St Neots was awash with age-groupers last weekend as they each made their individual bids for victory at the British Sprint Distance Triathlon Championships.
Some-700 participants began their winning campaigns in the River Ouse in the Cambridgeshire countryside on Sunday (10 May) as they prepared to battle old and new rivals in their age-groups.
Top of the class was Sam Wade (M20-24), cutting the tape in 1:01:34 to clock the quickest time of the day. It was his blistering 14:35 5km leg that set him apart from second placed Carl Shaw (M35-39). Despite having the edge over Sam on the swim and bike legs, Carl couldn’t quite see off his rival in the final stage and had to settle with a time of 1:01:57. Following close behind and third to cross the line was Luke Pollard (M20-24) in 1:02:08.
We caught up with Sam following his victory and he said; “I went into the race with the expectation of at least winning my age category and knowing that an overall win was possible. But with the quality of field a British Championships always attracts, it’s never an easy task.
“The race went fairly well and despite being a little tired from racing the BUCS Sprint Triathlon, where I managed a win last week, I was able to put together a strong all round performance to take gold ahead of some good competition.
“I’m soon looking to turn my attention to some draft legal racing starting at Blenheim Palace in June.”
The women’s event was another impressive display of sprinting prowess. Alice Sharpe produced the quickest effort of the day to finish in 1:11:42. A swift 42-second first transition saw her safely first onto the bike after emerging from the water in the leading group. A speedy final leg on foot allowed her to stave off competition from second quickest female, Lucy Charles. Also competing in the W20-24, Lucy finished almost a minute adrift in 1:12:37. Elle Twentyman (W20-24) was third fastest female in 1:14:22.
Alice was suitably happy with her podium-topping performance, saying; “The atmosphere was great, and overall it was a well organised event.
“This was my first race of the season, so it was great to see the hard winter training has paid off! I'm excited for the super series to begin and can only hope the success continues.”
The event carried an extra incentive with it also acting as the first opportunity to qualify for the Great Britain Age Group Team for both the 2015 ITU World Sprint Distance Triathlon Championships in Chicago and the 2016 ETU European Sprint Distance Triathlon Championships in Lisbon.
The next opportunities to qualify for the respective events will be at Eton Sprints on May 23 and Nottingham Triathlon on May 30. For more information on competing for the Great Britain Age-Group Team, please visit here.
2015 British Sprint Triathlon Champions:
15-19: Tom Stead, Rosie Weston,
20-24: Sam Wade, Alice Sharpe,
25-29: Edward Castro, Stephanie Mottram
30-34: Tom Higgins, Victoria Baker
35-39: Carl Shaw, Katy Granville-Chapman
40-44: Robert Osbourne, Tanya Brightwell
45-49: Sean Flynn, Catherine Linney
50-54: Tim Ashelford, Sara Northover
55-59: Alan Bremner, Beverley Childs
60-64: Alistair Asher, Wendy Read
65-69: Michael Smallwood, Barbara Walton
70-74: Ray Gray, Georgia Jennings
75-79: Nigel Dimmock,
For full results of the event, please visit here.
