Young town triathletes set the pace - The Rugby Observer

Young town triathletes set the pace

Rugby Editorial 28th May, 2014 Updated: 27th Oct, 2016   0

Despite the horrendous conditions at Wrekin College Aquathlon, Team Rugby Triathlon made the trip up the M6 and M54 to Shropshire. An Aquathlon is a swim followed by a run, the distance is dependent on the age of the competitor, ranging from 50m and 600m, to 400m and 3000m. First off for TRT were sisters Ella-Mae and Evie-Louise Fereday, both competing in Tri Star 1, which is 150m swim and 1200m run. The sisters are in the same age group, as they are in 2 year blocks, with E-L just joining this age group, 9-10, and E-M nearer the top. E-M finished 2nd overall and 2nd in the swim section. Finishing the swim in 2.22, and 6.21 for the run while E-L, 3.29 and 07.24 to finish 18th against girls up to 2 years older.

They were closely followed into the pool, and around the 600m course by Lewis Cresswell, who finished a very creditable 3rd, as the run course was turning into a quagmire.

He swam the 150m in 2.24, (joint 2nd) and completed in the run in 5.46, which was 4th overall. Lewis sprinted the last half a lap to finish just 6 seconds behind second.

Next up was Cerys James, in TriStar 2, 11-12s which leaps up to 200m swim and 1800m or 3 laps on the run. Cerys is at the lower end of the age group, and was giving away a lot of height to the other girls in her heat. Cerys finished 17th overall, and was very consistent, with 16th in the swim and 18th in the run. Clocking, 13.53 overall, with 3.47 in the swim and 10.06 in the run. Cerys was followed into the pool by Toby Rigg, racing at this type of event for the first time, also in TriStar 2. Despite naturally being nervous, Toby followed instructions to cruise the swim in 3.28, 9th to leave him with in a good position for the run, which he completed in 9.17 for 11th, which slightly oddly left him 8th overall. Toby was in a tight run battle on the last lap, with another competitor, nearly two years older, and a foot taller, as they sprinted down the finishing straight, only to miss out by a second.




Jasmine Rigg joined brother Toby by debuting in the TriStar3 event, again an increase in distance, now 300m swim and 2400m run. Jasmine swam strongly to record a 4.57 for 9th place, the part she wasn’t looking forward to was the run, and she fought bravely, as she struggled a little. Having only entered 4 weeks ago, the running part of training is pretty new and limited, but this bodes well for the future, as training will obviously massively improve this discipline. Jasmine dug deep to win a personal battle with Georgia Bishton from Wrekin, as they overtook each other several times. Jasmine outsprinted Georgia to the finish, and promptly joined Lewis in showing everyone her breakfast. Her time was 14.01, which was good enough for 12th overall.

Star of the team was Big Rhys James, who romped away from the field, in the TriStar3, and his close rival, Connor Bentley from Wrekin, who represents the Midlands team. Connor is an accomplished cross-country runner and as yet undefeated this year, but 13.26 to 13.44 was the winning margin. Rhys was 12 seconds clear of Connor after the swim, as Rhys was 4th in 4.01, though he quickly raced past the 3 who had beaten him on the swim on the first lap of the run. With Connor hot on his heels and closing the gap, Rhys just kept upping his pace. With 2 laps gone and 2 to go, the gap was down to 8 seconds, with one to go, the gap seemed to be even closer, and then Rhys pulled away as he simply flew around the last lap. To put in it context, Rhys ran 9.25, Connor 9.31 and the next runner was 10.16.


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