Karen Smith produced an outstanding performance, reminiscent of her Ironman World Championships age group win in Kona, to comfortably win her 50-54 age group ( 41 in age group) at Sunday’s Ironman Hamburg. In doing so she finished an impressive 12th amongst all women participants and ahead of a number of the professional women in the field.

The race was reduced to a duathlon as the high temperatures Europe has been experiencing meant that the algae count in the water made the swim unsafe and the swim was replaced by a 6km run.

Karen completed the first 6km run in 27 min 04 secs, the 2nd fastest in her age group and then produced an impressive 5 hr 03 min 36 sec bike at an average of 35.29km an hour for the 180km which put her into the lead in her age group.

Karen then consolidated her lead with a very quick 3 hrs 33 min 44 sec marathon to finish in 9 hr 14 min 02 secs.

Allowing for perhaps an additional 35 mins if there had been a swim, this equates to around a 9hrs 50 min Ironman ; impressive !

Meanwhile in Canada, Dianna White took on her first Ironman at Ironman Canada in Whistler, BC , a tough course, and completed the course in 15 hrs 02 min 58 secs and 39th out of 64 in her 35-39 age group.

Dianna completed the swim in 1hr 35 min in 61st position in her age group but moved up to 45th after the bike with a 7hr 59 min 22 sec split. She then completed the 42km run in 5:15:41.

Congrats to Dianaa ; you are an Ironman Finisher !

Due to very bad weather conditions, the Boston Triathlon was changed to a duathlon so Liz and Steve’s swim times as previously reported in this blog were infact for a first run of 2km which was to a large extent on the beach sand so tough going !!

As provide to this blog :

Approx 200m swim, 8km bike, 2km run

1. Tom Marsall 23:58
2. Will Green 26:02
3. Teddy Shum 26:11
4. Nico Davis 27:51
5. Vivienne Lockhead 27:59
6. Lianna Medeiros 29:28
7. Matt Viney 29:54
8. Christine DaCosta 30:06
9. Megan Hands 30:30
10. Amber Simons
11. Debs Norman 30:44
12. Nichola Davis 31:04
13. Derek Hurdle 34:37
14.Charlotte Millington 34:52

Lea Osbourne , 2 laps only on bike 28:17
Joanne Medeiros 2 laps  only on bike 28:19

Julia Hawley , no run 19:20

Various Other distances

Max Blaxell , Junior 12:20
GrasonTavares, Junior 24:34
Nick Hands , Junior 25:23

Callum Macfarlane, Junior – no time provided

Relay

Sam Williamson, (swim) Abby Perry( Bike) Tilly Norman (run) 29:50

Liz Stewart and Steve O’Reilly took to the start line today, Sunday 22nd July, at the Boston Triathlon and both produced top 10 results in their age group.

Liz finished 4th in the womens’ 45-49 age group with a 11 min 38 secs for the 750m swim, 1hr 7 min 16 secs for the 35km bike and 53 min 51 secs for the 10km run for a total time of 2hr 15 min 54 secs.

Steve finished 10th in the mens 50-54 age group with  12 min 04 secs for the 750m swim, 1hr 4 min 18 secs for the 35km bike and 51:08 for the 10km run for a time of 2hr 09 min 41 secs.

Nick Pilgrim and Caleb Ingham raced on Sunday 15th July in the USTA youth elite series triathlon in Flatlands, Des Moines .

Caleb finished 16th out of 77 starters in 33:21 . He was 4th out of the swim, lying 15th  after the bike and then had a solid run. The winner was Graham Tuohy in 30:56 after an impressive run.

Nick Pilgrim sadly had a recurrence of a breathing difficulty condition on the run, which also saw him DNF in Bermuda’s Ironkids race. He therefore  had to stop. Nick was going very well until then – 2nd on the swim and lying in 3rd on the run .

FULL RESULTS AND SPLITS AT :

http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=64517#racetop

Trimemphre Magog / Canada race report July 14, 2018 – THANKS DIRK HASSELKUSS FOR THIS REPORT

This year it was only “Team Hasselkuss” from Bermuda traveling to Magog. Organization of the trip from sign up for the event to travel arrangements to hotel bookings etc. is routine in the meantime and execution went like clockwork.

We arrived late evening on Thursday, had a great night sleep and all day to prep (bike rental pick-up, registration, course familiarization including swim etc.) on Friday in the most beautiful and perfect weather conditions for our events the next day.

Come race morning and Zoe’s 7:05 am start the weather had turned to the worse with chilly winds causing quite some chop on the lake and a few light showers. This year Zoe – currently 13 – has moved up to the 15 and under age group and as a December girl she was amongst the youngest of the 52 girls, feeling a bit intimidated by the girls that looked so much taller, bigger and fitter than her. Zoe did not really enjoy the chop on the lake which made sighting a challenge and swimming some of the 500m through seaweed didn’t add to her fun. Nonetheless she exited the water in respectable 26th position and finished 21st overall after a solid 10k bike ride and 2.5k run. Onwards and upwards from here, we have work cut out for us if we want to be competitive in a bigger gene pool!

Similar to Zoe, Jasmin – turning 12 in December – started as one of the youngest for the first time in the 13 and under age group. Exiting the water after a 375m swim in 16th position, her 9th fastest bike over 10k and 5th fastest 2.5k run secured Jasmin a very respectable 7th place overall in the 40 finishers strong new age group.

After the girls had finished their race I got my workout in the Sprint Distance event in for which I only entered by late registration. My performance certainly did not do the title of the race any justice and I spare you further details. 🙂

All in all it ended up again a great and fun trip to Magog to a superbly organized and executed Trimemphre Triathlon festival. The girls and I had fun in our events, faced challenges and are very content with the results. In our off time we had a chance to go shopping and eat lots of pasta, pizza and….ice-cream in our favourite restaurants. We missed the rest of the usual Bermuda athlete and fan crowd though.

 A reminder of the 2018 BTA race schedule after the summer break :

▪ Sept 3 – Labour Day Home Event, Harrington Sound Dock
▪ Sept 29/30 – 2018 Carifta Triathlon and Aquathlon, Tobago
▪ Sept 30 – Tokio Millenium Sprint, Hamilton
▪ Oct 28 – AON Sprint National Championships, Clearwater

November – date to be determined – Bank of Bermuda Foundation Triathlon

Carolyn Conway recently won her age group at the Chester Deva Divas Triathlon on Sunday 8th July winning her age group.

For full results go to :

https://chestertri.niftyentries.com/Results/Deva-Divas-2018

Here is Carolyn’s report

I entered the women only Deva Divas Tri last minute in Chester UK last weekend and had a great time. The event won a Best Triathlon for the second time and I can see why. . I would recommend it to anyone from Bda who will be in UK. The race only caters for 350 entries as it is an open road course and a very busy tourist spot. Surprisingly I came first as I am now in the 60 age group – there were 8 others!!!

Erica Hawley competed in the Tizsaujavaros World Cup (Sprint distance) race on the 7th July which was an eliminator series style race.

Full results at :

https://www.triathlon.org/results/result/2018_tiszaujvaros_itu_triathlon_world_cup

Here is Erica’s report :

I competed in semi-final 1 (of 3) which had around 20 women in the field. The top 10 would then go on to compete in the final which was the next day.

The swim was 3 laps of 250m and the first buoy was only 100m from the start. It was one of the most brutal swims i’ve ever had and many people were given penalties for swim behavior. It eventually began to string out on the swim and I got out the water in 10:00 minutes. I was just off the pace of the second pack (5 seconds behind the girl in front of me) and was stuck in no mans land for the first part of the bike. Eventaully a group of 3 girls caught up but there was already a significant gap from the leaders. We worked relatively well together but we were no match for the top 11 and we came off the bike almost 2 mins behind. Even though, i managed to run a PR off the bike and clocked 17:41. I felt amazing on the run and this was such a great feeling after working hard on the bike. Although i didnt make the final i am really proud of the results this past weekend; and there were many positives to take away from racing this kinda of format. It was also intersting to compare my race and the times to other heats and it is almost luck of the draw for the people that are in your heat and dictate the race.

It was a crazy day the next day for the finals – for both the men and women. My teammate was involved in a crash of around 10 girls and fractured her radius so i was at the hospital with her for 6+ hours, and then they had to cancel the mens race mid-bike due to hail and a thunderstorm. I was almost fortunate that i didn’t qualify as the races didn’t play out how anyone expected.

Always exciting to race again and it was different competing in the European circuit which keeps me on my toes.

Back to Girona for another week before heading to Atlantic City to compete in the Major League Triathlon series.

As reported in the Royal Gazette :

Bermuda have named a 15-strong team for the Carifta Triathlon and Aquathon Festival in Tobago in September.

The 11-12 age group will compete in a 200 metres swim, a five kilometres bike and 1.25km run, with legal draft, while the 13-15 age category will swim 375 metres, bike 10km and run 2.5km. The 16-19 division will have a 750 metres swim, 20km bike and 5km run.

For the aquathon, there is a 250 metres swim and 1.25km run for the 11-12 age group; a 500 metres swim and 2.5km run for the 13 to 15-year-olds and a 1,000 metres swim and 5km run for the 16-19 age group.

The festival will be held on September 29 and 30.

Bermuda’s team was selected on strict qualification and selection criteria, which included participation in the XL Catlin National Championships at Clearwater, the National Heroes Day Home Event in Harrington Sound and the Clarien Iron Kids at Clearwater

Youngsters also had to compete in no fewer than four of the Thursday night super-sprint triathlons and participated in three competitive Bermuda Bicycle Association scheduled races.

TEAM

11-12 Age Group

Males

Callum MacFarlane — Aquathlon and Triathlon

Rory Fleming — Aquathlon and Triathlon

13-15 Age Group

Females

Taylor White — Aquathlon

Myeisha Sharrieff — Aquathlon

Zoe Hasselkuss — Aquathlon & Triathlon

Amber Simons — Aquathlon & Triathlon

Megan Hands — Triathlon

Liana Medeiros — Aquathlon & Triathlon

Males

Nicholas Pilgrim — Aquathlon & Triathlon

Caleb Ingham — Aquathlon & Triathlon

Brian Desmond — Aquathlon

Tommy Marshall — Triathlon

Nico Davis — Aquathlon and Triathlon

16-19 Age Group

Females

Ashley Irby — Aquathlon

Jessie Marshall — Aquathlon