Fraser Cartmell and Nikki Bartlett were crowned British Middle Distance Triathlon Champions on Sunday, following a gruelling race at Aberfeldy.
With a 600-strong field of dedicated age-groupers, gusting wind and occasional bursts of heavy rain to contend with, both overall winners tackled the testing Highland Perthshire course impressively. Conditions made the 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21km run even more tricky than normal, making Cartmell and Bartlett’s achievements particularly notable.
In the men’s race, Cartmell took the tape ahead of rivals Peter Fenwick (both 30-34) and Colin Norris (who took the male 25-29 age-group title). In the women’s race, Bartlett (25-29) got the better of Caroline Livesey (who claimed the 35-39 age-group tile) and pre-race favourite Jennifer Stewart (30-34 age-group champion).
2013 Scottish Long Distance Champion Cartmell has tasted success at Aberfeldy before. This time, the two-time Ironman UK Champion showed his class to come home in 4:16:22, five minutes 41 seconds clear of Fenwick.
Despite being pre-race favourite, Cartmell was made to work hard for the victory. He exited the water in 24:46, just over 90 seconds behind fellow Scot Douglas Roberts (20-24), who posted an outstanding time of 23:11 for the 1.9km lap of Loch Tay.
A bike time of 2:57:58 helped Cartmell to enter T2 in the lead, but a slow changeover saw him head into the run two minutes behind Fenwick. The Stirling Triathlon Club athlete soon overhauled his Scottish rival, with an impressive run time of 1:15:01 securing a first British title at any distance.
“It feels great to be British Champion at last,” Cartmell said afterwards. “It was really tough today – the conditions were really challenging. The swim was cold and choppy and more like the sea than a loch or lake. I’ve done this race four times and the bike ride never gets any easier. You’re climbing almost straight out of transition. When you’ve done that, you’ve still got 13 miles of hard running to go. I was pleased with the run, though – it felt good.”
Women’s winner Nikki Bartlett also had to do it tough. She exited the water in 32:17, almost seven minutes behind leader Gillian Stokes (25-29), but battled back on the bike with an impressive time of 2:49:14. Even so, she exited T2 over 90 seconds behind pace-setter Caroline Livesey, but overhauled the Functional Fitness Coaching Athlete with a brilliant run of 1:24:30. Dunblane-based Bartlett crossed the line in 4:49:41, some 32 seconds ahead of Livesey.
The win completed a unique double for Bartlett, who became Scottish Olympic Distance Champion back in May. The Gloucestershire-born athlete has enjoyed an impressive career to date, having finished second in her age-group (25-29) at the 2013 ITU Long Distance World Championships.
After the race, she was naturally delighted with the win, but admitted to having some concerns about aspects of her performance. “I had a bit of a panic attack on the swim, but I know my bike and run is much stronger than my swim so I tried to focus on that,” she said. “To be honest I’m a bit shocked after that swim that I’m British Champion. It was a mentally tough day but I’m glad that I got through it and got the win.”
