A report from the Team Manager on the SE juniors and youth performance at Hetton Park
South East
IRC race report 2012
The inter regional triathlon championships for the Tristar 2 and 3 and the youths took place on the 9th September at Hetton Park in Durham, jointly hosted by Yorkshire and the North East region. The venue was superb, with a closed road hilly 1 mile circuit for the bike, a lake swim, and a flat 1200m looped run. The weather was also kind to us, warm, dry and with a light breeze to start which picked up as the day went on.Each year the competition is fierce, both individually for top honours and amongst regions and this year was no exception.
We started the day with the tristar 2 girls, with Lizzie Barraclough and Holly Powell representing us. Lizzie had a strong swim, stayed near to the front pack on the bike and ran into 8th place at the finish. Holly opted for no wetsuit but as the water was 20 degrees she was fine. Passing a few people in T1 she quickly found her pace on the bike and looked fresh hitting the run. Holly came in at 20th place, with another year in this age group she did very well. T2 boys were next with Noah Canby a first year in this age group and Ed Rosson Jones. Noah swam very well towards the front of the field, joined a pack on the bike and coped well with the hills. He ran well despite the tiredness from the bike catching up with him and finished in 13th place, learning a lot and looks good for next year. Ed unfortunately fell off at T1 cutting his knee. A true fighter though he ignored the pain and jumped back on, working very hard on the bike to make up some places. He had his usual good run and finished up with a 20th spot.
Moving up a distance the Tristar 3 girls were next with Amy Fawcett and Grace Cook. Grace led the swim out with 1 other and got onto the bike in first. Holding the lead for the first half of the bike a small group of 4 caught up. Grace stayed with them and managed to get a lead out of T2. She then had to work extremely hard on the run as the current English schools 1500m champion was running just behind her. They had a great battle between them and Grace managed to sprint away in the last 800m to retain her title from last year. Amy making her debut at the IRC had a solid swim, looked very strong on the bike and held a good pace on the run finishing in 17th spot. The Tristar 3 boys were Rob Hall (just back from a broken arm) and Sam Pink. Both first years in this age group and coping extremely well with the occasion, the standard in the swim was very high both boys came out mid pack. They fought hard on the bike with large groups riding. Rob’s running was excellent and he fought hard for every place, finishing in 14th place with Sam in 18th position 50 seconds back.
Next up was the youth girls with Kate Curran racing for the last time in this event and joined by Caitlin Stewart who has missed out on so many occasions for qualifying but this year made it and newcomer Emily Reeves. Kate exited the swim in 3rd and with a fast T1 started to chase down the 2 leaders. She was joined by 3 others who organised themselves and led by Kate’s strong cycling managed to close the gap to the leaders by half way. She then worked well to keep the pace of the group high and nailed her T2 to come out at the front.
4 girls started out on the 3 laps together with Kate applying steady pressure until on the final lap just 2 were left. Kate kept pushing all the way to the line and put in a superb finish holding off second place by 2 seconds for the win. Caitlin had her race of the season with a string swim enabling her to get into a good bike pack, riding well in this group she went into the run looking good. With a lot of people to race with the run was mentally tough but Caitlin held on well to finish in 12th. Emily had a strong swim, and worked hard on the bike and then quickly onto her strongest discipline the run. She pushed hard finishing in 21st position. Last race of the day was the youth boys. This was by far our strongest age group with Alex West, Harry Leleu and Nathan Marsh racing for the team. Alex had the best swim he has had exiting in 3rd. Riding with the front pack he worked tirelessly trying to keep the pace high and get away. Harry finished the swim a few places back just missing out on joining the front pack. However he fought really hard on the bike and halfway through had bridged up to them. With Alex Harry and our reserve Keiran Linders (racing in the open category so not counting for the team) it looked good. Nathan had missed the front pack by being slightly down on his normally very strong swim, this meant he missed out on joining the front and rode well in the second group with our other reserve Harrison Rolls King.
The pace of this ride was astonishing, very fast. Harry judged his T2 superbly, getting to the front coming in as did Keiran. There was no let up on the run with the high pace continuing, Keiran had the race of his life holding second for quite a while and eventually finished in 4th. Our first counter also having an exceptional run was Harry in 6th, followed by Alex in 9th. Nathan had a strong run finishing in 20th position.
The final position of the South East team was 5th, losing out on 1st by 44 points. Had Kieran’s points counted our region would have won, but our athletes did us proud. With no penalties, everyone racing their hardest, and showing great support for each other I was proud to be working with them. Many of our athletes are still eligible next year and hopefully have learned a lot about the type of racing this is.
Thank you to all the athletes who have worked so hard throughout the year and especially their summer holidays to prepare so well. Above all I hope you enjoyed it, are inspired to continue with more next season and had a positive experience at the event.
Sarah Coope
Team Manager
