PACTRAC pair Sam and Paul took Cowman Triathlon event by the horns

The top 3 athletes in the race were never far apart and all came in over 20 minutes ahead of the rest of the field, in a half-Ironman distance triathlon over a 1.2 mile swim, 56-mile bike and 13.1 mile run.

With Chapman exiting the lake in 5th place and Paul Lunn in 8th, the pair quickly established a lead on the bike. Paul started the run just 14 seconds ahead of the younger Chapman with the next competitor, James Ellis, nearly 10 minutes behind and 4th place already 14 minutes adrift.

Chapman took the lead from Lunn early on the run and the pair kept up a solid pace, but Ellis came between then with a 1:13 half-marathon. Chapman held on for the win by 2:40 minutes with he and Lunn winning their age group sby 31 and 40 minutes respectively.

1. Sam Chapman .... 31:37 .... 2:23:16 .... 1:20:31 ..= 4:15:24 AG 1st.

3. Paul Lunn .............. 33:15 .... 2:21:24 .... 1:24:49 ..= 4:19:28 AG 1st.

Chris Northern headed to Jersey to compete in the Round the Rock 46-mile ultra-run that circumnavigated the whole of the island's coastline. He finished 61st from 101 entrants, 15 of whom started, but were unable to complete this extreme challenge held in intolerable heat.

The competitors all had to carry a first aid kit and a jacket on the tough course that covered only 30% on road and the other 70% on trails around the cliff paths, with 4,500 feet of climbing.

Northern finished in just over 11 hours.

Richard Rollings made a long-awaited comeback from injury in the short-distanced Paignton Triathlon, finishing 1st in his age group in a time of 53:16.

14 PACTRACers took part in the various swims at Rutland Water, all taking part in either 2km, 4km or 8km events. The best placed in each distance were Ollie Waghorn (2km: 24th in 40:27), Julia Kingsley (4km: 15th in 68:56) and Laura Hardy (8km: 15th in 2:27:35).