Junior Team Success at the Inter Regional Championships
Inter Regional Championship Success
The Yorkshire & Humberside team had a fantastic week end at Eton Dorney competing in the IRC’s, and then enjoyed watching the youth and junior elite races followed by the ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup.
The team arrived at Eton on the team bus at lunchtime on Friday and spent the afternoon familiarising themselves with the course. We returned early on Saturday morning to find the course basking in sunshine and a water temperature in excess of 20. For many athletes this was the first attempt at draft legal racing. Each of the 11 regions had three athletes competing, meaning each wave had a field of 33 athletes. The best 10 results count for each region.
With great support from family and friends the event started with the Tri 2 boys. The boys were first to take to the pontoon for the dive start at 10.00, with the Tri 2 girls following at 10.05.
In the Tri 2 boys category our three athletes finished 4th, 6th and 20th. Tom Dudley had an excellent swim exiting the water 4th, whilst Reuben Mantle had the fourth fastest run split, Fionn Kerry finished 20th.
Our Tri 2 girls Sunnivah Waterman, Juliette Branford and Millie Yates finished 10th 14th and 29th respectively, all putting in very strong performances in a very competitive field. This was an excellent start to the day.
The Tri 3 boys took to the pontoon at 10.25 and the Tri 3 girls set off at 10.30. Tyler Hutchinson had an excellent race in all three disciplines, finishing with a fantastic run securing him 2nd place overall. Robert Etherington was first out of the water and managed the third fastest run finishing overall in 3rd place. Elliott Hutchinson, the youngest competitor in Tri 3 boys, also had a superb race finishing in 13th place.
The Tri3 girls all raced well too. Emma Clapton was fourth out of the water and managed to keep this position coming into T2. After an excellent run Emma finished in 3rd place overall. Erica Byram and Lucy Byram worked very well together on the bike coming in with the joint 3rd fastest bike split. They continued their team effort on the run and finished 8th and 9th overall.
The team were rewarded for their fantastic efforts by wining the silver medal in the Championships – finishing with 876 points, just 6 points behind the winning North West team. East Midland were third with 764 points.
