Several Andover members competed in the prestigious Nokia sponsored Windsor Olympic Triathlon recently.
This race attracts a large field (in excess of 1,600) and also involves an elite race featuring some of GB's best athletes, many of whom will be on show in this summers' Olympics. The course involved a 1500m swim in the Thames, followed by a 42k bike and a 10k run, taking in the sights of Windsor Castle and Eton College along the way.
Pete Dennett was first back from the club, finishing in 504th position after a strong bike leg and a reasonable run, both being fastest on the day for Andover, to post a total time of 2.37.26.
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Paul Wills was next home, continuing his improvement in his first season. He produced the fastest swim from the club, to finish just 40 seconds overall behind Pete in 532nd. Nick Marvin followed in 801st, in last event before he competes in the Nice Ironman event. Andover's only female entrant was Cath Haines, in her first Olympic distance event. She completed the course in 3.20.31 and finished in 1,542nd position overall and 65th in her age category.
Back in 2006 Brian Nicol decided to mark his 60th birthday with a triathlon comeback after an absence of a few years. He began training and then entered a few races with much success. In 2007 he won his age category at Marlborough Triathlon and came second at Northampton, which was a world championship qualifying event and as a result was selected along with 400 other athletes to represent GB in the world age group championships in Vancouver, Canada.
On June 6 he competed in the sprint distance world age group championship on a cold, wet day in Canada. The event consisted of an 800m lake swim, a 21k multi-lap bike course and a 5k run.
After a steady start, Brian began picking off other competitors and left the water in third place. A slow transition followed due to the need for extra layers because of the cold conditions and a cold, slippery bike ride followed which was safely negotiated. Transition two was much better and a smooth run finished off a pleasing performance where overall Brian finished ninth in his age category and was the fourth athlete from Great Britain to finish.
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