The Peterlee Triathlon, promoted by East Coast Tri Club and held at the Peterlee Leisure Centre is a 400m pool swim followed by a 20km bike course and a 5km run. This is only the fourth running of the event but it is already a firm favourite with the region’s triathletes and is always full long before the closing date for entries. This year’s event was completed in brilliant sunshine which produced comparable performances.

The fastest in the pool was the host club’s Chris Philpott in 4.49, followed by last year’s overall winner Paul Jones on 5.03. At this point 14-year-old Ryan Grant of East Coast was just outside the top ten with a fabulous time of 5.49.

Left - Phil Gray

Tony Dixon, the winner of last week’s City of Durham Duathlon was forced to withdraw during the swim through illness. The leading lady in the pool was Natalie Batey of Ryton Tri Club in 5.56 with her nearest challenger, Kay Stokes of Cleveland Biketraks well behind in 6.43.

Out onto the bike and although it was warm and sunny there was a strong wind against the cyclists for the first half of the route. Paul Jones maintained his consistency with the second fastest bike split of 37.31 but it was his One Life Racing team-mate Phil Gray who put the cat amongst the pigeons with a superb time of 36.16 leaving Jones in the lead but only by 16 seconds.

The ladies race too was undergoing a shake-up with veteran Donna James storming round in 39.50, 18th fastest overall and over 2 minutes ahead of Denise Parkin, now her nearest challenger. Ryan Grant was beginning to feel the pace but had already done enough to demonstrate his tremendous potential in the sport.

Right - Ryan Grant

All eyes were on the One Life team during the run and Phil Gray duly obliged with a solid effort of 21.03 to take a well deserved first-ever individual win in a triathlon but Tony Weed of hartlepooltriathletes.com spoilt the team one-two as he had one of his best ever runs to edge out Jones for second place. Jones held onto third ahead of Hartlepool’s fast finishing Gary Grounds who in turn only held onto fourth by 3 seconds from John Bent who had the day’s fastest run of 20.00.

Donna James completed her domination of the ladies race with the tenth-fastest run overall and ran out an easy winner in 1.08.13, over 8 minutes ahead of the field. Denise Parkin held onto second place overall ahead of Natalie Batey and veteran Jenny Holland who dead heated.

Left - Donna James

While completing his swim one competitor was totally unaware that his tyre blew up and was repaired by two other competitors using one of their own spare tubes to fix it. Paul Jones and Eddie Cooper would like to remain completely anonymous as to blow their cover may get them disqualified for assisting another competitor! Also Barry Wilkinson vehemently denies that he was secretly testing a new design of helmet with an air-conditioning unit in the front (see banner)!

This was the first counting event in 2006 for the new North East Club League and One Life Racing were the victors in the men’s event closely followed by hartlepooltriathletes.com. Ryton Tri Club took the lead in the ladies competition with Durham Tri Club second.

Right - Denise Parkin

Photographs of all competitors can be viewed at:-

Leading Results

1st male overall – Phil Gray
1st lady overall – Donna James

Junior Men
1. Ryan Grant – East Coast Tri Club (5.49/47.42/23.47/1.17.18)

Senior Men
1.Phil Gray – One Life Racing (6.34/36.16/21.03/1.03.53)
2.Tony Weed – hartlepooltriathletes.com (5.07/37.54/21.19/1.04.20)
3.Paul Jones – One Life Racing (5.03/37.31/22.04/1.04.38)

Senior Ladies
1.Denise Parkin – Ryton Tri Club (7.44/42.11/26.54/1.16.49)
2.Natalie Batey – Ryton Tri Club (5.56/47.19/27.04/1.20.19)
3.Sue Chester – Ryton Tri Club (8.08/45.08/29.07/1.22.23)

Veteran Men (M40)
1.Paul Godley – Cleveland Biketraks (5.32/39.06/21.39/1.06.17)
2.Dave Stevens – One Life Racing (5.41/39.00/22.46/1.07.27)
3.Ken Brown – NE31 Tri Club (5.59/40.02/22.06/1.08.07)

Veteran Ladies (F40)
1.Donna James – Durham Tri Club (6.44/39.50/21.39/1.08.13)
2.Jenny Holland – Unattached (8.13/45.30/26.36/1.20.19)
3.Kay Stokes – Cleveland Biketraks (6.43/51.01/29.36/1.27.20)

Veteran Men (M50)
1.David Bell – Tyne Tri Club (6.22/40.15/23.13/1.09.50)
2.Frank Whitelock – Durham Tri Club (6.13/42.11/25.02/1.13.26)
3.Paul Gibson – Durham Tri Club (7.43/42.43/23.10/1.13.36)

Veteran Ladies (F50)
1.Roz Layton – Durham Tri Club (8.24/49.14/26.02/1.23.40)
2.Sandra Main – Cleveland Biketraks (9.33/61.58/34.01/1.45.32)

Veteran Men (M60)
1.John Kettle – Stokesley Duathlon Club (10.21/48.59/25.26/1.24.46)
2.Arthur Puckrin –Cleveland Biketraks (9.48/48.05/31.36/1.29.29)
3.Allan Seheult – Durham Tri Club (10.45/49.33/29.44/1.30.02)

North East Club League after one event.

Men
1.One Life Racing – 5 points
2.hartlepooltriathletes.com – 4 points
3.Tyne Tri Club – 3 points
4.Cleveland Biketraks – 2 points
5.NE31 Tri Club – 1 point

Ladies
1.Ryton Tri Club – 5 points
2.Durham Tri Club – 4 points
3.Alnwick Tri Club – 3 points
4.Cleveland Biketraks – 2 points
5.East Coast Tri – 1 point

Full results can be found at:-