Simon takes the first Mini-Series of 2012.

Last night PACTRAC held the first of this summer's Mini-SeriesTriathlon's from Oundle.

The same course was used as in previous years.

Distances were:

swim 400 yards - 8 lengths of the pool.

bike 10 miles on an undulating, sporting course, with plenty of twists and
turns and ups and downs. Around Glapthorn, Upper and Lower Benefield.

run 3.5 miles out to Glapthorn and back.

As in previous year's we will be holding 10 races on consecutive Wednesday night's. Next
Wednesday is a Novice only race for people who have been in the sport
for less than a year. The other 9 are open to members and guests, with
nr. 5 on 27th June also incorporating the 2nd Novice race in a separate
wave. All races start soon after 7:30pm and are entry on the day, so
athletes start to turn up from around 6:45pm to register and sort their
transition out before the Race Brief.

45 athlete's turned up on a lovely, sunny evening. The call was made to have just 1 wave, so some
lanes had 8 swimmers in and some 7.

Still in the Youth ranks, young Nathan Tweedie competed in his first Mini-Series at the end of last
year. In this, his 2nd event, he was first out of the water by 1/2
minute over new member Ross Kent who was just ahead of Simon Hoppe and
Tony Daniels. Tony Nicholson was a further 13 seconds back in 5th.

Simon and Tony competed neck and neck on the bike and pushed each other
to the limit. Ross held on to come in just 30 seconds down in 3rd. Jaap
Flikweert moved up to 4th, whilst Steve Giles used his much improved
swim to enable him to catch up with both Chris Brennan and Steve Coward
on the bike, the 3 of them coming in just a short distance behind Jaap.

Simon then had the fastest run of the night to finally pull away from
Tony. Unfortunately for Simon he was then left to run on his own, and
without the extra competitive spur, just missed out on a sub-50 minute
time by 6 seconds. He has beaten 50 minutes on 7 occasions, but not
tonight.

Tony held onto 2nd place and was the only top 10 finisher
to record a PB. He had his fastest swim and run disciplines to date,
and with the competition from Simon on the bike, was able to just hold
off Jaap by a mere 6 seconds by the finish. Steve Giles moved up to
4th, with Chris 5th and Sean Beard with a PB on the swim, moving up to
6th place, showing that his running is picking up, but still not quite
their yet, following a recent injury.

First lady home was current Ladies Champion, Roz Giles, although 2nd lady, Tracy McCartney will be
one to look out for in future competition.

16 athletes recorded PBs on the night with a further 5 athletes competing for the first time. Both
Simon Gull and Richard Pike just missed out on beating the hour, whilst recording their PBs.

Results are on http://www.pactrac.co.ukunder "races" "race results" "mini-
series 1".

Next week is the Novice only race.