The inaugural Hemel Triathlon which took place yesterday 4 October at Sportspace Hemel Hempstead was a great success.

Hemel Triathlon which was run by Sportspace, Cliff King and Nice Tri took place at the sports centre in Dacorum Sports Centre and had 130 take part of which 70% were first timers and over half of those were women.

The Triathlon which was part funded by Triathlon England consisted of a 400m swim, 8k bike and 5k run and stayed within the boundaries of Hemel Hempstead.

Many people admitted to not being able to either swim or run before the event but had taken up the challenge and also taken part in many of the triathlon specific session Sportspace had organised with the help of Andrew Adeane a local level 2 BTF Coach.

Post race comments include "Great race, really enjoyed it, well organised and thank you to everyone who help run it"

"Loved the race, it was my first time and I've now got the Triathlon bug"

Regional Manager Carol Macdonald reported:

"Hemel Triathlon was extremely well run, well organised and friendly which encouraged so many first timers many of which were semi sedentary before entering the event.  It was a great local event which served the local community with a beginner friendly route, organised supported training sessions within Sportspace along with a low price to encourage people from all economic price bands. This event also encouraged so many women to take part and fitted in very well with the #thisgirlcan campaign run by Sport England and supported by British Triathlon. British Triathlon are proud to support such a well run and novice friendly race"

British Triathlon & Triathlon England are committed to getting more new people into our sport and it's great to see that so many of those are women #thisgirlcan