The final Mini-Series Triathlon of this season took place at Oundle
on Wednesday, with 47 athletes lining up in 2 waves. Steve Giles won
the race for the first time. Indeed, over the 10 races (9 + the Novice
race) we have had 4 new winners. Simon Hoppe won the Mini-Series Trophy
last week with his 5th win of the year. Steve Giles was one of 22
competitors to record Personal Best times tonight, on a still, dry
evening. In doing so, Steve did his best ever swim and run splits.
Other notable times were by Andrew Camp who went under the hour for the
first time, and another PB by ladies series winner Roz Giles, who won
all 7 races that she entered. We had another 6 first timers for this
final race. We also had our first junior, Nathan Tweedie, stepping up
from the new Junior section, to attempt the distance.
Photo of Nathan Tweedie.
http://corkie.smugmug.com/Other/MS8-2011/18254108_RHWr6N#1404006597_4JsNrR9
First out of the water was Thomas Lane, quickly followed by Tom
Freeman, Neil Tandy and Nathan Tweedie. Will Pearson followed over 30
seconds down, with Rob Hammond, the first of the "big guns" over 20
seconds further back. At this point Steve Giles and Sean Beard were
24th and 28th respectively, with both having recorded Personal Best
ever swim times.
On the bike, Neil Tandy moved straight into the lead, and then didn't
see anybody else, coming into T2 a minute clear of the chase group of
six. Indeed the chasers had had a bit of a tussle and all 6 came in off
the bike within 6 seconds of one another. Steve Giles was in this
group, but Sean was another minute back with lots still to do. John
Murray was 9th at this stage 40 seconds behind the pack.
However, Sean, John and Steve had the 3 fastest runs of the night, all
catching Neil on the run, with the first two also catching the pack.
Sean came within 10 seconds of Steve by the finish, but was unable to
bridge the gap any further. John was just a further 15 seconds behind
in 3rd, with Graeme Hall dropping back to 4th, another 13 seconds down.
All in all, some competitive racing with 21 athletes going under the
hour.