Wight Tri Report 11.9.17

Wight Tri have had a very busy and rewarding weekend of racing, with several fantastic performances..
First up on the Saturday was the Challenge Almere Ironman Triathlon/Half Ironman 970.3) Triathlons in Amsterdam. Grant Philbrick and Neil Cooper took on the 70.3 event in their first ever half ironman distance triathlon with Mary and Joe Norman completing their second ever full Ironman distance triathlons inn PB times – report to follow from Joe Norman.

Sunday saw a host of Wight tri members taking part in more local events; The Portsmouth Sprint and Standard Distance Triathlons and also the Bournemouth international Standard Distance Triathlon, with one member travelling a bit further west to take on the Ironman Wales triathlon, again another full distance event.

Portsmouth Sprint and Standard Distance Triathlon
Wight Tri members Luke Jeffrey and Craig Wilson competed in their first ever standard distance triathlon at Portsmouth and aced the event. The 1500m race swim started at Clarence Pier Esplanade and unlike previous years, the sea was a bit calmer but still had a strong current running, With a fast flat 7 lap 40Km closed road bike course and 4 lap 10Km run course, fast times were expected, even with the wind and rain as the course was somewhat protected by the surrounding buildings.
Craig and Luke had fantastic debut performances to finish 13th and 16th overall. Craig’s splits of 31:56, 1:07:15 and 44:22 with a finishing time of 2:25:28 saw him take 4th in the M45-49 category with Luke taking 5th senior male in 2:26:22 and splits of 30:59, 1:05:41 and 47:03.
Super Veteran, Steve Dines, returned to racing after a long bout of injury and illness by having a fantastic sprint race.
Starting off a 20:10 for the 750m swim followed by 42:06 for the 4 lap, 20km cycle and 25:18 for the 2 lap 5km run, Steve finished in 43rd position overall and 2nd in the Vet 60-64 category..

Bournemouth International Standard Distance Triathlon
Janet Fletcher, Zasha Mitchell, Richard Bulmer and Pete Carter travelled further west to take on the Bournemouth Standard Distance triathlon. This was the first standard distance triathlon for Zasha.. and what a race to make her debut. The 1500m swim turned into almost 2000m as the strong currents kept moving the bouys, with swim times being over 10 mins more than expected. The bike route was a flat out and back 39km cycle on the dual carriage way turning at the Ringwood roundabout, followed by a flat out and back 10km run along the Esplanade to Boscombe Pier. This should also have been a fast course. However, with the strong sea current and the strong winds and rain, making it a very tough course for all competitors, the overall times were way down on previous years’.
Pete Carter had a strong race to finish first for Wight Tri in 22nd position overall and 7th in the M40-49 category in 2:26:32 with splits of 33:51, 1:04:34 and 45:23.
Richard Bulmer was next to finish in 2:49:56, with splits of 35:07, 1:14:38 and 55:51 to finish 9th in the M 50-59 age group. Janet Fletcher was 3rd in the F40-49 age group in 2:50:59 (41:37, 1:13:14, 52:06) and 11th female overall. Zasha Mitchell had a great debut to finish 8th in the F40-49 age group and 30th female overall. Zasha was elated to have completed such an arduous event, and has learned lots from her first ever standard distance triathlon.

Ironman Wales, Tenby, Pembrokeshire
Peter Farwell took on the full Ironman Distance at IRONMAN Wales, one of the toughest Ironman races on the calendar. The course started with a 2 lap 3.8km swim from the North Beach in Tenby, followed by a tough 1km uphill run to transition and then 180km very hilly cycle around scenic countryside of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and finishing with a 4 lap, 42km marathon undulating run around the medieval walls and coast line of Tenby.
The weather also played its part on this event, to be out for over 12 hours in strong winds and rain took lots of guts and determination. This event is not for the feint hearted.
Peter had a super fast swim to exit the sea in 1:11:06 and 10th in the M55-59 age group category. Tough conditions on the bike slowed him down considerably and with a slower time than expected of 6:57:03, he lost a few places and entered T2 in 12th position. However, a fantastically paced 3:57:07 marathon run split saw him pass several of his age group competitors to finish in 5th position in the M55-59 category in a time of 12:17:27 and 340th overall from over 2000 competitors, with a well earned IRONMAN medal.
As this is a qualifier for the Kona World Ironman Triathlon Championships, 2018, Peter is hoping that he may have earned a qualifying spot. I will email as soon as I know if he has got this)

New Forest Half Marathon
Dan Morgan had a great race and posted a PB time in the New Forest Half Marathon, which took place from the New Park Showground in Brockenhurst, a 13.1 mile multi-terrain route around the Brockenhurst area.
Dan completed the course in a personal best time of 2:01:33 to finish in 1049th position out of 2000 competitors.