Freeman wins a sixth straight PACTRAC mini series as Lunn wins his first in style

The conditions which slowed the bike section down which made Paul Lunn's achievement even better as he managed to record the 6th best ever time on the course and now holds all six of the top placings overall. He had to finish in the top three to become male series champion to pip Adam Clark and he did so in style.

There was a thrilling battle for the ladies title between serial winner Susie Freeman and emerging talent Sophie Robotham. They started the final race level on points and it was Freeman who finished 10 seconds ahead of her rival to maintain a winning streak which stretches back to 2019.

Clark led the swimmers out, 20 seconds ahead of Julia Kingsley, who had Max Daniels, swim-coach David Faulkner, in his first ever triathlon, and Lunn hot on her heels. At this point, Robotham had an 8 second advantage over Freeman.

Rachel Baker took off on the bike and established a lead of a minute over Ellie Piccaver, as the two of them came close to the ladies overall record, but they were beaten by the wind.

Piccaver pulled a few seconds back on the run, leaving Baker to come home 46 seconds ahead. Meanwhile, Robotham had managed to gain a further 18 seconds on the bike to move 27 seconds ahead of Freeman.

But Freeman soon set off in hot pursuit on the run, eventually catching Robotham to claim her sixth successive series title.

At the head of the field, Lunn caught Clark on the bike and then raced into an impressive lead, coming in nearly 3 minutes ahead, a lead Clark could only reduce by 10 seconds on the run leaving Lunn to win by 2:42 minutes and with it take his first ever mini-series trophy. Sixteen competitors beat the hour mark including Darren Coley who recorded his 6th personal best in 6 events.

Final race results: 1 Paul Lunn 46:33, 2 Adam Clark 49:15, 3 Phil Groves 50:48, 4 Chris Elder 53:36, 5 Rachel Baker 54:07, 6 Nathan Keir 54:43, 7 Ellie Piccaver 54:53, 8 Christian Richards 55:38, 9 Andrew Baker 56:43, 10 Susie Freeman 57:05, 11 Sophie Robotham 57:15.

Lunn (half ironman), Sam Chapman (half ironman) and Daniel Richardson (super sprint triathlon) won age group categories for PACTRAC in St Neots. Lunn was an excellent 2nd overall in 4:20:50 and Chapman was 4th in 4:22:56. Richardson clocked 53:21 for 15th overall, three places behind Sam Jackson who was 3rd in his age group.

There were also impressive age group results by PACTRAC athletes Sara Pearce (2nd and 3rd in the standard triathlon respectively) and Jason English (3rd in the standard triathlon).