This year’s Southampton Fast Twitch Triathlon became this year’s Southampton Fast Twitch Duathlon to help keep participants safe following the resumption of activity, with South African Olympic triathlete Gillian Sanders taking part.
As one of the first races to take place in the region once multisport activity was able to resume, the duathlon saw participants run 4.5km, bike 23km and run a second 4.5km in and around the New Forest.
“People were just desperate to get out and do something,” commented Kelly Wickens, Race Director at Challenging Events who organised the Southampton Fast Twitch Duathlon.
“Everyone that had entered was more than happy to do the duathlon, and then we got a load more entries. Surprisingly, we had a big handful of first-timers for the duathlon. They looked like runners who were moving into multisport, so I think this was their introduction to multisport.
“I had an email from Gillian Sanders who said was it ok if she came and entered the race and she said she just wanted to have a good blast before she headed off to Yokohama. We were very careful about it before because we didn’t want to attract crowds, when she was there it was ‘look who’s there’ kind of thing,”
Sanders has previously represented South Africa at the Olympic Games in both London and Rio and is hoping to qualify for the team in Japan this summer, however she wasn’t the only elite athlete in the field.
“Jamie Price who is a pro triathlete actually won and set the run course record,” Wickens continued. “He did the first run in 00:15:39 and then his bike was amazing.
“Eloise du Luart who came second [in the women’s race behind Sanders] is another pro triathlete and the girl who came third, Daisy [Baker] is also another pro triathlete, so in fact we had an Olympian and two pros in the female field and the male field was completely stacked as well.
“Having them at the smaller events raises the local profile so people know more about triathlon and multisport and think ‘I’ll come along and do that’.
A lot of people were putting on social media that they were racing alongside an Olympian or that they were more than happy to be beaten by an Olympian, which was lovely and really nice to see.”
British Triathlon have created guidance for event organisers to follow to allow them to run events in a Covid-Secure manner. This guidance includes how to ensure social distancing around the event site and on the course, with time-trial starts and online pre-event briefings as part of this.
“Loads of the feedback was that they felt really safe and that we handled the Covid situation really well,” said Wickens. “We stream our events live via Facebook too, because we don’t want spectators at the moment they can watch on Facebook, so we have cameras in transition and on the finish line.
“People are just used to it now, using hand gel at the front of the queue and standing far apart from each other.”
The next multisport event from Wickens and the team at Challenging Events is The Original Swanage Triathlon Festival in July, and you can find this and other events on the British Triathlon Event Search by clicking on the button below.
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