Over 200 people turned up to participate in the 25th annual Bude Triathlon which took place on June 18th. The event was organised by Shoreline Extreme Sports’ Simon Hammond and this location has always brought in many triathletes and this time, there were 218. Some of the competitors came from as far away as London, the Midlands and South East. Even Scotland was represented this time around as the competitors lined up for the afternoon activities on the North Cornwall coast.
It was a hot day with temperatures nearing 30 degrees Celsius and many people from the area showed up. Summerleaze beach had more than a few occupants. The Summerleaze beach car park was the starting and finishing point for the competition which kicked off with a 500-metre swim in the bay before the competitors got on their bikes for the 11.5-mile cycle ride with the competitors taking the A39 on their way back to Bude. The event would then finish off with a three-mile run which would take the triathletes through the town. Bill Kneebone was announcing the whole way.
In the Male Senior race, David Bartlett clinched the top spot after finishing the course in 55 minutes and six seconds. Craig Salamone and Ian Wright rounded up the top three with times of 57:53 and 59:15 respectively. There were only four competitors who were able to finish the course in under an hour with Shaun Lawson coming 2 seconds behind the third placed Wright.
On the ladies side, Hannah Colston came first, finishing in a time of 1 hour 10 minutes and 53 seconds which was almost three and half minutes faster than Victoria Loze who finished with a time of 1:14:28.
The veterans over 40s competition’s top spot was taken by Keith Brewster who finished with a time of 1:02:55 with James Marshall from Bude coming in at second place almost two minutes later. The over 50s competition was won by Mark Moran who did it in a time 1 hour, five minutes and 25 seconds. The over 60s competition was claimed by Tom Daniels who did it all in a time of 1 hour, 8 minutes and 32 seconds.
In the Relay Open event, Bude’s very own The Fry Boys did the town proud as the team consisting of the father and two sons managed to complete the entire course in 1:10:42. This was 1 minute 9 seconds faster than Team Gearknobs.