Eton Sprints proved a hit with athletes, as many bagged an elusive spot on the Great Britain Age-Group Team.

Human Race organised the popular sprint distance event, which saw almost 1000 triathletes take to Dorney Lake on Saturday in a bid for a podium position. The added incentive to perform well was present, given the race acted as an official qualifier for the ITU Sprint Distance Triathlon World Championships in Chicago later this year.

With the sun shining, the qualifying waves set off at 9am. Ryan Griffiths was the first home; the M17-18 putting in a fine performance to finish just outside the hour mark in 1:00:28. He was followed home by Danny Russell (M30-34) and Edward Castro (M25-29) respectively in 1:01:24 and 1:01:46.

Hannah Lord was fastest female of the day, the W25-29 triathlete clocking 1:05:56. After taking an early lead in the swim, Lord held on to see off competition from Zoe Cresswell (W30-34) who was four minutes adrift in 1:09:57. Molly Patch (W20-24) followed in 1:11:17.

The Eton Sprints wave set off after the initial batch of athletes had gotten underway. It was the turn of Phil Graves (M25-29) to impress this time, as the former Ironman Champion blew away the field to be the only one to complete the course in under an hour, finishing in 58:57. Scott Wiseman (M35-39) and Oliver Bradford (M35-39) were Graves’ closest competition, crossing the  line respectively in 1:02:01 and 1:02:15.

Sarah Lewis (W30-34)  and Anna Sykes-Brown (W30-34) battled it out to the finish in the women’s non-qualifying race. In the end it was Lewis who grabbed the win by a small margin in 1:06:29. Sykes-Brown had to settle for second place with 1:06:38, with Louise Croxson (W40-44) as third fastest female in 1:08:53

For full results, please visit here.

The next and final opportunity to qualify for the Great Britain Age-Group Team for the ITU Sprint Distance Triathlon World Championships will be this weekend a Nottingham Triathlon. Keep checking back for details on the race.