To showcase the talented bunch of triathletes Yorkshire contains, this season saw the introduction of two inaugural Inter-Club Championship Races.
A team scoring event at the Olympic distance race at Ripon Triathlon and a mixed team relay at the Castle Triathlon Series at Castle Howard. In each case, a team fully compromising of triathletes belonging to one of our affiliated teams was able to walk away with the award!
As part of the Ripon Triathlon Festival, a whole weekend of races and events, the Olympic distance race gave the perfect opportunity for the first team scoring ICC race. The winner was calculated by considering the finishing position of the top male and female athletes across all age groups. This race was well represented by lots of the region’s club, a special shout out should go to Wakefield Tri Club for fielding a strong women’s team, but the eventual winner of the race was Leeds Bradford Triathlon who take away the annual shield and several bottles of champagne for celebratory purposes. This shield will be presented on an annual basis to the winning team with a separate smaller award that the teams can keep.
The second ICC race took place at Castle Howard. The mixed-team relay presented the opportunity to include this relatively new and really thrilling format into our series. There were some seriously strong teams in this race, with a large number from Humber Triathlon, Wakefield Tri Club and West Yorkshire Police. It was really exciting, Humber took an early lead but Wakefield were close on their tail throughout. Humber were the eventual winners, crossing the line as a team in 1:44:12 followed by The Draftbusters of Wakefield just 29s later in 1:44:41.
Craig Lane, the anchor leg of the winning Humber team, said "Each year my club Humber Triathletes, likes to organise at least one social race that all of our members can take part and just enjoy a team oriantated event, rather than the usual lone race platform of triathlon. This year we chose Castle Howards yorkshire relays so we could also take so new members to partake in thier first multisport event. All together we submitted 9 teams out of 22 and we turned out in force. Personally i put a team together that represented the national relays which came 3rd last year. We raced hard and thankfully held of the competition and crossed the line as Yorkshire Champions. However, the day wasnt just about our small team, it was about bringing our club together, and also the other fantastic clubs in the region for what was the perfect day for a high octane yet fun packed day.”
We look forward to making a start on planning for next year, making the ICC events even bigger and better! Thanks have to go to NYP Triathlon, TriHard Events and the Castle Triathlon Series for allowing the Regional Committee to utilise their races for this season.
We’ll be doing loads of work across the year to encourage clubs and their athletes to get involved so keep an eye out on the social media for information!
For more information about the ICC and what the Regional Committee are getting up, to follow us on facebook, “Yorkshire Region - Triathlon England” and Twitter @YHTriathlonEng”
