Last Wednesday saw the 10th and final Mini-Series Triathlon at Oundle (plus the Novice-only race so 11 events in all).
Distances:
swim 400 yards in Oundle Pool.
bike 10 miles around Glapthorn and the Benefield's.
run 3.5 miles out to Glapthorn and back.
The earlier rain put a few people off, but we still had 43 for the race.
3 athletes went under the magic 50-minute barrier, in what was a closely fought race.
Neil Tandy won his 3rd Mini-Series race of the year in only 3 appearances, so remains unbeaten. Paul Vernon won the overall Mini-Series Trophy for the best 5 results.
Nathan Tweedie was first out of the water in 4:09, just 2-seconds over Josh Daniels course record of 4:07.
Kim Bell was 8 seconds down equaling her own record ladies swim split, with Neil a further 6 seconds in arrears. 6 athletes were out in under 5-minutes with another gap of 1/2 minute before Jo Lee came out. 16 swimmers were out in under 6-minutes, with Paul Vernon back in 22nd spot in 6:21.
Neil powered ahead on the bike to come into T2 just over a minute ahead of Nathan, with Paul Lunn a further 1/4 minute behind and Paul Vernon another minute down, 2:21 behind Neil.
In spite of having the fastest run of the night by 70 seconds, Paul Vernon was unable to pull enough time back, and came home 2nd, 29 seconds behind Neil. He just managed to catch Paul Lunn when back in Oundle, the 2 Paul's separated by just 9 seconds at the finish. All 3 athletes recorded times of 49-minutes with Neil also getting a PB on the night. Nathan came home in 4th place, holding off the impressive Paul Spain, who is off to Ottawa in Canada for the World Duathlon Championships this next weekend.
The top 4 tonight now all have PB's of 49 minutes, Nathan having recorded this time already this year.
Caroline Findlay came home as first Lady.
Each night £20 in Bristows Cycles Vouchers goes to the first male and first female who have not already won them. Tonight the vouchers went to Henry Morton and Jo Lee.
With a total of 11 races this year, 162 different athletes competed in the series, with an average of 40 per event (449 / 11).
3 athletes started a race but didn't finish any.
29 athletes did at least 5 races, including David Talbot, Duncan Philp, Dick Rollings and Steve Giles who all competed 8 times.
Duncan Philp recorded 6 PB's from his 8 races, whilst Paul Vernon got 6 PB's from his 7 races.
Both Sue Burnett and Wayne Stainsby recorded 4 PB's from 4 events raced.
Neil Tandy competed just 3 times and won all 3.
49 minute's were recorded by Paul Vernon (3 times), Neil Tandy (2), Paul Lunn (2) and Nathan Tweedie (1).
No male records were broken during the series, but 6 ladies records were:
Overall - Christina Cork 54:35
swim split - Kim Bell 4:17 (twice)
bike split - Christina Cork 23:35
run split - Tracy McCartney 23:10 and then 22:29.
The Mini-Series Trophy results are as follows:
1. Paul Vernon............ 9.....10....10....9....10....=..48
2. Nathan Tweedie......... 10....9.....10....9.....7....=..45
3. Steve Giles............ 8.....8......8....8.....9....=..41
WINS: Paul Vernon (3), Neil Tandy(3 from just 3 races), Nathan Tweedie (2), Dave Allsop(1), Paul Lunn(1), Simon Hoppe(1).
For the Ladies;
1. Claire Piercy.......... 8....6...10...10....8....=..42
2. Christina Cork........ 10...10....9...10....0....=..39
3= Tracey McCartney....... 9....9...10....9....0....=..37
3= Fanchon Wright......... 5....8...10....7....7....=..37
3= Laura Johnson.......... 9....4....9....9....6....=..37
WINS: Christina Cork (3), Claire Piercy (2), Caroline Findlay (2), Tracey McCartney (1), Fanchon Wright (1),
Kim Bell (1), Roz Giles (1).
Interestingly, both winners, Paul and Claire also won their respective Novice races!