Hope and Widdess make their way through to the World Championships

Anthony Brown of PACTRAC finished fifth in his age group in Ironman Switzerland.

Steve Hope and Marcus Widdess took part in the final qualifying race at Redcar at the weekend and have made it through to the ITU World Championships in Rotterdam on September 16.

Hope completed the 750-metre swim, 12.5-mile bike ride and three-mile run in 72:34 to finish 10th in his age group while Widdess clocked 63:21 for 12th place in his age group.

Hope has represented Great Britain three times in the European Championships but this will be his first World Championships.

Both Simon Hoppe and Georgina Jennings had already pre-qualified as a result of coming in the top 10 in last year’s World Championships in Cozumel, Mexico.

n Monster Event Promotions carried out a test triathlon at Ferry Meadows last weekend to test the feasibility of holding a full triathlon there in the future.

This was a sprint triathlon (swim 750m, bike 12.5m, run 3m) and it took place completely in the park, with the exception of the bike, which went out via Milton Ferry Bridge to Helpston. No official timings were taken as it was purely a test event.

PACTRAC results: 4 Mike Shadwell; 8 Mathew Wouldham; 12 Andrea Robinett; 18 Chris Waghorn; 23 Andy Rawlins; 25 Jeff Manners; 34 Georgina Jennings.

n PACTRAC pair Paul Lunn and Duncan Shea-Simonds placed seventh in the Breca Buttermere Swim Run, just seven minutes off a podium spot.

They completed the 27.75 course (run 23.75 miles and swim 3.75 miles) in 15 hours and 18 minutes.

Only 90 of the 104 teams that started, managed to finish this gruelling event.

The race, which involved nine swims and nine runs, started at 3am in Keswick and incorporated swims in Derwent Water (2), Buttermere (3), Crummock Water (3) and Loweswater (1). It was a tough day for the pair who just two weeks earlier had completed the Frankfurt Ironman Triathlon.

Lunn said: “That has completely broken me. Seventh overall but just completing it is surely a challenge. An awesome day on a tough course, and with a killer of a descent.”

n Two PACTRACers made their Ironman debuts at Ironman Switzerland with both finishing in the top 10 in their age group.

The distances were swim 2.4 miles in Lake Zurich, bike 112 miles and run 26.2 miles and Sue Davys finished eighth in her age group in 15:41.07 and Anthony Brown was fifth in his age group in 11:38.21.