Prestwold Duathlon 27 April 2014

Prestwold Duathlon 27 April 2014 Thirty one children from 4Life Tri battled it out against children from all over the East Midlands at the Prestwold Duathlon. The former airfield is more used to having Ferraris fly round the 2.5km circuit but the children showed how fast they can speed round on their bikes. There were many nervous triathletes sheltering from the wind in the 4Life gazebo early in the morning. For the more experienced racers, this was an important qualifying race for those seeking selection for the East Midlands IRC team. For the newest members, it was their first ever multi-sport race and a daunting, but exciting challenge. The day started with Dan Salcedo gathering the whole team together to put everyone at ease and talk race tactics. He covered how to pace the first run and using gears on the bike in the strong wind. Very soon it was time for the first race with our youngest two competitors, Will Inman and Robyn Jarvis heading for the start line. Will didn’t panic when things went wrong and was very strong on the bike for such a tiny lad. The Tristar 1 girls and boys soon followed. Frankie Berry had a good solid run and bike to finish a creditable fifth in her first race for over a year. Lucy Rathbone, inspired by her trial with the club in the week before Easter signed up for this race straight away and raced hard all the way to a top 10 place – in the top third of the field after only one training session. Well done! The TS1 boys race was accidentally started on the gravel, which made it very difficult for some to get a good start but Tom Southgate was well placed coming in off the first run, which he maintained on the bike with a battle on the final run th to finish 7 . Another good position from one of our newer members. Anthony Cook showed how much he learned from his transition errors at Lincoln and had a much improved performance. In both Tristar 2 races we had three placed in the top 10, Xavi Salcedo, Lucas Wolf-Pudney and Lewis Edge for the boys and Maya Todd-McIntyre, Lizzy Edge and Chloe Goulding for the girls. In this age group Matthew Aldred was competing in his first race. Both TS3 races saw some highly competitive racing. Libby Coleman, having been caught on the bike, showed how superior her running is to win by 36 seconds. Peta Jarvis had a great first run but dropped from second to fifth after she ran up the wrong isle for her bike in T1, then had further problems with her chain slipping off on the second bike lap. In the boys race Aaron Goulding came into transition just behind the leader on the first run, but in a race that saw the top places swap around several times he found himself back in sixth place going out onto the second run, overtaking Will Barker to finish fifth. Harry Purdell put in a consistent performance throughout earning himself a place rd th th on the podium (3 ). Racing well in their first year in TS3 were Hayden Greaves (9 ) and Max Shilton (18 ). The events started every 10 minutes and it wasn’t long before our youths Joseph Tuffin, Daniel Aldred and Jacob Hubner had finished. These boys had the privilege of racing against the National Duathlon Champion. The team spirit was evident today and one mum has written “pass on a huge thank you to so many people who attended the event today. Dan and Bettina with their tips for Will, Bettina's concern for keeping him warm, and calling out to him while he was riding, but mainly to the children. Cerys (Rigby) took Will’s bike with him to place it into the transition area, Francesca kept checking he was ok and chatting to him, and all the boys, even the big ones who came up and said “nice one Will”. It was lovely, and I am grateful to everyone at 4Life. Will and I went up to watch his friend in an athletics event yesterday, and the difference in atmosphere and camaraderie was marked. We are definitely in the right place for Will. Please pass our thanks on - you can be very proud of all of them.”