Triathlon
Parsons wins as Evesham trio impress

A TRIO of Evesham-based members of Worcester Triathlon Club competed in the Fast Twitch Triathlon at Marlborough Leisure Centre, which has been organised at the venue since 1984 by Concept Sport.

It is probably one of the oldest UK triathlon events still on the racing calendar and is an interesting race because the distances of each of the three disciplines is non-standard in terms of not being a typical sprint or Olympic distance.

There was delight for Evesham's Michelle Parsons who maintained her fine form with a superb victory despite never having completed this race before.

The race starts with a 400m pool swim where the competitors are set off in waves of ten to 12. Once the swim is completed it is a quick dash out of the pool to the transition area where the athletes mount their bikes to take on a challenging 20-mile bike course around the surrounding area before returning back to the transition area for a final five mile out and back run.

Parsons, as usual, knew her swim would leave her having to make up a deficit on the bike and run but this time she was only chasing down a two-minute gap to Swindon Tri's Cathy Cook on the bike.

This she did with ease in recording the fastest female bike split of the day by almost six minutes at 57 minutes and 25 seconds.

On to the run and, although the run course had been shortened slightly because the amount of rain had rendered one of the paths impassable, she still managed an incredibly impressive 29 minutes and 42 seconds.

That gave her a total time of one hour, 35 minutes and 16 seconds and a margin of victory of three minutes over the fast finishing Cook (1.38.17).

On the men's side it was Evesham Running Club member Iain Jennings who led the Worcester Tri Club members home in recording an excellent swim time of under six minutes for the 400m swim.

He then put in the ninth quickest bike split of the day before rounding off the race with a superb 25.26 run split to finish in a total time of 1.25.48 in fifth place overall and first in his age category.

In a very tight team contest Worcester Tri Club edged out Army Tri Association thanks to Parsons outpacing the third counter in the Army team by 34 seconds.

Worcester's team was Michelle, her husband Phil and Iain Jennings and this was the first time a mixed team have won the team event beating the three male Army team members.

The next event for the Worcester Triathlon Club members is the annual Wychavon Triathlon held at the leisure centre in Droitwich on Sunday.

There only a few entries remaining which can be accessed online at http://www.entrycentral.com/index.php?raceID=100296 or via the race director Mark Elliott on 07742 668242.

There will also be a children's aquathlon held directly after the adult triathlon competitors have finished the swim element of the triathlon and again details are available from race director Mark Elliott.

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