National Duathlon Champion

Fran blew the cobwebs away in her first race of the season yesterday by winning her age group at the National Duathlon Championships somewhere up North (even further than Yeovil). Not exactly race ready going into the event, the objective was to achieve a world championship qualifying place, but a ‘solid’ 10k and the normal (well 95%) shredding of the bike course put her well clear of her rivals. This was made more impressive by Fran’s choice of footware (see picture) and almost certainly spurred on by the bottle of red wine given to each of the winners. The fact that this included the winners of the 17-19 age category raised a few questions about the underage drinking policies of British Triathlon but I don’t think their parents were complaining! Commenting on his Mum’s performance, Finlay responded with a poignant “can I play angry birds on your phone now?”.

Friends of TriPurbeck Louise Bardsley and Chris Weeks also put in impressive performances with Louise finishing 3rd in her age group and 3rd overall and Chris posting a pb in the 10k on the way to 7th in his age group. 

Other bits of news to catch up on – mainly because nobody tells me about them……

Sharon Bardsley competed at the DBmax Chilly Duathlon finishing an excellent 5th in her age group – really is time to think about some age group qualifying events I think…… Dave Pratten and Gail Tipper raced in the Heartbreak marathon and half marathon respectively. Dave finished 8th overall winning his age group in 3.34 and Gail came home 6th in her age group in a time of 2.10.  Great early season form from everyone - its really starting to warm up now….

2 weeks to go ’til Sika – get those entries in…….