Guru Swindon Duathlon

3rd April 2005

Race report

This report was also printed in a much altered and inaccurate form in 220 Magazine -- please regard the following text as the official version.

The tenth anniversary of the Guru Swindon duathlon saw a change of venue to the Science Museum, Wroughton, situated high on top of the Wiltshire hills, the closed course was on wide, fairly flat ex-airfield runways. Never the less this didn't mean boring or easy as the course had a few interesting twists, turns and the wind never let up from start to finish making for a hard days racing.

The exciting day of duathlon started with the age groupers at 11am with two laps of 5km run, followed by 5 x 8km bike laps, then one 5km lap run. Monmouth's Sarah May led the women's race from start to finish, closely followed by East London Tri's Fiona Ford. These two were clear of third placed Sophie Whitworth (Oxford Tri) and veteran Niki Treacy (Raw Energy Pursuits) left the others in her category from the gun, to finish fourth age group female overall.

Next up were the veteran men and the run saw a tussle between Kevin Farmer, Milton Keynes and Dave Candy, Shorter Rochford with Stu Dinwoodie, Total Fitness Bath just off the pace. Once on the bike 45 year old Kevin Farmer showed his strength in the wind, he pulled away, and went on to a comfortable win. Meanwhile Sam Williamson of Hemel Hempstead CC worked his way through the field to snatch second and first place in the 40-44 age group. First age grouper overall was Lee Piecy of Dorset (30-34) in a time of 1:58:50. 84 year-old Arthur Gilbert, competing in his eight Swindon Duathlon, completed the course in 4:23:18 and received the biggest cheer of the day.

There was also a Novice/Short event (5km-16km-2.5km) which attracted a few more than usual, as they didn't have the worry of traffic; Matt Ansfield won this in 57:22, with Sarah Lewis of Total Fitness Bath taking the women's prize in 1:07:10.

Senior Elite

As the day warmed up so did the racing with the Elite Men and Women lining up to qualify for the European Duthathlon Championships.

Almost from the off a new convert to duathlon Kairn Stone led the group of elite men and by the end of the 10km had a massive 1:20 minute lead over the chasing pack, which contained amongst others Martin Yelling, Team Milton Keynes, Phil Anthony, Gary Gerrard, Tri UK and Oliver Mott. Stone was a lone figure at the front for most of the bike course and was only caught by Yelling, Gerrard and their group at the start of the fifth and final lap.

Once on the second run it was easy to see who had been saving their legs and who had been on their max throughout the first run and bike as Martin Yelling took control and sped away from the group to take the win. Stone, competing in only his third duathlon, held on to second, whilst 40 year old experienced duathlete Gary Gerrard had a solid race throughout to take third and has probably qualified for an elite slot in the European Championships.

Yelling commented later, "I could tell some in the pack were on the limit on the first run (probably by the heavy breathing in his ear), but I was feeling fairly comfortable." When asked if he was worried about Stone being so far in front? He relied, "well it took longer than I expected to catch him." It was nice to see fresh faces in the senior elite such as Stone who explained that he had taken up duathlon only last year because of persistent shin splints from just run training and that he was enjoying his new sport and improving with each race. Meanwhile some early season training camps had paid off for veteran Gerrard who proved he could still give the youngsters a run for their money.

There was some drama in the women's elite race as current World Champion Annie Emmerson had a convincing lead on the bike when she punctured leaving the field open for European Bronze medallist Helen Lawrence, Royles and Vicky Pincombe, Team Milton Keynes. Vicky was well away from the rest on the bike and crossed the line first but was given a two minute penalty for drafting a slower elite man and therefore was relegated to third. This left the way clear for strong all-rounder Lawrence to take the Guru title.

Helen, voted BTA duathlete of the year 2004, will now try to improve on her European Bronze before concentrating on a busy triathlon season. She said after "The course was interesting and it was nice to have lots of wide open space on the bike and no traffic." Big surprise of the day was that local girl Caroline Kloiber, competing in her first major elite event, came second overall beating many experienced British international athletes. Klobier has made massive progress since finishing second in the Novice event last year. Her running ability wasn't in doubt as she has had success over the winter competing for Bristol and West Athletic Club, but her biking hasn't been that strong until now. Caroline is head of PE at Westonbirt School and if selected for the European's she will have to hope the school will give her the time off.

Elite Junior and Youths

The elite junior and youth events were well supported with a host of promising talent. By the end of the first 2.5km run not one second separated a group of ten male youths, but Philip Graves (White Rose) pulled away from them all on the 16km bike and was never challenged. Graves' sister Victory led the female youths onto the bike along with Jodie Stimpson (Oldbury) and Sophie Coleman (Bodyworks), but they could not match the biking ability of Jessica Roberts (Cleveland Bike Traks) who is on the British cycling talent team. Jessica, competing in her second ever duathlon, opened up a massive two minute lead on the bike to secure victory.

The junior race saw a tussle between Ritchie Nicholls and Gary Hughes throughout with Nicholls just having the extra strength on the second run to pull away for first. Kate Moore and Mary Ferrier led the running in the female juniors, but Sophie Reynolds (Kelly College) came from behind and blasted past them all on the first lap. Sophie said later "I thought they would jump on my wheel as I passed but no one did." She has just come back from cycling in Lanzarote which proved good training for the windy conditions. Sophie is hoping to go to the European Duathlon Championships and then continue to work on her swimming at Kelly College to help improve her triathlon results.

Generally most athletes seemed to find the day quite tough in the wind, but enjoyed the course and friendly atmosphere at the new Science Museum venue. Many stayed for the prize giving where Chair of the BTA Jasmine Flatters presented SIS prizes to each five year age group, whilst the elite shared £800 in prize money. The next race in the BTA National Duathlon Series will be Cambridge Duathlon on 17 April.

For the age group event click here, for the novice event click here.

Elite Duathlon

Age Group Duathlon

Novice Duathlon