Human Race, the UK’s leading multi sport event organisers, staged an impressive four events in three days, which saw over 4,000 athletes compete at this 2012 Olympic venue of Dorney Lake including the TIMEX WomenOnly Triathlon on Saturday 30 June 2007.
Amongst the field of athletes that tackled one of the three distances on offer were Olympic skiers Chemmy Alcott (Britain’s No. 1) and Emily Brydon (Canadian Champion) who played cat and mouse as they battled it out on the windy and flat course that they are less accustomed to. Chemmy eventually took victory over her fellow down hill rival by just one and a half minutes finishing the 800m swim, 30km bike and 7.5km run in 2:01:07 in 51st place and Emily in 59th.
The TIMEX WomenOnly Triathlon, now in its second year, has grown to be the UK’s largest triathlon for women with over 1,000 females taking up the challenge of a triathlon either as an individual or in a team and even the heavy showers didn’t destroy the fun and feeling of enjoyment that the women only atmosphere brings.
Alcott said, “This was my first triathlon and I absolutely loved it – I was completely buzzing after completing the race and am now definitely going to take part in the BananaMan triathlon here next month. Training for a triathlon is perfect for my training over the summer months – I’m so competitive too that I love having a goal to work towards. This event was ideal for my first race and it’s fantastic to see so many women having fun and competing together at this superb venue.”
Beverley Turner, TV presenter and wife of James Cracknell returned again to race in the Sprint distance, having enjoyed her experience so much last year and successfully defended her first place in the swim. Meanwhile the pressure was on for Linda Clemens who was up against her daughter Holly, the youngest competitor at 14, who lapped her mother on the bike course !
A team of 52 triathletes from ‘3M Triers’ club in Swansea came to Dorney for the weekend’s racing, camping over night, many with their families and five also competed in the SiS Dorney Olympic triathlon the following day.
On the success of the weekend, John Lunt, Director of Human Race, commented “we certainly had a full weekend of racing and it was great to see such a cross section of people competing – from first timers through to the seasoned triathlete. It is fantastic to see so many wanting to get involved in triathlon, and whilst the timings and weather conditions certainly tested us, it was a very successful weekend.”
For full race results of all the weekend’s events or for details of other Human Race events visit www.humanrace.co.uk
