Triathlon festival sparkles in sunshine

The Sussex Triathlon Festival at Ashburnham Place has been declared a resounding success.
By The Newsroom
Published 12th Jul 2013, 13:30 BST
A trio of competitors tackle the bike leg in the Sussex Triathlon Festival. Picture by Simon NewsteadA trio of competitors tackle the bike leg in the Sussex Triathlon Festival. Picture by Simon Newstead
A trio of competitors tackle the bike leg in the Sussex Triathlon Festival. Picture by Simon Newstead

Several hundred competitors took part in the three events across the two days as spectators basked in the glorious sunshine.

Lee Holdaway, of organisers TL Sports events, said: “Everything was great. The feedback was good all-round and the BTF (British Triathlon Federation) officials gave us a great report.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The festival began on Saturday morning with the standard tri, which was made up of a 1,500m lake swim, 40k rural bike and 10k run. That was followed on Sunday by the sprint tri (750m lake swim, 20k bike and 5k run) and middle tri (1,900m lake swim, 90k bike and 20k run).

A trio of competitors tackle the bike leg in the Sussex Triathlon Festival. Picture by Simon NewsteadA trio of competitors tackle the bike leg in the Sussex Triathlon Festival. Picture by Simon Newstead
A trio of competitors tackle the bike leg in the Sussex Triathlon Festival. Picture by Simon Newstead

The BTF report said: “Comments were all complimentary, none derogatory. Many athletes commented on the challenging course and scenery being up there as amongst the best available - at least two thought the middle distance event was tougher than Ironman 70.3 at Wimbleball. Comments were made on the quality of the organisation and the ambiance.”

Leading finishers - standard tri: 1 Tom Hopkins 2:10:22, 2 Samuel Woods 2:10:45, 3 Adrian Elliot 2:11:38, 4 Sean Scott 2:13:16, 5 Adam Tuck 2:16:53, 6 James Ralph 2:17:07, 7 Adam Parkes 2:19:14, 8 Luke Worthington 2:23:02, 9 Dominic Paul 2:23:06.

Sprint tri: 1 Patrick Hough 1:06:17, 2 Ian Thwaites 1:12:01, 3 Rob Parry 1:14:56, 4 Simon Paine 1:15:01, 5 Nigel Gates 1:15:46, 6 Simon Manning 1:16:00, 7 Robert Hoodless 1:16:54, 8 Jaime Hernando 1:16:55, 9 Tanya Brightwell 1:17:25.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Middle tri: 1 Andrew Fisher 4:24:47, 2 Richard Westover 4:26:43, 3 Phil Gall 4:39:38, 4 Peter Harrison 4:45:25, 5 Paul Kelly 4:51:36, 6 Matthew Dowle 4:54:34, 7 Simon Baldwin 5:02:03, 8 Jim Harness 5:06:25, 9 Dries Ampe 5:06:41.