Manx Tri Club

3 Manx Tri Club members took part in the Chester Triathlon, Karen Shimmin, Lynsey Elliott & Paul Swindale.  The event doubled as the English National Championships, and as a European and World Championship qualifier.

Karen finished 4th in her age group but happily came away with a bronze medal for the English National Championship as the girl who placed 1st was Scottish.  Her overall time was 2:17:55 which is an 8 minute improvement on last year.

Lynsey finished 2nd in her age group, but again as the 1st place lady was Scottish, Lynsey came away with the Gold Medal for the English National Championships.  Her finishing time of 2:18:53 (a 10 min improvement on 2014) was enough to give her a qualifying place for the 2016 European's in Lisbon and this year's World's in Chicago.

After a solid swim (albeit very cold) of 21:32, Paul was lying in 12th place.  His usual super fast transition and strength on a slightly long bike course saw him navigate up to 5th place heading back into transition for the run.  Paul tried hard to defend his position, but the run isn't his favourite discipline and he finished 17th in his age group, but with a very respectable time of 2:11:47 in a very competitive field.  Commenting on his race, Paul said he 'hoped to find his running legs somewhere in a field in middle England sometime soon'.

Good luck to the Island Games Team competing in Jersey. Some of the first medals of the Games will be decided when the 17 represented Islands will compete for individual and team medals at the waterfront , St Helier on Sunday 28^th June with the Men away at 16:15 and the Women at 16:30.

Rebecca Storrie competed in a very blustery Marine Lake Southport Triathlon on 21st June achieving an exceptional result in the sprint event. Her time of 1:11:25 not only gave her 1^st in the U20 age group but first female overall! Second place was +1:26 and 2^nd U20 was +3:32.

As this was a qualifier for the Age Group  ETU Championships she has also booked herself a race in Portugal next year.

She will not be racing at the Island Games so her next race will be the elite race in Liverpool on 26^th July.

Results here:  Results

Congratulations to Anthony Bell-Scott (Abs) on 1st place at the Bosworth Standard Distance Tri last weekend.  This was a late replacement race for the Ellesmere Tri, well known to Manx triathletes, that was unfortunately cancelled this year due to low entries.

The weather was poor on the day, with strong winds and heavy rain, possibly favouring Abs as it felt like the usual Manx weather! 

The swim was a two loop affair similar to the Ramsey Tri, with laps around two Islands, followed by a long run from the lake to T1.  Abs had an average swim, coming out in 13^th position, 4 minutes behind the leader. 

On the 42k undulating bike section he managed to claw back 11 places, and came in to T2 in 2^nd position, having posted the fastest bike split of the day, but still 2 and a half  minutes down on the leader. 

The run was four laps, all on grass paths, and after one lap Abs could see he was catching the leader, and made the pass at the start of lap 4, eventually crossing the line a minute clear, for his first ever triathlon victory, in a time of 2.11.05.

Full results here :

http://www.onyourmarksevents.org/events1/triathlon-events/bosworth-terrapin-triathlon.html

Little Beaver was one of the qualifying events for the 2016 World Championships which will be held in Chicago.  Local athlete Paul Swindale, who is no stranger to the Little Beaver event, was there to have another go at this tough course.  After coming out of the water 3^rd in age group, Paul emerged for the 800 metre” dash” back to transition in good shape before jumping on the bike for the 46k bike leg. Despite tussling with a couple of people racing in the same age group, the new plasma 5 took him back to transition in joint 2^nd, having managed to catch and pass his closest competitor during the bike leg and with a quick transition the two competitors emerged neck and neck

Sadly, then comes the hard bit, with the individual in joint 2^nd running away from Paul and him trying to hang on for a qualifying spot for the worlds in Chicago. Due to the run being Paul’s weaker discipline he crossed the line 6^th in age group, 68^th overall (out of a field of 434) however due to 2 people in front of Paul not looking to go to the worlds, he managed to secure one of the four automatic slots in the 45-49 age group.  Full results below.

http://www.justracinguk.com/sites/default/files/results/Little%20Beaver%20Results%202015.pdf

Roll on Chicago & good luck to Paul.

4 Club Members set off for Llanberis last weekend to take part in the unique Slateman Triathlon.  Jill Bunyan and Steve Kennaugh had both taken part in this event a year ago, and this year were joined by Jonathan King and Andy Nash.  Another local, Ben Cox also took part.  

Jill and Steve were clearly keen to get the most out of their weekend taking part in both the Sprint race on the Saturday and the longer distance event on the Sunday.  Fortunately for all the competitors the weather was reasonable and there was great support from lots of spectators on the bike and run courses.  Andy Nash had a great weekend, winning the Sprint event in a new course record of 1:10:29, over 3 mins clear of his nearest rival.  Steve finished 41st in Age Group in 1:36:55 and Jill was very pleased with her 5th in Age Group and 33rd overall from 152 ladies.

Sunday's longer distance event comprised a 500m swim (reduced because of the low water temperature), a 51k cycle and an 11k trail run.  Here Ben Cox finished in 3:11:19, Steve in 3:16:02, Jonathan in 3:17:05 and Jill in 3:34:21.

We have a number of very nice Isle of Man Branded Sports Towels with 3 legs logo on them - good quality bath towel size, £20 each or 2 for £35 

Contact Juan Kinley if you are interested 486938.

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Microgaming Triathlon Festival Weekend

What a great weekend of racing in what can best be described as tricky conditions.  Having rained all day Friday and overnight into Saturday, it was a relief to see a break in the clouds on Saturday morning just as racing started. 

It was 'Individuals' day on Saturday with a huge field in both the Mens & Ladies races, 67 & 28 respectively and a further 12 competitors taking parting in the Short Swim category.  It was great to see a whole set of new faces with many competitors taking part in Triathlon for the 1st time.

The Ladies were off in the first Wave and Hannah Howitt led out of the Pool, closely followed by Becky Storrie, both taking less than 11 mins for their Swim and Transition 1.  Lynsey Elliott and Jo Hawkins were next and all were quickly out onto the Bike course.  Becky, who would normally rely on her strength on the run, showed that she's a force to be reckoned with on the bike leg too.  She managed to overtake Hannah and by the time she returned to T2 had established a 1min 30s lead setting out onto the run.  There was no taking her foot off the gas though, stretching her lead to almost 2 mins to cross the line in 1st in an amazing 1:06:00.  Hannah held onto 2nd by a further minute over Lynsey, but such was the quality of their racing that all 3 ladies smashed the previous  course record of 1:13:00.  It was great to see Jo Hawkins back to fitness and she had a good race with Wendy Sandford, finishing 4th & 5th respectively.  Jan Catchpole and Lynn Ilnot raced it out with only 3 secs separating them on the line, coming 6th & 7th respectively and 1st time triathlete's Caroline Moran and Bev Broderick finished very strongly in 8th & 9th.

  Podium Girls

The Triathlon Team to compete in this year’s Nat West Island Games to be held in Jersey has been announced.

The team of eight, comprising 5 men and 3 women, includes 2 men from Bermuda’s bronze medal winning team of 2013. The rest of the team are all new to Island Games Triathlon.

The team are:

Antony Bell-Scott

Sam Brand

Juan Kinley

Andrew Nash

Joseph Ricciardi

Lynsey Elliott

Hannah Howitt

Karen Shimmin

Juan and Andrew are all previous competitors, with Juan being the senior statesmen holding a wealth of experience at all distances. He has Island Games medals from Badminton as well as Triathlon and is the team manager . Antony is a seasoned campaigner at Ironman as well as the shorter distances. Andrew has the experience of Glasgow 2014 under his belt.

Sam, from Peel is a final year student at Northumbria University and has shown great promise during the qualifying races.

Joseph, at just 18, is quickly making his mark in local and National competition.

The women, all from a swimming backgrounds, are new to Island Games Triathlon.

Lynsey competed in The Faroe Islands in 1989 as a swimmer.

Hannah is studying at York University and has competed as a yachtswoman as well as a swimmer at past Games.

Karen’s triathlon involvement started last year very much at the deep end of the sport when she competed long distance at Ironman Wales. The shorter 1,500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run should not pose a problem to her in Jersey.

The Triathlon will take place on Sunday 28th June at St. Aubin's Bay and will follow the established Jersey Triathlon course.

Isle of Man Triathlon would like to thank Microgaming for their continued support and to TYR who will be providing some sports kit. Trade Distribution has also been very helpful with getting race bikes to and from Jersey.

Hannah was invited to take part in the inaugural Elite race at the City of York triathlon where 10 elite men and 10 elite women raced against each other with a starting handicap based on last years winning times with all athletes directly racing each other as they headed for the finish line racing for the crown of overall male or female winner. 

In an exciting race, Hannah (pictured exiting T2) had a good swim, exiting the pool one and a half minutes ahead of her nearest rival; she further extended her lead on the flat bike course and came in as 1^st Elite lady with a four and a half minute PB on her time from last year’s race.  She has been asked to go back to compete in the 2016 Elite race.   Her overall time was 1:02:15