TRIATHLON: Tweedie wins a silver in European Championships

Pride of place overseas went to Nathan Tweedie who picked up a silver medal in a European Championship race.

He competed in the Elite European Aquathlon Championships as an Under 23 competitor in Chateauroux in France, and made a blistering start.

He had an absolutely superb swim, leading the whole field of senior and junior athletes all the way and he went on to leave transition to the three-mile run, in first place.

He gave it his all, but couldn’t quite hold off the senior competitors on the run and came home in the silver medal position in the Under 23 age group and in 11th place overall.

Closer to home PACTRAC had nine juniors racing at Cambridge in one of the most prestigious races in the Eastern Region and a qualifier for the TS2/3 Inter Regional Championships in Glasgow later this year.

Star of the show was Katie Tasker, who doiminated the TS3 race.

After being narrowly headed out of the pool, she took control on the bike and with a high tempo cycling style soon stretched the field.

Her run is much improved these days and with great consistency in her pacing, she was able to forge ahead on the run. By winning this event she has hopefully secured a berth in the Eastern Region team for Glasgow in September.

In the TS2 race Olivia Corner headed the girls with an assured performance while Connor Walker and Sam Oakley did well for the boys.

Others in action were Lottie Tasker, Chloe Moore, Louis Dawson and Toby Cooke.

Mark Weathersby has made a big improvement over the last two years and won his first open triathlon at the weekend.

That was in the Cardiff Triathlon (swim 750m, bike 12.5 miles, run 3 miles) where he was 22nd out of the water in Cardiff Bay, but took the lead with the fastest bike split of the day.

He had the fifth fastest run, but had such a big lead by then, that he was still able to come in nearly two minutes clear of the runner-up.

Clubmate Steve Giles also won his age group, coming home in 11th place overall.

Results: 1 Mark Weathersby 66:14 (age group 1st); 11 Steve Giles 71:59 (age group 1st).

Dave Allsop took part in the accompanying standard distance triathlon (swim 1500m, bike 25 miles, run 6.25 miles) and finished fourth in his age group in 2:15:43.

In the Tallington Lakes Triathlon, PACTRAC achieved two wins, two second places and two third places.

The three distances on offer were an open water super sprint(400m/5.5 miles/1.5 miles), sprint(750m/15 miles/3 miles) and standard (1500m/27.5 miles/6.25 miles) and Simon Hoppe won the sprint race outright.

Results:

Standard: 7 Simon Parkes 2:41:01 (age group 3rd); 9 Andrea Robinett 2:43:03 (age group 1st).

Sprint: 1 Simon Hoppe 76:48 (age group 1st); 4 Aaron Godden 84:44 (age group 2nd); 7 Chris Waghorn 86:36 (age group 3rd); 32 Brian McGeeney 1:45:32 (age group 8th).

Super Sprint: 7 Paul Beland 48:31 (age group 2nd).

Three members took part in the two triathlon distances at St Neots with Steve Hope winning his age group in the sprint distance.

Results:

Standard (swim 1500m, bike 28 miles, run 6.25 miles): 14 Andrew Chapman 2:37:41 (agw group - 4th).

Sprint (swim 750m, bike 15.5 miles, run 3 miles): 21 Ricky Dear 82:40 (age group 7th); 30 Steve Hope 85:44 (age group 1st).

Neil Tandy came fourth overall in the Cholmondeley Castle Triathlon (swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, run 13.1 miles). He got off to a great start and was out of the water in fourth place, and was always in the mix. He finished in 4:42:38.

Super veteran Georgina Jennings was a winner at the Feltwell Triathlon (swim 450m, bike 13 miles, run 2.5 miles ), near Ely.

Although over 70 she won the over 55 category, taking on and beating much younger athletes. She was sixth female overall in 1:24:51.

The 70.3 Half-Ironman (swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, run 13.1 miles) at Wimbleball in Exmoor is one of the most challenging races on the Ironman calendar.

But Roger Canham made light work of it as he won his age group to qualify for the 70.3 Half-Ironman World Championships on Australia’s Sunshine Coast in Mooloolaba, Queensland, in September.

Results: 57 Roger Canham 5:15:07 (age group 1st); 825 Lee Sutton 7:19:00 (age group 120th); 1007 Paul Hodgson 8:08:32 (age group 164th).

For the third week in a row, Paul Vernon beat up-and-coming PACTRAC junior Jonathan Oakey into second place in the club’s Mini Series.

Vernon’s winning margin has been 4:07 and 3:31 but is now down to 2:57 minutes, which highlights Oakey’s continued improvement.

Vernon needs one more victory in the series to secure the overall trophy.