At the beginning of May Loughborough Performance Team, alongside around 30 members of the AU triathlon squad made the annual trip to St Mary’s school in Calne, Wiltshire. This has traditionally been the racing opener for most, and with a 750m pool swim, 25km non-drafting bike, 5k run would be a good test.
With Luke Watson winning the duathlon championships in November, titles to defend from last year, and selection places for World University Championships to be held at the end of June, there was lots up for grabs!

Every one starts in waves, graded by their predicted swim time. This basically meant that we had all the girls in the second to last wave, and the boys in the last wave off. 10 second gaps were given , but as was proved later in the day, for the men at least, for a non-drafting race, this isn’t enough to stop any ‘controversy’. Our girls, Eli Thorogood, Jenny Manners, Vicky Johnston, Helen O’Neile and Lucy Smith all swam well, and within 10 seconds of each other, in around 9.45. Hannah Drewett had a fantastic swim for the quickest of the day. After a long run through transition, it was Eli, Hannah and Natalie Milne that quickly gapped the rest of the field. This was the way it stayed until the beginning of the run, when Natalie pulled away at the start. Hannah chased, but Eli battled hard, and came through for the silver behind Natalie. Behind, Lucy and Vicky had a good battle, finishing 5th and 6th respectively. Helen and Jenny also had a strong start to the year, finishing 12th and 13th. This was enough to ensure that the girls retained the team title.
Onto the boys, and there was some fast swimming from Rhys Davey, who led out in around 8.35. Our boys, Luke Watson, Josh Cardwell, Rob Hill and David Bishop all were out in under 9 minutes. After getting onto their bikes, then the fact that only 10 second gaps were given meant a lead ‘pack’ of around 5-6 guys formed. At the end of the race it was deemed that they had been drafting, intentionally or not, and so 2 minute penalties were given out. This made a big difference to the end result, with Rhys Davey crossing the line in 1st place for his best result ever, being demoted to 5th place. However, this meant that Luke Watson, having flown over from Germany where he is on a work placement, deservedly won, with a 16.42 run split. So 2 BUCS Tiltles in the bag! Alex Matchett from Bristol was 2nd and Doug hall from Bath got 3rd. Josh Cardwell had a great race, with a 16.26 run split for 5th and David Bishop 9th, and Rob Hill 13th, Loughborough again retained the team Trophy.

Well Done guys!