On Saturday, Mark Lacy raced at the iconic Bloodwise Blenheim Palace Triathlon, one of the largest triathlons in the country, the Freedom triathlete raced amongst almost 4,000 athletes. To fit in with the geography of Blenheim, the slightly irregular sprint distance triathlon was raced over a 750m open water swim, 19.8km bike and 5.4km run. Mark did brilliantly well, completing the race in 1:32:00 finishing in 181st place in his age group.
On Sunday, five Freedom athletes raced the Tour of Cambridgeshire Gran Fondo, which is a mass participation cycle sport event. It was also the 2016 UK qualifier for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships to be held in September in Perth, Australia.
The Gran Fondo is held on fully closed roads over 80.2 miles (129.07km). Riding for Freedom Tri were Thomas Sauka, Matt Cotter, Sarah-Jane Court, Neil Paterson and Mat Freeman. Sauka's time of 3:58:48 met the required time for qualifying for the World Champs, Cotter finished in 4:22:56, Court in 4:36:27, Paterson in 4:36:29 and Freeman in 4:42:18.
Three Freedom Tri athletes represented Great Britain last weekend at the 2016 World Duathlon Championships in Aviles, Spain. All three competed in the sprint distance event comprising a 5.75km run, 21km bike ride and 2.6km run, alongside 1,400 competitors from 32 countries.
Suzy Hawkins, in the female 40-44 age group completed the course in 1hr18 for 13th place.
Michelle Reeves, in the female 25-30 age group finished in 1hr17 for 17th place.
Chris Belcher, in the male 40-44 age group finished in 1hr09 for 25th place.
Freedom Tri hope for more international honours over the coming months with Belcher already selected to represent Great Britain at next year's European Triathlon Championships, and Sarah-Jane Court expecting to join him.
More locally, Freedom is already gearing up for Letchworth's annual Duck 'n' Dash swim and run multi-sport event for adults and children which this year will be held on 11th September at Norton Common. For more details visit http://www.duckndash.org.uk
