GB place in European Triathlon for Chris

Sutton Harriers’ Chris Holmes’ third place at the Southport Sprint Triathlon has qualified him to represent Great Britain in next year’s European Championships in Switzerland.
A Mansfield Harriers trio lead the way at Newstead Abbey.A Mansfield Harriers trio lead the way at Newstead Abbey.
A Mansfield Harriers trio lead the way at Newstead Abbey.

Chris only joined the Harriers over the winter with one aim - to improve the weakest part of his triathlon and he entered the Southport event to see if his training had improved him enough to qualify for the GB team.

The 750m swim was in a pool and Chris managed to keep away from everyone else, exiting the water in second place with no one close behind.

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Next was the 20k bike ride and a quick transition saw him away in first place. Pushing himself, Chris had the familiar game of seeing how long he could stay in front before being overtaken.

Riding along the breezy coast road, Chris made the turn-round still in first place, giving him the chance to see if the rest of the pack could hunt him down and, in the end, only three men overtook him.

Next came the 5k run and, starting in fourth place, Chris managed to keep a decent pace, with the added discomfort of side stitch, but started to drop places, and when pressed by a competitor contesting the place in the GB age group team, Chris kept up with him but he was just pipped on the line by one second.

Nevertheless, Chris still managed to finish in third place in his age group, thus qualifying him to represent GB in Geneva next year as part of the age group team, hopefully with quicker legs.

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Chris’ times were - swim 9.13, bike 33.32, and run 20.20, giving him a overall time of 1hr 06min 31sec.

Sutton Harriers competed in the third Booths Summer League road race, held at Denby Pottery, where 18 members took part, the ladies finishing in second place and the men seventh place to finish fourth overall out of 11 teams and 289 runners.

Sutton times: Rob Roper 28.40, Nick Luke 29.36 James Simpson 30.05 Gary Bird 32.11, Leatitia Moakes 32.51 Catherine Davies 33.03 Clare Watson 33.07 Samuel Moakes (15) 33.13, Drew Alletson (15) 35.02, Amanda Alletson 35.18, Kate Simpson 35,42, James Roper (15) 36.16 Callum Ball (15) 36.17, Tom Vardy 37.06, Andrew Ball 38.16, Phil Bird 41.10, Gayle Pickering 42.10 , Steve Saunders V60 42.37, finishing in 268th place.

At a very warm Newstead Abbey, Mansfield Harriers filled three of the top four places in round three of the Notts AAA’s Summer Road Race League.

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James Mee finished in second place and Stuart King third with Mark Johnson in fourth.

It was yet another massive turnout by Mansfield Harriers for the race, held on the picturesque five mile course, finishing down at the main abbey.