World Duathlon Champs and European Triathlon Champs…… all in one week!

Well we knew she couldn’t resist! 2 years ago super speedy Sharon Bardsley took both the European and World sprint duathlon titles in an incredible season that saw her win more or less everything – at which point Sharon promptly ‘retired’ from triathlon. No such plan from Derek of course who has continued to consistently perform as one of the top Brits in his category in both duathlon and triathlon and sure enough, after spectating at a few qualifiers Sharon decided to ‘stretch her legs’ at the Clumber duathlon – which just happened to be a World Championship qualifier. Much to her surprise (but nobody else’s), Sharon qualified in second place and as Derek was ‘going anyway’ decided to take up her spot. More on this later……….

Not content with one championship race at half term (when quite frankly he should have been in the French Alps with us) Derek was racing in the European Sprint Triathlon Championships in Lisbon, Portugal (If John Skilton is reading this, by the way, we have a challenger for your ‘most holidays’ title). In his best championship performance to date, Derek was strong in all 3 disciplines, coming in to finish an excellent 4th and first British athlete home in a very quick 1hr17min. A fantastic result – soon it will be a podium!

Meanwhile, at the same aforementioned World Duathlon Championships in Aviles, Spain, on Saturday Serena O’Connor was racing elite for GB in her second major event having finished 7th in the Euros. Well this was a step up again and Serena responding brilliantly to secure 6th place overall – another stunning performance. Now personally, and I think this says something about me as an athlete (hahahaha), if I had just finished 6th on the World Championships (hahahahahahahahahaha), I would have put my feet up and celebrated with a couple of sneaky lemonades or a glass of ribena. Not Serena. Straight back on the plane so she could race the Poole Park 10k on Sunday. And………. yep, you guessed it, she smashed it, winning in 37mins and beating ex elite athletes Tamsin Lewis and Emma Dews into 2nd and 3rd place respectively. The Courtney’s were also out in force on Sunday with Lucy, Helen and Ray all breaking their pbs in there respective races and Lucy finishing an excellent 8th in the 12-14 year olds race – testament to an excellent block of training that has seen Lucy improve dramatically this year. Iris was our second winner of the day, dominating the 1 mile race for 10-11 yrs finishing in a 6min19sec time. So, in Friday’s adult run set we’ll be seeing who can rep faster than that

Iris on the top of the podium.

Finally, back to the World Duathlon and Derek finished in 7th place in the 65-69 age category. But the performance of the weekend came from Sharon racing in her first championship race for 2 years. Once again much to her surprise (but nobody else’s) Sharon ran well and then produced a brilliant ride in her first drafting race before running home to secure the silver medal for GB. Another inspirational result!