Two new champions bike to victory at Oulton Park motor racing circuit

Sunday’s Oulton Park Autumn Duathlon brought to a close the 2017 Triathlon England National Championship season, the sixth event of a calendar that began at Thorpe Park with the Sprint Distance Triathlon Championship in June.

A long-standing event on the schedule of race organisers, Xtra Mile Events, the traffic-free motor racing circuit provides safe racing and fast roads over a multi-lap course. Both winners excelled on the bike leg to build significant leads ahead of the final run.

The 2017 men’s champion is Henry Irvine. Finishing the opening 8.61km run 43 seconds behind pacesetter and eventual second place finisher, Ian Lawton, Henry quickly made up that deficit to take the lead. He went on to produce a stunning split of 52:27 for the nine-lap bike course, a time more than three minutes faster than anyone else. A strong second run meant that he was not challenged for the win over the closing 4.3km lap. With Lawton taking second place, third went to Donald Brooks, who with a fast T2 and second run, finished just 21 seconds later. All three athletes won their respective age categories.

The women’s race would follow a similar pattern. The opening run was lead out by Zoe Chandler, with Alex Le Bek and Rebecca Pierce in close order. Once out on to the bike however, it was Becky Lewis who took control.

Seventh this year in he National 50-mile Time Trial Championships, Lewis showed that class over the nine laps of Oulton Park to easily make up her 1:22 deficit from the opening run and ride almost two and a half minutes quicker than anyone else on the day. Finishing with the fastest second run of the day further cemented her dominance with a winning margin of almost two and a half minutes over Chandler, with Rhian Roxburgh a further two minutes back in third place. As with the men, all three athletes were first home in their respective divisions.

Details of the 2018 Triathlon England National Championship events have already announced, full details of which can be found on this link: https://www.triathlonengland.org/events/triathlon-england-championships

Oulton Park Autumn Duathlon – Sunday 8^th October 2017
8.61 km / 38.76 km / 4.307km

MEN

1^st – Henry Irvine – 1:37:23
2^nd – Ian Lawton (Mersey Tri Club) – 1:40:24
3^rd – Donald Brooks (Teignbridge Tri’ers) – 1:40:45
4^th – Daniel Jenkin (RedVenom.co.uk) – 1:42:10
5^th – Matt Moorhouse – 1:42:26

WOMEN

1^st – Becky Lewis (Mid Shropshire Wheelers) – 1:54:55
2^nd – Zoe Chandler (Birmingham Uni Tri Club) – 1:57:24
3^rd – Rhian Roxburgh (GOG Triathlon Club) – 1:59:34
4^th – Amy Grocock (Lincsquad) – 1:59:56
5^th – Alex Le Bek (Harrogate Triathlon Club) – 2:00:56

Full Results: http://www.chiprace.co.uk/Results.aspx?CId=38&RId=1819&EId=2