Spean take Lochaber schools triathlon gold

Nineteen primary schools from the Lochaber area entered this year’s inter-school triathlon event which took place last Wednesday (October 10).

The event is organised by High Life Highland’s Active Schools team, staff at Lochaber Leisure Centre, where the event was based, and the Lochaber visiting primary PE teachers. Each of the schools sent a team of three participants – one swimmer, one cyclist and one runner.

The race started in the pool with participants swimming 200m, or eight lengths of the pool.

Beating his second place finish from last year, Banavie’s swimmer, Sean Troy Cann, was first in this section of the race. Cann almost broke the course record in a great time of 3.00.12 and was followed closely by Helen Jones from Lochaline Primary who finished just ahead of Charleigh Adams from Lundavra.

Once all the swimmers had completed their section, the event moved to the Braveheart car park where the bikers were ready to take on their 4km ride. Coming back comfortably in first place was last year’s first placed runner, Sorley Swabey, from Spean Bridge Primary, in a super time of 8:45. Second place went to Kyler MacLeod from Inverlochy Primary who crossed the line in 9:38 and in third place was Riley Forsyth from Lundavra in 9:47.

This year the organisers made a slight change to the run, making this part of the event a mass start.

The pace on this leg was blisteringly fast, with Ben Corner from Inverlochy Primary taking the win in 8:50. In second place on the run was Duncan MacDonald from Spean Bridge Primary, who came in at 9:05. Murray Donald from Invergarry Primary rounded out the top three runners, completing the course in 9:10.

Spean Bridge were overall winners with a combined time of 21.55, while Lundavra finished second, completing the course in 22.57, and rounding off the podium in a time of 23.34 was Inverlochy.

The organisers would like to give a huge congratulations to all of the children who took part in what is a great introduction to multisport events and to the parents and teachers who brought them all. Massive thanks also goes out Stevie Martin Snr at Lochaber Leisure Centre for managing the swimming element, to No Fuss Events for donating medals, to the Lochaber High School pupils who marshalled the event and, of course, to the organisers.

Spean Bridge were overall winners, while Lundavra finished second, Inverlochy came third.

The mountian biking podium (l-r): Kyler MacLeod who finished second, Sorley Swabey who came first and Riley Forsyth who finished third.

The swimming podium (l-r): Helen Jones who finished second, Sean Troy Cann who came first and Charleigh Adams who finished third.

The running podium (l-r): Duncan MacDonald who finished second, Ben Corner who came first and Murray Donald who finished third.