Congratulations Ailanore ‘Duty Finish’ Harper for getting 6th at the World Triathlon Championships in Beijing last weekend! We are incredibly proud to have our first GB representative from the club and now a top 10 finisher at a World Championships. Congratulations also to Andrew Finn for completing his first Ironman in Wales last weekend and to Guy Holbrow for completing the same race under very trying conditions. Incidentally, Ellen Greaves' Mum qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Kona next year by winning her age group at Ironman Wales. I think we should make her an honorary member of LFTC!
Thank you to all those athletes who travelled up to Wells-Next-the-Sea for the North Norfolk Triathlon. Thank you especially to those involved in organising transport and accommodation. We had the biggest team there and there were some fantastic performances. It seems we can’t compete in this race without a little drama though. We had few people hit the deck on the bike and the run, a few take a wrong turn on the bike, a flat tire, a strained calf, some nasty shin splints…but it was great! The highlight for me was Sebastian Arroyave completing the race in a very small pair of speedos and a crop top for £50.
Ellen Greaves won her category and was 2nd female overall! What makes this story even better is that Ellen stopped to give Sarah Allen a spare tube and tire levers when Sarah punctured on the course. Amanda Wilmer finished 6th overall even though she strained her calf and practically limped over the line. Sarah finished 9th overall despite losing 15 minutes when she punctured. She went on to post the fastest female run split of the day. Well done also to Katie Hocknell, Kate Guscott, Jane Dennyson, Kath Brasier, Wendy Musique and Lindsey Smith.
The boys did pretty well too. Joe Dale had the fastest run split of the day and finished 6th overall. It was a hard fought battle between Seb Balcombe, Rob Boulding and Tim Smith. There was less that 6 minutes between all three and less than a minute between Seb and Rob. Tim had a wee accident on the bike unfortunately otherwise I’m sure he would have been right up there with Seb and Rob. Russell Webley had a fantastic race knocking a whopping 43 minutes off his previous best time for an Olympic distance triathlon. Congratulations to all the other guys who competed. It was a mighty fine effort by all and we keep the interclub challenge shield for another year!
And if you didn't already know GB has two new world champions in Alistair Brownlee and Helen Jenkins. I am very pleased to report that a Kiwi won the women's elite World Championship Grand Final in Beijing. Andrea Hewitt out-sprinted Helen Jenkins to win by 14secs. You can watch the highlights here. Remember next year the World Championships are in Auckland, NZ. Here is the perfect excuse to fly half way around the world and visit little old NZ!
Get those entries in for the final London League event. The Jekyll and Hyde Duathlon is on October 30th. I would love to see us enter our biggest team yet for a London League event.
See you Tuesday for our final session at the Victoria Park track before heading back to Well Street Common. Enjoy your weekend. Tim (LFTC Coach).
