Freedom Tri have been racing far and wide this week, with some impressive performances, including 4 first places at the Herts Championships at the Active Training World triathlons at Stanborough Lake in Welwyn.

Wednesday 25th May was the second fixture of the Scott's Travel Midweek Road Race League, a 10k race around Hitchin.  19 athletes from Freedom lined up at the start for this challenging course.  

In the ladies race, Tracey Palmieri finished 6th position in 42:34.  28th position in 47:45 was Jenny Cotter.  32th position in 48:07 was Angela Phillips.  41th position in 49:17 was Christine Caine.  43th position in 49:22 was Rachel  Lynes.  84th position in 55:05 was Emma Kinsey.  108th position in 1:00:28 was Liz Aitken.  115th position in 1:04:38 was Jackie Livings.  

In the mens race, finishing in 39th position in 39:48 was Rob Willis.  40th position in 39:56 was Martin Hawke, 41th position in 40:00 was Matt Freeman.  55th position in 40:40 was Michael Day, 58th position in 40:50 was Chris Clarke, 83th position in 43:18 was James Parsons, 108th position in 45:11 was Mark Allen, 180th position in 50:41 was John Phillips, 189th position in 52:04 was Jeff Thompson, 207th position in 54:07 was Rob Evans, 214th position in 56:07 was James Rhodes.

On Saturday at Nottingham in the European Sprint Distance Tri Qualifiers Sarah-Jane Court and Chris Belcher had another top day of racing.  Sarah-Jane was 7th in AG in 1:12:36 just missing an automatic qualification place but should be good enough still to get in. Chris was 5th in AG in 1:03:16 which is good enough for an automatic place on the GB team! 

On Sunday in Edinburgh, Jenny Cotter and Matt Cotter (pictured below) took on the Edinburgh Half Marathon, running 13.1 miles around the city.  Both performed fantastically, both securing personal best times over the distance.  Jenny finished in 1:41:41 and Matt smashed through the 2hr barrier, crossing the finish line in 1:58:38. 

Christine Caine doubled up the distance in Edinburgh, and took on the full 26.2 mile marathon.  Christine raced exceptionally well, and with pace control and discipline finished the race in a great time of 4:26:32.  

16 members of the club raced the Herts Championships at the Active Training World triathlons at Stanborough Lake in Welwyn.  Taking on the sprint distance, swimming 750m in open water, cycling 20k and running were Suzy Hawking, Richard Pitcairn, Ann Tryssesoone, (pictured below), Jonathan Hart-Smith, Emma Kinsey, Michael Day, Gareth Bates, Kevin Smart, Rob Sedgwick, Tom Sauka, Mark Allen, Adrian Robinson, Mark Lacy, Mark Bullivant, Mark Cheadle and Lewis Green.  Hawkins, Tryssesoone and Pitcairn all won their age categories in respective times of 1:19:14, 1:31:05 and 1:34:28.  

Suzy Hawkins 01:19:14 1St 

Ann Tryssesoone 01:31:05 1St 

Richard Pitcairn 01:34:28 1St 

Jonathan Hart-Smith finished in 01:17:19, 5Th in age group.  Emma Kinsey finished in 01:30:14 6Th, in age group.  Michael Day finished in 01:16:42 7Th, in age group.  Gareth Bates finished in 01:26:29 7Th, in age group.  Kevin Smart finished in 01:17:48, 8Th in age group.  

Robert Sedgwick finished in 01:20:47 8Th in age group.  Thomas Sauka finished in 01:18:58 9Th in age group.  Mark Allen finished in 01:26:24 9Th in age group.  Adrian Robinson finished in 01:29:57 9Th in age group.  Mark Lacy finished in 01:26:09 11Th in age group.  Mark Bullivant finished in 01:32:15 11Th in age group.  Mark Cheadle finished in 01:27:19 12Th in age group.  Lewis Green finished in 01:35:19 14Th in age group

Also racing at Welwyn over the Standard distance of 1500m open water swim, 40k Bike, 10k Run were Jan O'Callaghan and Dean Heuer.  Jane had a great race, finishing 1st in her age group in 3:02:46, and Dean finished 9th in his category in 2:56:14.