It was fun in the sun in Ely at the weekend for members of King’s Lynn Triathlon club and their friends from West Norfolk Swimming Club, with a sprint Tri for the adults and and aquathlon for juniors.
The sprint tri was a 300m outdoor pool swim, 21km bike and a scorching and surprisingly hilly 5km trail run that challenged even those at the point end of the race. In his first race of the year, was the 1st of the club to finish, in a 1hr09 (6:17/36:09/25:42) followed by the fastest woman on 2 wheels Jemma Redhead in 1hr17 (7:30/37:14/31:00) who picked up extra bling by winning her age group. Paul Dunthorne was next back in 1hr22(7:11/44:27/28:31), just behind friend of the club Jeremy Navrady in 1hr21 (6:31/41:00/31:00) and ahead of Michael Cooper in 1hr33 (7:32/47:30/35:27). Vicky Dunthorne astonished the crowds by finish without chain oil on her face, in a time of 1hr53 (10:27/53:49/46:01) and Steffan Sprawling finished after a challenging swim in 1hr55 (16:09/46:47/47:14). While the big kids were suffering on the run, the junior aquathlon was getting going with just under half the competitors coming from the club and/or friends from WNSC. F or some, this was their first multisport race. The format was a 200m swim, followed by either 800m or 1200m, all depending on age. In the Girls 9-10yr cat, Lola Kidman was fastest in a total time of 7min25, followed by Eloise Collins(7:45) and Lois Burrell (8:23) for which Lola and Eloise came 2nd and 3rd in their AG. Owen cooper came 3rd in the boys 9-10yr with a time of 7min56, followed by Henry Pittock in 8min00. Unfortunately, Tom Doig missed a lap on the run, but was otherwise on for 8min too. The Girls 11-13yr cat was won outright by Esmie Kidman, who had the fastest swim of both the boys and girls, finishing in 7min13, followed by Sophie Doig in 8min23 thanks, in part, to a wardrobe malfunction during the swim. Libby Collins finished in 9min57, Olivia Doig in 10min18 and Constance Page in 13min22. For the boys, Nathan Yeaman also got 1st place with a time of 6min55, almost 30s ahead of the field and fastest T1 of the whole aquathlon. Harry Malton was 4th in 7min26 and Rhy Burrell finished in 8min43. Alice Page was the only 14-15yr from the club and finished 2nd in her cat with a time of 13min18.
Also having fun in the water at the weekend was Alex Gaunt, with a leisurely 25.7km swim across the Wash from Skegness to Hunstanton in 8hr27min, with Alex and Iris Ashman both raising money for East Anglia’s Children’s hospice.
