World Champion!

There were lots of TriPurbeck athletes racing over the last 2 weekends and I will report on them shortly, however, on Sunday, the inspirational Sharon Bardsley became the first TriPurbeck athlete to win a gold medal in a World Championship as she smashed the field in the 60-64 age category at the World Sprint Duathlon – winning against a strong field by more than 4 minutes and clocking the fastest splits in both runs and the bike. Absolutely phenomenal. Sharon clocked 21minutes for the first 5k, 41min for the 20k bike and 11mins for the 2.5k to finish. Derek also had a great race finishing 8th but only 1min30sec off the bronze medal in a very tight finish – edging ever closer to that elusive medal.

Here’s Sharon’s take on the race:

My first ever race in ideal conditions sunny, not too hot and not a breath of wind. Made a

change from shivering on the start line hoping the rain isn’t going to get worse. Anyway all

the females set off along the athletics track together. There were no body markings so it

was impossible to tell who was in your age group so it was just a case of going out hard and

trying to keep it up.

The run was a bit hilly and twisty through the streets of the old town in Pontevedra and

back alongside the river, with lots of support along the way to keep you going. Transition

was a doddle with my new helmet – no giving the opposition chance to catch up this time.

Then the bike was a 10k steady climb on a wide carriageway and 10k back down the other

side. Riding the course beforehand was really scary as there was a lot of heavy traffic and

it was very windy so I came down hanging on to the brakes and even then managed over

30mph. However on race day I decided to give the tribars a go and try to keep my hands off

the brakes. It seemed to work as I managed to pass a couple of people on the way down –

never done that before on a downhill stretch ! The final run was just a case of hanging on up

the hill and over the cobbles. I did manage to pass a French lady on the way but it turned out

she wasn’t in my age group. Anyway I finished in the lead with about 4 minutes to spare. So

didn’t need the new helmet in the end.

Thanks to Fran for her encouragement and training plans getting me up to speed !