Triathlon club heroes brave the storms

TRIATHLON DESPITE last Sunday’s dreadful weather eight Rossendale Triathlon Club members made the short trip to Salford Quays to take part in the Salford Triathlon.

There are two triathlon distances on offer, standard and sprint.

The standard distance race is a 1,500-metre swim, 40km bike and 10km run while the sprint race is half these distances.

The swim takes place in the superbly clean waters of dock 9 alongside the Lowry Outlet.

The heavy rain and blustery winds continued throughout the morning making the bike course particularly challenging, but despite this all but one Rossendale triathlon club member finished the event unscathed.

It was an all-male turnout for the standard distance race with Mark Mounfield posting the best time finish time of 2 hours 35 minutes, closely followed by Oliver Major in 2 hours 36 minutes. This was a superb result for Oliver as it bettered his time from last year despite the conditions. Next across the finish line was Michael Hilton in 2 hours 39 minutes and Mike Foran finished in 2 hours 53 minutes.

Unfortunately one of the clubs most experienced triathletes, David Smith, had to withdraw after a fellow competitor crashed their bike into him.

The women from the club had opted for the sprint distance race and it was club swim coach, Karen Smith, in only her second triathlon who took the best time of the day finishing in 1 hour 42 minutes. This was no doubt due to covering the 750 metre swim in a fantastic time of just 12 minutes.

Heather Schofield wasn’t far behind finishing in a superb 1 hour 49 minutes, with Francine Hilton finishing in 2 hours 5 minutes.

Competing in her second GoTri event in a month Katie Prosser travelled to Cheshire to take part in the Manchester Airport duathlon.

She was pleased with her finish time of 1 hour 12 minutes as this was eight minutes quicker than when she completed