Mini-Series nr.5 took place at Oundle last Wednesday.
Paul Vernon recorded his 2nd Mini-Series win in 3 weeks, this time pushing
Simon Hoppe into 2nd place.
45 athletes lined up at the start. Nathan
Tweedie led the swimmers out in 4:20 followed by Henry Morton, half-a-
minute down, just a few seconds ahead of Simon. Rob Hammond was 4th out
of the water, 70 seconds behind Nathan, and led the pack out. 13
swimmers were out in under 6-minutes including a much improved Steve
Giles. 28 swimmers were out by 6:40 minutes including Paul Vernon back
in 22nd place in 6:24.
Antony Brown then had the fastest bike of the
night to come into T1 just ahead of Simon. Nathan had to pull out with
injury on the bike section, but this still left a strong field to
contest the positions. Jaap Flikweert biked into 3rd spot, 40 seconds
behind, with the trio of Paul Vernon, Steve Giles and Rob Hammond just
a dozen seconds further back. The next 3 cyclists were a further minute
behind. Simon soon took the lead on the run, but was unable to hold off
the fast approaching Paul, who caught him at the half-way point and ran
past to take the honours by 53 seconds. Steve Giles took 3rd, with
Antony slipping back to 6th.
First lady home was Claire Piercy, ahead of Sue Burnett in her first
Triathlon for 20-years, on a night when 17 members recorded Personal Best's.