Plymouth College teachers Anya Starling and Andy Norris have claimed bronze medals in their respective age categories at the ETU European Long Distance Triathlon Championships in Weymouth. Miss Starling came third in the 30-34 age group with a time of 11 hours 58 minutes, while Dr Norris took bronze in the 40-44 age group with a time of 9 hours 58 minutes.
Starting just after 7 a.m., the athletes swam 2.4 miles, cycled 112 miles and finished with running a full marathon (26.2 miles). There were difficult conditions on the day with a wet and windy start. Choppy seas and jelly fish made the swim tricky! Competitors made a quick transition to the bike where Dr Norris found himself shivering for the first hour before finally making ground and moving up from 17th to 9th in his age group.
Strong winds hampered the sea front run (conditions were compared to a ‘wind tunnel’) which consisted of 4½ laps of the promenade and town. Dr Norris completed the marathon in 3 hours and 7 minutes to move up into bronze position, beating his overall 10 hour target; he was just 3 minutes behind silver. Miss Starling’s marathon time was 4 hours and 4 minutes, allowing her to finish just inside her overall 12 hour target.
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