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On a sunny and still Sunday morning, fast times and sunburn were inevitable in the third race of Guernsey Triathlon Club’s Ana Leaf Foundation summer triathlon series.
A decent turnout of 40 competitors and numerous spectators promised an exciting event. Vazon was thankfully relatively clear of the hundreds of small brown jellyfish which have plagued the west coast for the last week. The race consisted of a 750 metre swim, 11 mile bike, and a two lap, 5k run.
As is becoming customary, Bob Guilbert led the swim and exited the water far ahead of the field finishing the 750m swim in an impressive 11 minutes 23 seconds. By his own admission he could have been faster had he taken a direct route between the buoys and back to shore.
“I couldn’t see much on the swim, my navigation was hampered by a nasty rash from my wetsuit which made sighting painful. I know I didn’t swim the straight line course,” he said.
Also showing great swimming form, Gail King completed the swim in second place overall despite her lack of racing in the last year. Amy Critchlow was the second woman out of the water and over 40 seconds behind King. However, the determined Island Games competitor would not let King out of her sight on the bike and with King and Critchlow coming out of transition close together the women’s race certainly wasn't over.
Junior athlete Dan Galpin, a first time competitor in open water triathlon locally, and Tom Stapley also put in great swims. Most notably, Tom beat his dad Richard Stapley out of the water by 10 seconds.
Guilbert further enhanced his early lead during the 11 mile bike ride out to Pembroke on the coast road and back to Vazon, before posting the fastest run split of the day, resulting in an eventual win by over six minutes.
The race for the rest of the podium places was a little more unpredictable.
On the second lap of the run Jon Osborne, Richard Stapley and Sam de Kooker were all within seconds of each other. Osborne proved to have the strongest run out of the three and managed second place over all.
Galpin overtook the older competitors with less than 500 metres to the finish to take third place, showing great potential should he switch to multisport racing. Stapley clinched fourth place, managing to outsprint de Kooker while coming in to the finishing straight.
With Critchlow maintaining her form after Island Games training, she soon overtook King on the 5k run and went on to win the women's race by 40 seconds. Speaking after her winning run Critchlow said:
"The bike section was fantastic with a great tussle between Gail and I. I think we came into T2 neck and neck.”
Novice female athlete Laura McCarthy came in a convincing third in the women's race with an extremely fast run – two minutes faster than the other two podium placed ladies.
The club’s next race is at Les Amarreurs on Sunday 16 August with both Sprint and Olympic distance options. Further details are available on the club website www.guernseytriathlon.com.
