Wight Tri members travelled the short distance across the Solent to take part in the Challenging Events Bournemouth Sprint and Standard Triathlons.
With an early morning start, the men’s wave was off first, with Trevor McAlastair and Dan Shortman taking part. Both had solid 1500m swims, posting 30:04 and 30:48 as they entered transition, with the times including the long run up from the sea up the West Cliff zig-zag, as well as being almost 100m over distance.
They were soon onto their bikes to take on the bike route, which was an out-and-back route along the dual carriageway to Ringwood RAB. Dan had a good bike leg of 1:08:47, passing Trevor on the 40km cycle route. Trevor posted 1:12:17, almost 3 mins down on Dan in T2.
However, Trevor’s running prowess saw him overtake Dan again on the 10km flat run, which took the competitors along the seafront to Sandbanks, returning the same way. With run splits of 41:03 and 45:53, Trevor and Dan completed the event in 2:27:35 and 2:28:57 in 9th and 10th positions in the 40-45 age group for the English National Championships.
Jan Fletcher, Charis Jones and Liz Dunlop were next off in the all-female wave.
Jan exited the swim first in 31:02, with Liz in 33:12 and Charis in 36:03. Liz had come out first in the 65-69 category with Jan and Charis several minutes down on their age group competitors.
With the bike being Jan and Charis’s strength they were soon powering their way through the field, overtaking many athletes in their age group, with Charis also catching Liz at the turnaround point. Super swift splits of 1:07:48, 1:09:33 and 1:16:50, saw all 3 enter T1 close to podium positions.
Liz was still in first and well ahead of the other 2 competitors in her age group, but knowing they were both better runners than her, she had to keep pushing on to ensure the victory. Even with a poor run of 54:33, finishing in 2:48:25, she still finished 10mins ahead of 2nd place to take the English National Championship title and the Gold medal in the 65-69 age group.
Jan had a super fast run of 43:22 to post the fastest run split in her age group by over 2mins, to finish in a PB time of 2:25:45 and take 3rd and the Bronze medal in the English National Championships 45-49 category.
Charis was also having a super run, and passing runners in her age group to finish an amazing 4th in the 30-34 AG, with a 46:12 run and 2:35:55 overall time.
During the National Championships event, the Challenging Events Bournemouth Sprint Triathlon was taking place, with Laoise Bennis having a super race. The routes were shorter versions of the standard event, with turning points half way round the bike and run courses.
Posting a solid 17:37 for the 750m swim, followed by 38:30 for the 20km cycle and 21:39 for the 5km run, Laoise finished in a fantastic time of 1:20:19 to take 3rd female place overall and 1st in the 25-29 category.
