Burnham Sprint Tri 2002 - Simon Spedding

Sunday 16th June saw a number of local triathletes travel down to Burnham on sea for a sprint Triathlon. The English summer held back and there was no rain for a change. The event consisted of a 500m swim, 20km bike through

quiet country lanes, and a 5km run along the beach. In high calibre field of close to 300 triathletes, Mandy Spedding had an excellent race to finish in 1-15'00" a personal best for a sprint triathlon and took the prize for 4th female and 87th overall. Also amongst the prizes was Alison Lucas of Kingswood Tri Club showing that age is no handicap, taking the 2nd female over 50 prize in 1-17'16" and finishing a superb 106th overall. Hogweed Trotter and Sodbury Cycle Sport's Simon Spedding continued his good run with 2nd veteran over 40 and 10th overall, finishing in 1-03'38". The event also hosted the Avon and Somerset Police Triathlon championships and in a close fought contest the 1st home was Rich James of Kingswood Triathlon club in 1-06'34" (22nd overall). 2nd home was another local athlete Rob Barker from Chipping Sodbury (Sodbury Cycle sport) who came in just over a minute behind Rich, in 1-07'52" and was 27th overall. Bitton road Runner Nigel Cox's challenge was seriously hampered in the lanes of the bike course. A local farmer decided to take his tractor for a Sunday afternoon spin at a very sedate pace in the narrow lanes. Nigel was unable to overtake and quickly realised that any attempt to challenge for the Police Champs was not going to be this year.

Other locals finishing in the top 50 were Eric Downey of Kingswood who came in an excellent 16th in 1-05'47", Simon Attwood of Kingswood (1-08'19"), the rapidly improving Simon Hill (33rd) of Bitton Road Runners (1-08'42"), and Paul Chappell of Hogweed Trotters (37th in 1-08'54"). Jeremy Dale from Rangeworthy, racing for Kingswood Tri Club, who is on his way back from a hip replacement operation last winter, finished in 1-09'48" in 41st place.Jeremy was clearly suffering at the end but no doubt the pain will quickly be forgotten as he continues with his comeback into the triathlon world.

Others racing were: - 56th Christian Burge (1-10'57"), 58th Lee Francis (1-11'09"), 74th Barry Slocombe (1-13'04"), 93rd Paul Calabrese (1-15'41"), 115th Ben Thomas (1-17'38"), all from Kingswood Triathlon Club. 137th Nigel Cox of Bitton Road Runners (1-19'47"), 174th Keith Smith - Kingswood (1-24'23"), 181st Ian Gillard - Kingswood (1-25'09"), and Hogweed Trotter and Kingswood Tri club member Phillipa Crocker (1-33'44") in 230th.

01/01/2003