Yiannis | English Middle Distance Triathlon Championship
Centre member Yiannis competed at the English Middle Distance Triathlon Championship on Sunday 4th June 2023 and became the National Champion in the Open 40 – 44 age group.
The event took place at the Grafham Water Visitor Centre, Huntingdon and included a 1.9k Swim, 90k bike and 21k run.
The swim course was 2 x 950m laps around 2 large orange buoys, the bike course was 1 x 90km lap consisting of 4 out and back legs, on country roads. The run course was on a mixture of dam walls, quiet roads, footpaths and grass. Each lap was 10.5km out and back, and the course was 2 laps.
Yiannis said that he was really shocked but over the moon with the result, he felt really relaxed ahead of the race with no expectations as this was his first ever event in a long distance race.
He was 7th overall out of the 1.2 mile swim and first in his age group with a time of 00:28:44. Yiannis said that he didn’t push the swim, as he wanted to pace himself and then feel comfortable on the bike. The bike felt fine, with good pace and the 56 miles cycle took him 02:35:24. He came into transition off the bike in 3rd place which he didn’t know at the time. During the run Yiannis paced himself for the first half and followed his heart rate, the second half of the race he ramped it up but the course was hilly. By the 12th mile he had worked out that he was in the top three and during the last mile he had managed to take the lead and record a half marathon time of 01:19.04. This was the fastest run of the event and Yiannis finished 13th overall in a time of 4:25:22.
Yiannis’s aim was to finish the race in under 5 hours, so this was a big shock and a big achievement for him. At the end of June Yiannis has the National Standard Distance Triathlon Championships.
