The Cambridge Duathlon took place yesterday on Sunday 14 April 2013, presenting the first opportunity of the season for Triathlon England members to be crowned National champions.
 

The event was only the second Triathlon England – National Duathlon Championships with Sam Baxter finishing with an overall winning time of 01:56.51 in the men’s race and Gill Fullen completing the course in 02:13.14 to win the women’s race.

 

Hugh Mackenzie improved upon his third place in 2012, to finish second overall in 01:56.55 and become a Triathlon England National Champion in the men’s 30-34 age-category. In third place overall, was Iain Robertson finishing in a time of 01:58.32, which secured the 35-39 age-group Triathlon England National title.

 

In the women’s event, Gill won the 45-49 Triathlon England National title as well as the overall win.  Kate Hodgkiss finished second overall with a time of 02:14.31, also taking the 30-34 age-group Triathlon England National title.

 

Kate described being a National Champion as: “It’s a great feeling as there were some other great athletes out there. It was nice to get on the podium and be able to qualify and look forward to Ottawa in August.

 

“It was my first podium and medal for a while. I really do like the Triathlon England medal design as it is a bit different and of course it was great to receive it from James Cracknell who was also taking part.”  

 

Third place overall and second place in the same age-group went to Catherine Benger, who completed the course in 02:14.47.

 

The event was also the second opportunity for standard distance duathletes to qualify for the Great Britain Age-Group Team at the 2013 Ottawa ITU Duathlon World Championships. One athlete who was aiming to secure his place in the team was Olympic gold medallist, James Cracknell. 

 

James found the 7.5km run, 40km bike and final 7.5km run to be a real test, especially with the wind on the second run, commenting: “The first half I really enjoyed, but in the second half I was hanging on.” 

 

He continued: “I knew it was going to be a hard ask to qualify, but the event had a really good atmosphere and was a nice course.”

 

The third and final qualifier is the Clumber Park Classic Duathlon, which was rearranged to the 11 May 2013.

 

Check out all the results here

 

The event was organised by Cambridge Triathlon Club, with more information available on www.cambridgetriathlonclub.com