Double gold for One Life aces
Last updated 13:34, Thursday, 17 July 2008
TYNEDALE-BASED 'One Life Racing triathlon club have gained top honours at the national triathlon championships.
Members returned from the event at Wakefield in Yorkshire with two gold medals, a silver and a bronze.
They competed in a 1500m swim. followed by a 40km bike ride over a hilly course, which was followed by a 10km run around Pugney's Country Park.
Bardon Mill’s Barry Jameson continued his dominance in the 55 - 59 age group category by becoming national champion to add to his World Champion title.
James Dickinson also became national champion in the 50 - 54.
Tim Wylie, who was competing in his first national event in the 45 - 49 age group finished second to claim a silver medal
Alan Copland, who was competing in the one of the most competitive age group categories, 35 - 39, came away with a well deserved bronze medal.
Also competing was Phil Jameson, who was still recovering from injury and completed the swim and the bike section before sensibly pulling out at the start of the run section.
Chief executive officer of British Triathlon Zara Hyde Peters was there to present the medals and it was noted that One Life Racing had the most medal winners in one Club.
Not wanting to rest of their laurels, One Life Racing hosted its first Children’s triathlon at Haltwhistle Leisure Centre and South Tynedale Middle School.
The early morning start didn’t deter the juniors with 120 children competing from the North East and Cumbria with an excellent turn out of 37 youngsters from the One Life Club, and 30 coming from Eaglesfield Triathlon Club in Cockermouth.
The swim was in the heated open air pool, followed by a bike and run around the school playing fields.
Different age groups competed at different distances depending on their age.
There were some amazing results from these junior athletes, many who were competing in their first triathlon.
One Life juniors had many top three finishers.
The day started with the category of TriStar Starts (age 8) who take part in a non competitive race to encourage participation in which Ellie Barr, and twins Phoebe and Sophie Speed excelled.
Next up was the turn of the Tri Star 1’s (age 9-10) where Finlay Robertson was second, closely followed by Fergus Robinson in third.
Milly Dickinson came second in the girls’ race.
In the TriStar 2’s (age 11-12) George Sanderson was second with George Bell third.
TriStar 3’s (age 13-14) lined up on the start and the girls showed some of the boys how to do it.
Madlen Oliver was second and Polly Dickinson third.
Finally, the youths (age 15 -16) set off and new member David Watchorn was second and Jamie Richardson third.
The club had many other top 10 finishers and as the event was part of the North East Series.
Current world champion and head coach of One Life Racing Triathlon Club Barry Jameson, who was handing out the trophies, said: “ It was brilliant to see how much these youngsters enjoy the sport and how the sport is developing in the North East.”
All the children received a goodie bag after the race which was appreciated by them all.
A huge thank-you must go to all the sponsors and the 40 volunteers including One Life members, parents, family and friends who kindly helped to marshal this event and also to Haltwhistle Leisure Centre and South Tynedale Middle School for their use of the excellent facilities.
The next event to be hosted is the One Life Kids’ Duathlon held on September 13 at Druridge Bay as part of the Northumberland Triathlon Festival.
