Leeds & Bradford Triathlon Clubs Aquathlon (Swim and Run), Sun 8 May

On Sunday 8 May Holmfirth Harriers Junior Triathletes travelled to Leeds to take part in the first event of the 2011 Yorkshire & Humberside Championships the ever popular Leeds & Bradford Triathlon Clubs Aquathlon (Swim and Run)

With entries limited to 170 Triathletes this is a popular event that attracts a high level of competition, not only amongst dedicated Triathletes but club swimmers also.

 

In 2010 Holmfirth Harriers had 8 Medal winners, could a long winter of dedicated training improve on that total in 2011?

 

The first event was the female Tristart category; these are Triathletes competing in their first ever event and Holmfirth Harriers had a fantastic start to the day dominating the top 3 positions.

First to finish and leading from the front was Elphina Waterman, closely followed by Sophie Kettlewell and Kate Dickinson.

Medals achieved 3!

 

In the boys Tristart category a grandstand finish was provided by Charlie Cross from Holmfirth Harriers and Harry Brackenridge from Batley Grammar School.  Charlie was the stronger athlete finishing 1 second ahead of Harry to give Holmfirth another 1st place.

 

Medals now 4!

 

The Tristar1 race had Sunnivah Waterman chasing for 1st place throughout the race, and had a great finish for 2nd place.  Holly Bailey Taylor had a fantastic race to achieve 7th place with Millie Yates a creditable 11th place.

 

In the boys Tristar1 race Finn Kerry was amongst the early leaders and one of 4 boys who left the pool within 5 seconds of each other.  Finn had a real tussle with Thomas Dudley from Immaculate Heart of Mary School, as these boys dominated the race.  After a great run, Finn was 2nd by only 7 seconds, with other strong finishes by the ever improving Daniel Howatson in 7th place, Dominic Drake in 16th and Thomas Ford in 18th.

 

Medal total now 6!

 

The next age group was the Tristar2 category with a strong showing from Holmfirth in both the girls and boys categories.

As expected competition was tough, but today Holmfirth Harriers girls couldn’t get on the podium.  Top performer was Lucy Byram in 5th place closely followed by her sister Erica in 6th place. Libby Shepherd performed well in 8th place, Daisy Hinchliffe in 9th, Lily Barr 10th, Amy Kettlewell in 13th, Isobel Drake 16th and Emmy Bailey Taylor in 19th made up the Holmfirth field. 

 

In the boys Tristar2 category Holmfirth had 5 boys in another tough field. First Holmfirth Harriers to finish in his first multi sport race was the impressive Lewis Bartholemew in 3rd place but only seconds from 2nd place. Tiras Waterman after a strong swim was 5th, with Jack Ford and another strong performance in 12th place.  Unfortunate athlete of the day was Nicky Farquhar who got caught up in another wave of runners as he entered the finishing straight and was ushered round for another lap of the run (as if he hadn’t done enough!).  Despite this setback Nicky was a respectable 15th place, with Joel Page in 23rd being the next Harrier home.

 

Medals haul now 7!

 

Only two girls were available for Holmfirth in the Tristar3 category, with a great race by a determined Lucy Farquhar in 3rd place and Megan Lamb in 10th. 

 

The boys had a bigger contingent with 9 representatives in two waves of races.  In the first wave Isaac Shepherd had a fantastic swim and was first out of the pool in a creditable 6mins 10 seconds for his 400m.  Closely followed by Shea Kerry and Andrew Farquhar these boys then produced a fantastic race for the spectators, with first Shea catching Isaac and then Andrew overhauling them both.  In the second wave first out of the water was Seth Waterman with a time of 5.09 followed by Lewis Byram with a personal best swim of 5.46.  Lewis with a strong run managed to catch Seth in the closing stages, with them finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. Joe Williams and Ben Dickinson had their own personal battle in this wave and after 6 laps Joe made his move and finished much the stronger and pulled away from Ben to finish 5th with Ben in 6th place.  Andrew Farquhar was 7th, Shea Kerry 9th, Isaac Shepherd 10th, and Luke Page finishing strongly in 16th. Eddie Hinchliffe with stomach problems had to withdraw on the run.

 

Medals now at 10!

 

The final two races were the Youth Categories with both Sophie Williams and Robert Hinchliffe making their entries in this age category. 

 

Sophie had a good race in 5th place and Robert, who was another athlete making his multi sport debut finished in 6th place.

With a total of 10 medals this was a terrific achievement by a strong Holmfirth Harriers squad who were able to surpass their 2010 performance.  As a curtain raiser for the season this was a great event and the team are excited with much more to come.

 

The next race in the series is the Holmfirth Harriers hosted Duathlon on 4 June at Richard Dunn sports centre.  Details can be found on the Harriers website here.