Freebird Events hosted their second sprint event of the year at Driffield yesterday. Despite the unforgiving weather, Lincsquad were once again out in force mixing among the well represented big city clubs like York Tri and Leeds/Bradford. Although punching well above their weight Team Lincsquad I’m sure, will have left a lasting impression on the ‘full to capacity(250)’ field.
Not having a Team Prize to contend for it was left to Steve Clark, Jo Walker and Lauren York to put things beyond doubt and show which team had been putting in some serious early season graft.
Of the many notable performances of the day these three individuals rubber stamped the overall top honours in winning 1st Place Overall Male, 1st Place Overall Female and 1st Place Female youth.
Again Lincsquad and (new sponsor)Falcon Cycles’ Clark showed why he’s the reigning British Quadrathlon Champion. Steve left the pool in 14th place before making good ground on his rivals posting the 5th fastest bike time. The 5k run was done under 20 minutes ensuring a 22 second lead on the second placed athlete giving Steve his second victory of the season.
Not letting Clark and the men grab all the glory duathlon champion Joanne Walker turning to the ‘dark side’ that is triathlon proved she’s no slouch at the three disciplined event either!
Jo finished almost 1.5 minutes in front of her nearest rival and an amazing 17th overall dipping under the magic hour by 10 seconds. Not bad seeing as Jo has only just returned to proper training following a month out due to illness.
Following Jo’s lead, Lauren York showed she’s got a promising future in the world of multisport winning the first female youth trophy. A former national swimmer Lauren set the pace from the off and her 5min 16 second 400m swim was the 4th fastest time of the day, and that includes the seniors! Lauren looked a chip off the old block as her proud Time trial champion dad witnessed her strong riding in such windy conditions from the stands.
When the above three members hit such dizzy heights it’s very easy to forget the part the rest of the Lincsquad competitors play in such an event. The remaining six contingent all had stories to tell with some personal bests among them.
Two other Steves, Grocock (13th) and Lormor (15th) duked it out to the wire with Steve Grocock’s swim and cycle (3rd fastest of the day) giving him just enough of a lead to fend off the ever gaining Lormor. Steve Lormor being another athlete to fall victim to the winter illness was praying for just another 200 metres as the flagging Grocock crossed the line. Both men going under the hour. The older and balder Steve yet again missing out on a trophy by just 25 seconds!
The fortnightly series’ of Duathlons and Timetrials have certainly paid dividends for both Chris Gibbs (44th) and Lincsquad debutant Huwie Davis (26th) A very strong bike leg for Huwie and Chris’ trade mark run being of particular notes for the two. Chris also narrowly missing out on an age group trophy, not helped by the winner of this age group posting the fastest run split beating Clarky by almost 2 minutes!
Paul Ralph (94th) still nursing an Achilles injury had three solid legs (there’s got to be a joke in there somewhere) to keep his Ironman training on track for the year.
Al Curtis (125th) another relative newcomer to the world of tri wasn’t even sure he’d be racing until that morning as an admin error nearly put paid to his race. This didn’t stop Al putting in a spectacular swim time. It’s amazing how much noise Paul Ralph and Chris Gibbs, normally the quiet men of triathlon can make when showing their support for fellow team mates. I’ve got to include Mark York and all the Lincsquad Wags in this too as their support was tremendous.
The strength and depth of the club is becoming ever more obvious at events such as these where we can compete at the highest level against the big towns and city clubs. Well done all.
Steve Ornsby a workmate (soon to be Lincsquad) times included. This was Steve’s first venture into the world of multisport and with a 6 week crash course on the 3 disciplines did himself proud.
1 239 Steve Clark M (14) 05:56 00:59 (6) 0:28:05 00:30 (8) 19:59 00:55:29
13 220 Steve Grocock M40 (9) 05:39 01:34 (4) 0:27:48 00:43 (66) 23:30 00:59:14
15 235 Steve Lormor M (19) 06:09 01:22 (16) 0:29:36 00:48 (28) 21:42 00:59:37
17 195 Jo Walker F (50) 06:54 01:16 (26) 0:30:33 00:39 (14) 20:28 00:59:50
26 196 Huwie Davies M (39) 06:38 01:13 (14) 0:29:31 00:40 (52) 22:40 01:00:42
44 185 Chris Gibbs M50 (94) 08:05 01:59 (43) 0:31:43 00:49 (27) 21:38 01:04:14
60 229 Lauren York FY (4) 05:16 01:14 (85) 0:35:02 00:41 (82) 24:20 01:06:33
94 129 Paul Ralph M40 (100) 08:18 01:53 (72) 0:34:14 00:55 (119) 25:56 01:11:16
125 143 Alan Curtis M (46) 06:49 02:46 (138) 0:38:20 01:25 (145) 27:25 01:16:45
127 189 Steve Ornsby M40 (81) 07:48 02:21 (143) 0:38:32 00:40 (153) 27:42 01:17:03