A RECORD number of entrants battled against monsoon-like conditions at St Mary’s Sports Centre in Calne on for the opportunity to be crowned British Universities Sprint Triathlon Champion.

The morning’s racing in the BUCS Triathlon Championships started with glorious sunshine but this proved to be the calm before the storm, with the 693 competitors borught to a halt when the main thunderstorm hit and officials made the decision to suspend the racing for 10 minutes.

After a short break, proceedings were back underway as the triathletes took on the 750m pool-based swim, 25km bike and 5km run. 

The weather improved as the elite triathletes took to the course but the road conditions being greasy made for fearless bike handling skills as the elites gambled on the wet and dry sections of the course setting them up for a fast flat 5km run.

The fastest triathlete, Richard Horton, clocked a run split of 15.54.

As the racing came to a close, Samuel Wade of Cardiff Metropolitan Uni, was the quickest across the line in a time of 01:05:18, nearly a minute ahead of Horton (01:06:14) and Chris Perham (01:06:17), both of Loughborough Uni.

It proved to be a clean sweep for Cardiff Met when Zoe Thomas took the women’s BUCS title in 01:11:43.

In second place was Sophie Coldwell, a Loughborough student in the world class performance squad, with an overall time of 01:12:32 whilst in third position was Chloe Cook from Leeds Beckett Uni (Carnegie), who had the fastest run split of the day (18:23) and an overall time of 01:12:47.

The fastest female swim split on the day was Kimberley Bell in 09:08.

A triathlete to watch out for in the future, from Birmingham Uni, was Floren Scrafton, with an overall position of 12th, but with the third-fastest female run split of the day with 18:49.

Team Results:

Male Team: 1st University of Leeds (Liam Lloyd, Alistair Rogers, Alistair Weymouth) 03:17:43; 2nd Loughborough University (Alex Matchett, Jack Hall, Chris Hine) 03:17:44; 3rd Loughborough University (Luke Watson, Nicolas Domise, Chris Perham) 03:24:40.

Female Team: 1st Loughborough University (Sophie Coldwell, Jenny Manners, Lucy Smith) 03:36:34; 2nd University of Leeds (Heather Sellars, Sarah Hodgson, Grace Hobbs) 03:39:21 3rd Leeds Met University (Carnegie) (Hannah Righini-Brand, Danica Bonello Spiteri, Helen Roby) 03:49:58.