>>> WTS London 2015 preview

The standard black and yellow Boardman Elite Air 9.8 bikes that they usually ride have been stripped, sanded back and meticulously hand painted in blue and red with a Union Jack emblazoned on the head tube to match the side panels of their GB sprint suits.

Boardman Bikes hope that with these bikes, a home advantage and strong support from the UK spectators, the Brownlees will both be able to close the points advantage that Javier Gomez and Mario Mola currently have, and put them in a strong position going into the WTS Hamburg round in July.

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>>> Hawkins and Faux win Outlaw Half 2014

Paul Hawkins, last year’s Outlaw Half winner and course record holder returns, but with an eye on his bigger goal of winning the Outlaw Triathlon on 26 July. Coming back from injury, the Manchester-based former Marine has said he’ll be tentative on the run course, but his rivals will know not to write off one of the sport’s hard-men.

Ian Turner is back after finishing second last year. He currently holds the second fastest time ever (4:15:45) on the course, just two minutes adrift of Hawkins last year after the 1900m swim, 56mile bike ride and 13.1mile run. Karl Alexander, third fastest ever, is also in the starting line up.

In the women’s field, Cat Faux, the winner from last year and course record holder, isn’t racing. Amongst the favourites will be Suzie Richards and Jane Hansom, a multi medal winner for the Great Britain Age Group team, who should do well overall and be a favourite in the 45-49 Age Group.

Olympic silver medal winning Modern Pentathlete, Heather Fell, is doing her first ever triathlon, as are many in the rest of the field. Fund-raisers for Cancer Research, the official event charity, are set push the partnership total ever closer to the goal of raising £1 million by end of 2015.

Local clubs including TFN, Absolute and 4Life Tri are well represented at the event, which kicks off from 6.30am on Sunday morning (31 May). The leading athletes are expected to cross the finishing not long after 10.30am.

The Nottingham Triathlon on Saturday will see some fierce racing as places in the Great Britain Age Group team for September’s World Championships in Chicago are on offer.

The event expo and registration opens tomorrow lunch time, Friday 28 May. Free parking is available and all visitors will be welcomed along to the National Water Sports Centre during the weekend.

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220 Triathlon, with the UK’s no1 multi-sport website and magazine with an ABC circulation of 25,068 of which annual subscriptions are 15,573, will support the show as a key media partner.

Triathlon is one of the UK’s fastest growing sports. The number of participants in 2015 is expected to top 150,000; a 60% increase over the last five years. The National Triathlon Show is the only event dedicated to this market and is expected to attract 10,000 visitors.

As well as being a long-established destination for athletes, the Lee Valley VeloPark location offers a priceless depth of features and content including the track itself, the one mile closed road cycling circuit, miles of off-road mountain bike trails and the BMX track. 

Matt Miller, Managing Director of Mercury Events said: “We will create an unrivalled experience for triathletes – packed with exclusive content and a brilliant trialling and buying opportunity they will not find anywhere else. The National Triathlon Show will be a destination event to buy for the 2016 season; all our exhibitors and sponsors can expect excellent return on investment.”

Steven Seaton, Managing Director of Immediate Media’s portfolio of sports titles added: “Mercury Events has a superb reputation for delivering shows that unite and add major value to their markets. We are extremely pleased to have secured them as a JV partner and look forward to announcing a series of other leading brand and media partners for the show very soon.” 

As well as tapping into the sport’s core support, the show will act as a gateway to triathlon for the thousands considering participating in 2016 and beyond. Over 100 exhibitors will ensure the event is seen as an unparalleled opportunity to see, demo, try and buy the newest products in the market. Ticket packages will include taster sessions on all the tracks, as well as scheduled trials of the latest bike and wetsuit technology from the sport’s best-known brands. 

Helen Webster, Editor of 220 Triathlon commented: “Our readers and subscribers want a dedicated annual show of true scale and quality. The timing of the show – announcing the start of the season – and the location at the Velodrome are perfect. We’re proud of 220’s position as a premium and highly-valued resource; I have no doubt the National Triathlon Show will match our audience’s high expectations.” 

Mercury Events Ltd was formed in March 2012. The company is committed to delivering sustainable, quality consumer shows and events that offer great value, return on investment and excellent service to all exhibitors and partners as well as the paying public.

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More information on 220triathlon.com as soon as it becomes available…

First medal of the day went to George Peasgood, who took silver in the PT4 category. A rising star on the GB paratri squad, Peasgood was leading out of T2, but was overtaken on his weakest discipline by Canada’s Stefan Daniel.

“Today was hard but it felt comfortable,” said Peasgood at the finish line. “But the run was probably one of the best I’ve done. My run’s still improving, and I’ve still got a long way to go with it, but it’s going good.”

Second at the recent National Paratri Champs in Llanelli behind Alison Patrick (not racing in London), Melissa Reid was today teamed with guide Nicole Walters as they powered to PT5 gold in the final metres of the 5km run. The pairing are used to winning here, having been victorious in 2013 for the World Champs.

“Very happy with the results today,” said Reid post race. “Still fairly early in the season though, so we’ll see how things pan out, and we’re obviously aiming for the Worlds at the end of the season.”

220 male paratriathlete of the year, Phil Hogg, was chuffed with his third-place finish in the PT1 category.

“That was really solid,” enthused Hogg at the line. “I had a really good swim, the bike was okay – I lost focus a little bit getting overtaken straight away but I got that back together again and just kept the power on, got back into my game mode. Onto the run I felt really strong, pushing really well. So I’m really happy with the performance for sure.”

One of the strongest categories for the GB squad is the women’s PT4, where in London the reigning world and European champ, Lauren Steadman, continued her dominance at the head of the close-run category.

“I’m happy, it was good enough,” said Steadman. “I was disappointed with the swim, I got caught with somebody and it just annoyed me, but I had the bike and run so it’s fine.”

Rounding out the GB medal haul was Claire Cunningham who took PT4 silver, Iain Dawson with PT5 bronze and Lizzie Tench for PT1 silver.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Ross Grieve/DGT

>>> Hawkins and Faux win Outlaw Half 2014

Also racing today were accomplished athletes including Olympic silver-medal winning heptathlete Heather Fell, course record holder Paul Hawkins and last year’s second-placer Ian Turner.

Great job by @heatherfellnews in her FIRST EVER triathlon, 4th today in 5:13.55. Something tells us she’ll be back! pic.twitter.com/QTUH7GzNIt

— Outlaw Triathlon (@OutlawTriathlon) May 31, 2015

Karl Alexander (M35-39) posted a finish time of 4:15:19, and Suzie Richards (F25-29) finished in 4:48:38. More details as we have them…

Elation for out women’s winner Suzie Richards on the finish line. She completely smashed it! pic.twitter.com/RAX8EvdTC5

— Outlaw Triathlon (@OutlawTriathlon) May 31, 2015

Full results here.

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The 750m swim started well for the two Brownlees, following in on the feet of swim specialists Henri Schoeman (RSA) and Richard Varga (SVK), who set the pace and hauled the two brothers into T2 in fifth and sixth.

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But on leading out of transition, shouts went up to Jonny Brownlee that he had a rear puncture. As he pulled off to the mechanics’ stand just out of T1, older brother Alistair shot through to take his place within the chase pack of 17 and pulled ahead of the second group, which contained his biggest rivals for today’s crown, last year’s one-two Mario Mola (ESP) and Richard Murray (RSA). (Reigning series leader Javier Gomez sitting out of London.)

The rest of the four-lap 20km bike lap was simply a case of head down, power on for the two Brownlees; Alistair to extend his lead, Jonny to reduce it. The gap after three laps was 1:28mins from front pack to Jonny’s crew of five.

Out of T2, Ali Brownlee took to the front for the 5km run, alongside NZ’s Tony Dodds, France’s Vincent Luis, Australia’s Bailie and Alarza of Spain.

The chase group entered T2 40secs down, but Mola had a shocking T2, struggling to get his run shoes on. As he set off, Jonny Brownlee could be seen just entering transition.

2km in and Alistair made his move, pulling out a 5sec lead ahead of Luis and Spain’s Fernando Alarza.

After the second of two laps, Murray was less than 40secs down, Mola 49secs.

So confident was Alistair that he soaked up the crowd several metres from the finish line, crossing the line with a smile bigger than we saw at the Olympics, Yorkshire flag in hand.

Alarza ran in for second, Luis second, Murray fifth, Mola in 14th.  Jonny Brownlee came in 42nd.

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Image: Ross Grieve/DGT

He spoke to us at the finish line about how his race went, and why it was missing a certain señor Gomez…

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What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments below!

What did you think of today’s race? Let us know in the comments!

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There was plenty of jostling in the swim and the field spread out quickly. Carolina Routier (ESP) led out of the water, emerging after a shade over 9 mins. Sophie Coldwell was the first Brit into T2, leaving experienced WTS racers Non Stanford and Vicky Holland trailing. As testament to the hectic swim, a number of athletes including Jorgensen lost their timing chips

It was a blistering start to Coldwell’s WTS debut, as she made it into the top group of eight on the bike. Gwen Jorgenson was also in there along with fellow Americans Sarah True and Katie Zaferes, increasing the chances of a 1-2-3 for the USA early on.

Stanford’s hopes of catching up were all but over after lap 1 of the bike, as the gap to the top group continued to grow.

The top pack of 7 held on all the way to the end of the bike leg, with Margrit Venek (HUN) and Gillian Blackhouse (AUS) joining Routier, Jorgensen, Zaferes, True and the inspired Sophie Coldwell.

Coldwell had a perfect T2 and led out onto the run, but the Americans quickly took over and Jorgenson, True and Zaferes formed a top three in the first kilometre.

As Cauldwell faded Vicky Holland gritted her teeth and quickly moved past, going into the top four after 2km.

At the front Jorgensen also made her move around 2km in, establishing a strong lead that continued to grow through the halfway point – it then became a case of the margin of Jorgensen’s victory rather than who was going to win.

Jorgensen crossed the finish line in 55:45, with Zaferes winning the battle for 2nd over True and finishing 21 secs later. Aileen Reid (IRL) continued her strong season with a 4th place finish, overtaking Holland in the closing stages of the run.

It was a true day of dominance for team USA, who now occupy all three places on the podium in the overall standings.

Image: Ross Grieve/DGT

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