Firstly, congratulations to Tom Picking for completing the City to Summit event over the weekend. For those that are not familiar with the event, it is regarded as one of the toughest long distance triathlons in the world. It starts with a freezing cold and rough 2.4mile swim in the Forth of Firth. This is followed by a 122mile bike with 8200ft of ascent. To top it off you then run 27miles with 7900ft of ascent which includes going up and over Ben Nevis. Crazy! Tom finished in a very creditable 16:20:24.
A couple of weeks ago now The Immortal middle distance triathlon took place in the Stourhead National Trust Estate. LFTC took line honours in both the men’s and women’s event with Adam Parkes and Gail Wilkinson proving that their Ironman Nice preparations are going just fine! Seb Balcombe was third across the line from LFTC. Looks like a great event if you are up for an early season challenge next year. If you check out the video of the event on the website you can see some of your club mates racing in The Immortal.
On the same weekend as The Immortal was the Crystal Palace Sprint Distance Triathlon. This was the fourth London Triathlon League event of the season. It was my first time competing in the event and I must say I loved it! It is a tough little course with a nasty little hill on every lap of the bike and the run and a downhill just long enough to get your breath back before hitting the hill again. Sarah Allen was the fastest of the girls coming in fifth overall with Belinda Robbie coming in second and seventh overall and Clare Shakespeare third in sixteenth overall. Steve Marks had a spectacular race to come in third of the LFTC boys and twentieth overall. Cath Brasier and Judith Crichton were third and second in their respective age groups too. Joe Dale was second across the line for LFTC and thirteenth overall and a guy named Tim Smith was the quickest on the day for LFTC and eleventh overall. If you are interested you can check out the splits here. Hal Crampin was ninth in the youth race against some very competitive athletes. Nice work team!
Of course last weekend was the London leg of the ITU World Championship Series. The elite men’s race came down to a very exciting sprint finish after a huge bunch entered T2 together. Mario Mola was the victor on the day.
The elite women’s race wasn’t quite so close with Gwen Jorgensen running away from the remainder of the field to take first place. We had plenty of LFTC athletes competing in the open races also as well as other events taking place all over the country. I hope you all had a great day of racing!
See you on Saturday! Tim (LFTC Coach)