Strong efforts from Tom and Susie in top-class triathlon events
Tom Hughes of locally-based club PACTRAC continues to compete impressively against the cream of the country’s young triathlon stars.
Hughes travelled to Dorney Lake for the Eton Eliminator races, the penultimate round of the National Youth and Junior Super Series event, and finished an excellent 8th to take his overall position up 5 spots to 15th ahead of the final event at Mallory Park on September 15.
Athletes had to compete in 4 short triathlons with different discipline orders, in a round-robin format.
These were highly competitive races, with only 2 over the traditional swim, bike, run format and 2 starting with the run followed by either a swim, bike or bike, swim. With 4 races, 9 transitions and 3 different race formats to navigate, so much could go wrong so it was a real test for Hughes, competing against the country’s top 17 year-olds.
Over swims of 350 metres, bike rides of 3 miles and 1,500 metres runs Tom finished 17th, 13th, 10th and finally 6th. All of the races were full-on with competitors forming very quick packs on the bike; and whichever order the disciplines were in Tom finished each of his four races in a very compact times of between 17:17 to 17:51 minutes, coming 6th, 4th, 1st and 1st in each of his heats.
Leading PACTRAC lady Susie Freeman also registered an 8th-place finish in the European Sprint Triathlon Championship in Istanbul over distances of swim 750m, bike 15-miles and run 3.1 miles.
Freeman was 4th out of the water in her age group, before moving on to the draft-legal bike section, where groups formed and positions changed. Coming in off the bike in 8th place, Freeman held her own on the run finishing in 1.30.46.
This was Freeman’s 8th time representing Team GB since 2016 and her 2nd top 10 finish.
And another PACTRAC-er Paul Jephcott finished 2nd in his age group at the Shropshire Triathlon based around the Mere at Ellesmere. In his first foray into open-water triathlon this season, Paul swam 1,500m, cycled 25-miles and ran 6.25 miles in preparation for the final PACTRAC Club Championship event at Oundle on September 21. He finished in a time of 2.57.31.
Clubmate Steve Hope competed in Scotland in the East Lothian Sprint Triathlon, taking 3rd in his age group, missing out on top spot by 78 seconds after finishing in 92.47.