PACTRAC held there annual Long Course Triathlon at Oundle on Sunday.The distances were:
swim 1800 yards - 36 lengths of Oundle Pool.
bike 40 miles - 4 laps of the Mini-Series course around
Glapthorn and the Benefields.
run 10 miles - out, a loop around Glapthorn and back, twice.
Although only 8 competitors turned up, on what turned out to be a
perfect day, albeit rather hot by the end of the run; 3 previous
winners lined up to do battle. Jaap Flikweert, last years winner,
retained the Trophy.
Dick Rollings was first out of the water, with over a minute's
advantage from Rob Hammond and Jaap Flikweert.
Jaap took the lead on the first of four bike laps, after which he
increased his lead; and the only other biker he then saw was when he
actually lapped a back-marker!
Graeme Hall made up a 2:40 minute deficit from the swim, to catch Rob
on the bike, and the two of them came into the second transition
together, 6:20 minutes in arreas. Graeme moved up into 2nd place on the
run, but Jaap was able to finish a clear winner by over 3 minutes.
Results:
1 Jaap Flikweert 26:58 1:34:43 1:09:40 = 3:11:21
2 Graeme Hall 29:32 1:39:25 1:05:36 = 3:14:33
3 Rob Hammond 26:52 1:42:04 1:11:47 = 3:20:43
4 Steve Hope 27:30 1:44:52 1:16:03 = 3:28:25
5 Gary Eames 37:29 1:48:51 1:23:28 = 3:49:48
6 Simon Gull 33:33 1:55:20 1:24:40 = 3:53:33
7 Mariska Niemeijer 30:08 2:05:21 1:31:48 = 4:07:17
8 Richard Rollings 25:42 1:57:39 1:51:48 = 4:15:09
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Meanwhile, Matt Gunby continued his improvement, recording a top ten
finish at the 2011 Holten ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup in the
Netherlands.
From 55 competitor's, 50 swimmers finished the 1500 metre swim in under
21 minutes. The first athlete out of the water, emerged after 19:17
minutes. Matt recorded 19:56 and was well up there with the best. He is
still improving his swim time with every race.
One big group came together on the bike course, and 37 riders came into
the 2nd transition in one big group, with only 12 seconds separating
them. Not that long ago, Matt would have been struggling in the swim to
make it into the lead bike group. In Holten he came of age!
He then recorded the 9th fastest 10km run to finish in 9th place
overall, just 1:40 behind the winner, and just over a minute from a
podium finish. He was the first of the 3 Brits that the British
Triathlon Federation had entered into the race to assess their
progress.
9. Matthew Gunby GBR 19.56 59.02 32.39 = 1:51:37