Wight Tri Athletes Nick and Laura Curwood and Craig Wilson travelled to the mainland to compete in events last weekend. On 13th July, Wight Tri triathletes Nick and Laura Curwood returned to their old stomping ground, Dorney Lake, to take part in the annual Arctic One Tri and Para Tri Festival. Heading off into their individual super sprint waves, Nick and Laura exited each of their 400m swims in 8 minutes on the nose for both. As Laura was being lifted out of the water, Nick was already well underway on the 10k bike course and returned back to transition in 16 minutes 37 seconds. He then headed out onto the 2.5k run and, 9 minutes 51 seconds later, was crossing the finishing line. Nick’s overall time was 37:01 and he very impressively came 1st in his age group and in 2nd place overall. Laura’s own race was also very successful. Having recently acquired a new aerodynamic recumbent hand bike, she flew around the 10k course in 21 minutes 42 seconds, a new personal best. On heading back into transition, she was greeted by Nick who assisted her in transferring into her racing wheelchair so that she could take off into the run course. Laura headed out onto the run and ended up finishing in first place in her disability category and fourth place overall, with a total time of 44:13. There was no time to relax though, for both Curwoods had to get ready for round two – the triathlon relay. The relay was held whilst Laura came over the finishing line and got back into her still soggy wetsuit to take on the second swim. Fortunately, the distance was only 200m and she emerged from the water to thrust the timing chip over to Nick, who then jumped back on his bike to complete the 5k bike. He did so in excellent time, and seemingly mere minutes later, was back in transition to give the timing chip to Laura for the final 1.25k run. Already waiting in her racing chair, Laura pushed off into the last hurdle and on coming over the finishing line (for a second time that day!) Team Curwood found themselves in 10th place out of 20 teams.
Elsewhere in the world of Wight Tri Craig Wilson travelled to Eastbourne to take part in the ‘Ironbourne’ long distance triathlon. This was Craig’s 2nd attempt at this event and 4th attempt at the Ironman distance. After being disappointed with his time at last year’s Barcelona Ironman, Craig was hoping for a better result here. Starting with a leap from the end of Eastbourne’s historic pier, the 2.4 mile swim went well in choppy conditions with Craig exiting the water in 1:09:29. The 108 mile bike route left Eastbourne and headed north for an undulating course through countryside villages and then back towards the coast for a final gruelling ascent of Beachy Head, before dropping back into Eastbourne to finish the course in 5:44:40. Having paced the swim and bike sections better, Craig started the 26.2 mile run stronger than in previous Ironman events. The 4 lap seafront promenade marathon was completed in 4:14:02 for an overall time of 11:20:26, a PB at the Ironman distance. Congratulations to Craig on a superb PB performance and a fantastic 2nd place award in the 50-54 category. 
