David Bartlett - A weekend in South Wales…
Having decided to make the trip to Wales for the Welsh Sprint Triathlon Championships I thought I would get my money’s worth and complete a double cherry weekend racing both Saturday and Sunday mornings.
7am Saturday morning I took my place on the start line of the Gower Triathlon, rated last years ‘Triathlon of the year’ to compete over a 750m beach swim, 24k challenging but scenic bike and a 5k multi terrain run. I immediately established myself at the front of the swim and cruised around the ‘short’ course exiting in 8.06, over 30 seconds ahead of Welsh veteran and former international Richard Jones. The bike course was demanding and the descents were dangerous due to the heavy rain, I was caught and overtaken by Julian Hatcher who recorded a minute quicker bike split but I was pleased with my 42 minute effort and got around the run course in 18 minutes to maintain by second position.
Final results:
Position Name Swim T1+Bike T2+Run Total
1 Julian Hatcher 9.19 42.46 17.05 1.09.08
2 David Bartlett 8.06 44.02 18.47 1.10.53
3 Richard Jones 8.49 43.58 19.04 1.11.49
