Total Buzz held their first Gillingham triathlon on Sunday, based at the Riversmeet Leisure Centre. It was a sprint distance event, made up of a 400 metres swim, a hilly tt based on the GDW Wyke course and a 5 kms run.
Jay Hookins and Vince Hounsome both made the podium, finishing in second and third with Vince also winning his age group category. Jay set the quickest bike section time, eventually losing out to overall winner Nick Berry by nearly two minutes with most of that time lost in the swim section and in transitions. Vince was second fastest on the bike and just 10 seconds down on Jay by the finish.
Simon Barfoot was 10 th overall (fifth quickest bike time) while Pete Dyer finished in 32nd. Carole Miller was 35th and was the winner in her category.
Full results are on the Total Buzz website and there are loads of photos on Charles Whitton’s website.
Round two of the Southern XC series took place at Crow Hill near Ringwood at the weekend. The event also doubled up as the Southern regional championships so this guaranteed a large entry of riders at an already popular venue.
The Vets race was a very close affair, with nothing to choose between Lewis King, Marc Chamberlain, Paul Hopkins (riding for Merida) and Mark Chadbourne over the opening two laps. King was first to lose contact on lap three followed by Chadbourne, leaving Paul leading into the fourth and final lap. However, by the finish Chamberlain had nearly a minute’s lead over Paul to win the Vets’ title. Nigel Brown (Westbury Wheelers) was riding well and finished in 11th and Andy Parsons (Offcamber) was around a minute behind Nigel in 15th.
In the other races, Kim Little was very unlucky after puncturing whilst leading the four laps Masters race. In the four laps Junior race, Liam Teesdale (Offcamber) finished in ninth against some very fast opposition. James Chant (Offcamber) won the earlier two lap race, winning in just under one hour by nearly a minute after catching and passing Jim Gallagher early in the second lap.
At the Andover Wheelers 10 mile time trial, Chris Mullett came very close to a new pb for the distance on a new course East of Andover. Chris’ time of 24.17 gave him 18th position and was just four seconds shy of a new best time. VC St Raphael dominated the event, taking a 1-2-3-4 overall with Simon Tout winning in 20.14 and Lesley Walkling winning the fastest lady prize in 22.19.
Some photos from Crow taken from the Southern XC website –
