Siddons won sprint triathlon by a big margin as other PACTRAC-ers took on mighty endurance events
PACTRAC star Jake Siddons won the Bedford Sprint Triathlon outright by over five minutes.
The GB athlete was in joint first place after the 750 metre river swim, and with some great transitions, and both the fastest bike and run sections of the day, he romped home a convincing winner in 76.21 (12:34, 45:40, 18:07)
The prestigious Ironman Leeds was affected by unacceptable levels of blue-green algae in the lake at Roundhay, which were significantly above the threshold for safely.
With the swim portion having to be cancelled, the event thus became a bike/run event, but still over the same arduous course covering 112 miles on the bike followed by a full 26.2 mile marathon run.
Of the 2,500 athletes who had entered, many decided not to compete with just under 1,000 finishing. PACTRAC's Jacob Richardson and David Edis were amongst those who completed the new format and both have vowed to be back next year.
Richardson finished in 12:01:53 (7:18:07, 4:43:46) and Edis in 12:56:32 (7:20:41, 5:35:51).
Juniors Ophelia Goodale and Byron Stother again reached the podium at the Darley Moor Duathlon (run, bike, run). Goodale won her event by eight seconds, while Stother had the fastest two runs, but was caught on the bike and, although he was gaining time back, ran out of time on the short second run, to finish in second place.
Two PACTRACers took part in a relay swim across the English Channel to France in a team of four. Adam Clark and Sophie Robotham joined up with two other local swimmers, Heather Watts and Darren Thoirs, to form ‘Team DASH’.
Following two years of training they set off from Dover at midnight in the pitch black, and landed on the shore by Cap Gris-Nez 12 hours and five minutes later. Good weather followed them, although an incredibly high and strong tide made the going tough at times.