Clacton Olympic Triathlon

Sunday, September 13th 2009

Five Hadleigh Hares took a trip to the seaside this weekend to take part in the Clacton Standard Distance Triathlon. This was part of a weekend of triathlon races at Holland Haven Country Park comprising junior events and a sprint triathlon on the Saturday and the 'big' standard distance race on the Sunday. Tim Bowman, Richard Hanley, Neil Crisp, Steve Bowen and David Dulake represented the Hares in a field of 230 competitors. The event comprised a gruelling 1500m sea swim, undulating 40km 2-lap bike ride and flat 10km seafront run. The Clacton Triathlon is unusual, possibly unique, in the UK for having a sea swim. With registration open from 5am it was an early start for all the competitors. Though the weather was overcast but dry, strong currents in the water caused problems on the swim and strong winds made some sections of the bike course hard-going.

Two of the most improved Hadleigh Hares his season, Hanley and Bowman, started in the same wave and had an epic race. Hanley took an early lead over Bowman completing the swim in 24:35 compared to Bowman's 26:25. Hanley increased his lead slightly on the bike completing the 2-lap course in 1:06:00 compared to Bowman's 1:06:28. An excellent run of 40:49 from Bowman saw him catch and overtake Hanley to finish in 39th place in a very creditable time of 2:14:46. Hanley completed an excellent race, beating his time of last year by a massive 12 minutes, to finish in 48th place in an overall time of 2:17:19. Dulake put a solid race together to break the magic 2:30 barrier and finish in 93rd place in a time of 2:26:12. In his first ever Olympic distance event, promising newcomer, Neil Crisp showed he will be a force to be reckoned with finishing in an overall time of 2:34:26. Bowen showed he is coming back to form after a season of niggling injuries and finished 10th in his age group, and more importantly injury-free, in an overall time of 2:35:13.