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Liverpool’s spirits weren't dampened as age-groupers chased British titles

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Tri Liverpool landed in the city today, with age-group athletes making their bids to become British Triathlon Champion and many aiming to qualify for next year’s ITU Standard Distance Triathlon World Championships.

First to cross the line in M16-19 was Benjamin Goodall of Durham University Triathlon Club:

“I wasn’t really expecting it as this is my first Olympic distance triathlon. It was painful! The course was great and there was less wind than there was last year when I did the sprint.  All in all, I’m very pleased.

Alex Lawton (M25-29) clocked the fastest time of the day to finish in 1:56:20. The TORQ triathlete said:

“It’s a tough age-group to compete in, so to come top is great. I hadn’t got an expectation of winning, but I was hoping I would do well.

“I won here a couple of years ago and I had a bad race last year, so to just come out and do this was everything I could have wanted.

"The swim was good – the salt helped with the buoyancy which was good as I’m a bit of a weaker swimmer.  It was a fast bike course and the run was smooth.”

Close behind Lawton in 1:57:30, and topping the men’s 30-34 age-group, Alex Foster added:

“It was hard. I didn’t know what to expect today as I competed in Geneva at the European Championships recently but just didn’t have anything left in my legs and it cost me in the race. So I gave it everything today. There was the European silver medallist in my age-group here today, so it was nice to beat him.

“I’ve raced here for the past two years. It’s an honest course so there’s no hiding and just a great place to race”.

Jacqui Phillips was top of the class in the W45-49 age-group, saying:

“I wasn’t expecting this at all. I was hoping for a medal but I’ve not done the standard distance as much as the sprint, so it was a bit of an unknown quantity. I’m really surprised! I’ve competed for 7 years now, but this is my first time in Liverpool and I loved the course”.

In a tough W25-29 category, Abigail Schofield finished in fifth place in 2:26:21. She said:

“I was really pleased. I messed up a little in transition – I always seem to do something silly, it’s just part of the sport! This was my first time competing in Liverpool. I only started in triathlon a year ago so it’s great to do so well. It’s an amazing sport and I absolutely love it. I was running along today and I thought it isn’t even about doing well, it’s just such a nice atmosphere”.

There were also a number of open sprint distance waves as part of the Tri Liverpool event. Quickest competitor of the day in 1:02:30, Matthew Davison (M16-19) from Sunderland, commented:

“It was good – very wet! But I always train in the wet weather so that played to my advantage. It’s a big race and all the best age-group athletes come to race here, so that’s what attracted me to competing here.

“The bike was tricky in the rain with going round all those bends, but it was ok in the end”.

The standard distance race acted as the first chance to qualify for the Great Britain Age-Group Team for the 2016 Cozumel ITU Standard Distance Triathlon World Championships. For more information, please visit here.

For full results of all Tri Liverpool races, please visit here.

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