k bike course well ahead of her nearest challenger, bringing in her fastest time yet on this particular course at 22 minutes 13 seconds.
After a speedy transition, she took off onto the 2.5k run, and 9 minutes 10 seconds later, she was in 1st place over the finish line, achieving a very respectable 41 minutes 13 seconds.
Later in the day, Laura and Nick participated in the relay, with Laura taking care of the swim and the run and Nick handling the bike. Laura was 1st out of the water, and Nick obliterated his bike challengers by a considerable distance; however, owing to being misdirected on the new run course by a marshal, Laura ended up doing well over 2k on the run instead of the intended 1.5.
Upon recovering herself, Laura put on an extreme burst of speed, ensuring that the Curwoods came 2nd only 20 seconds behind the first team.
