The North-East Regional Team Duathlon Championships took place on Sunday 30th April as part of the inaugural Hamsterley Forest Spring Duathlon. The event, a 7km run followed by a 23km bike and another 7km run was over a very testing course but still managed to appeal to competitors from as far away as York and Lincoln.

Robert West, an unattached competitor from Northumberland went into a lead straight from the start and led the field over the first kilometre which is all uphill! He maintained his lead and extended it to 39 seconds with a time of 24.54 by the time the first transition was reached. He was followed by Will Kaye of White Rose Triathletes who led in John Bent of Tyne Tri Club and Tony Dixon and Andy Hardy, both of hartlepooltriathletes.com who were making a strong bid to retain their team title.

Left - Robert West

In the ladies race Jen Milsom of Cleveland Biketraks Tri Club finished the first run in 30.37 and had a slim lead of 5 seconds over Tracy Kaye of White Rose Tri. These two were well clear of super-vet Hilary Ross, unattached Jenny Holland and NYP Tri Club’s Caroline Pollard. However on the bike section the situation changed dramatically as Ross took nearly four minutes out of Kaye and entered the second transition nearly two minutes ahead of her.

Although Milsom’s bike split was 7 seconds slower than that of Ross she still had a sufficient advantage from the first run to be comfortably in the lead by 1.49 at this point. Milsom drove home her advantage on the second run with the fastest split of 31.49 and finished in 1.53.21, over four minutes ahead of Ross in second place with Kaye a further 1.17 behind.

Right - Jen Milsom

Meanwhile in the men’s race West had been caught quite early on the bike leg by both Bent and Dixon and it looked as if he had “over-cooked” it on the run. However he managed to stay with them and even took the lead again to lead Dixon out of transition onto the second run by 13 seconds. Veteran Hardy led the rest of the field onto the second run closely followed by Bent, David Garner of Ryton Tri and Kaye.

Left - Andy Hardy

West extended his lead over Bent by a further 8 seconds on the second run to come home a comfortable winner in 1.34.37. Bent held on to second but a strong finish by Garner saw him overtake Hardy and Dixon to take a well-deserved third place. Hardy had the consolation of finishing as first veteran and helping his club retain the team title.

Photographs of all competitors can be viewed at:-

Prizewinners

Overall Men
1.Robert West - Unattached (24.54/42.56/26.47/1.34.27)
2.John Bent – Tyne Tri Club (25.40/43.40/26.55/1.36.15)
3.David Garner – Ryton Tri Club (26.00/43.33/27.09/1.35.42)

Overall Ladies
1.Jen Milsom – Cleveland Biketraks (30.37/50.55/31.49/1.53.21)
2.Hilary Ross – Unattached (32.33/50.48/34.27/1.57.48)
3.Tracy Kaye – White Rose Triathletes (30.42/54.30/33.53/1.59.05)

Senior Men
1.Will Kaye – White Rose Triathletes (25.33/44.04/27.08/1.36.45)
2.Tony Dixon – hartlepooltriathletes.com (25.56/42.07/28.47/1.36.50)
3.Vaughan Godber – East Coast Tri Club (26.09/45.11/27.23/1.38.43)

Senior Ladies
1.Victoria Gilroy – Unattached (35.59/60.34/43.33/2.20.06)
2.Claire Weighell – Unattached (36.19/66.39/40.14/2.23.12)
3.Claire Pendery – Unattached (44.34/68.47/48.17/2.41.38)

Veteran Men M40
1.Andy Hardy – hartlepooltriathletes.com (25.58/43.18/28.02/1.37.18)
2.Tim Cook – Unattached (27.23/47.03/30.17/1.44.43)
3.Dave Williamson – Tyne Tri Club (28.43/45.50/32.50/1.47.23)

Veteran Ladies F40
1.Jenny Holland – Unattached (34.00/52.11/35.24/2.01.35)
2.Caroline Pollard – NYP Tri Club (33.23/55.01/34.13/2.02.37)

Veteran men M50
1.Tim Broomfield – NYP Tri Club (29.49/47.59/31.04/1.48.52)

Team Duathlon Championship

Men
1.hartlepooltriathletes.com (5,6,10) – 21 points
2.Durham Tri Club (18,19,20) – 57 points
3.East Coast Tri Club (7,11,41) – 59 points

Ladies
1.Cleveland Biketraks Tri Club – 1 finisher
(no other ladies from a north-east tri club competed)

Full results (courtesy of Richard Coates) are now available to view at:-