PACTRAC held the 2nd of 9 Mini-Series Triathlons (plus a Novice race)at Oundle last Wednesday.
The distances and course were the same as usual:
swim 400 yards in Oundle pool's 50 yard pool - 8 lengths.
bike 10 miles - 1 circuit around Glapthorn and the
Benefield's. An undulating, sporting course, with a couple of good
inclines and a mile of fast decending between the Benefield's.
run 3.5 miles straight out to Glapthorn and back.
Jaap Flikweert won this race in a tightly contested finish from a fast
moving Steve Giles, with Graeme Hall right up there in third. this was
Jaap's 2nd Mini-Series win having been victorious in 2009's 6th event.
Jaap has had a number of 2nd places, and was competing with an injury,
having had to pull out of the Full Boar Triathlon at Market Bosworth
just 3 days earlier.
Will Pearson repeated last weeks feat of being first out of the water.
It was a further 10 seconds before Rob Hammond lead out 19 chasers, all
within a minute of each other. Rob soon moved into the lead on the
bike, and then relinquished it to Jaap. Jaap steamed ahead to take a
lead of 1.21 minutes into T2. Graeme Hall who was 13th out of the
water, soon made up ground, after a fast transition, and came in 2nd
off the bike, just ahead of Dave Allsop (by 3 seconds) and Rob (8
seconds). Steve Giles had by this time moved up from 22nd out of the
water to 7th on the bike, only a further 22 seconds adrift of Rob. The
chase was on.
Graeme pressed on, and was making in-roads into Jaap's lead, before
being caught and passed by the fast moving Steve Giles. Jaap held on to
win by a margin of just 16 seconds from Steve, with Graeme only a
further 7 seconds adrift. Perfect pacing from Jaap saw him home
victorious, whilst Steve had the fastest run of the day, moving up from
22nd out of the water, to catch Graeme for second, but just ran out of
road behind Jaap.
5 Novices returned from last weeks race, the first of whom was Will
Pearson beating his previous time by 50 seconds. 3 of them recorded
PBs, the best margin being by 90 seconds from Reuben Williams.
11 competitors beat the hour mark, including first lady Roz Giles.
After knocking 3 minutes off his previous best in Mini-Series race 1,
Andrew Camp knocked a further 20 seconds off tonight. In all 9 Personal
Best times were recorded from the 32 finishers, whilst 6 athletes
competed for the first time.