Newbiggin Sprint Tri - ETU 2012 Championship Qualifier

The remnants of Hurricane Katia came one day early with high winds blowing into Newbiggin Bay from the south, there was little the breakwater could do to prevent choppy swimming conditions making life difficult for anyone who braved entering the North Sea. The wind was also tough going out on the bike course.
Not to be disheartened over 360 competitors turned up as well as hundreds of spectators to watch the action that was started at 2 pm by special guest and Northeast running man Mark Allison, better know as Run Geordie Run. Having completed an amazing 3100 run across America, all in 100 days for charity Mark came down to witness at first hand his first triathlon and was extremely impressed by everyone tackling the tough conditions out on the course.

Starting in three waves it was Junior Kieran Hill fastest into T1 in an impressive time of 11:41 considering the waves. Closely followed was Ben Newman just 3 seconds down. Not far behind Ben was his sister Becki Newman in 13:49 leading the women's race with local harrier and race favourite Jane Mooney, over 90 seconds down in 8th position.
Extending his lead off the bike ahead of team mate James Wislon now in 2nd position Newman was first out onto the run course with another promising junior making his in to 3rd place after a strong swim/bike was Matthew Griffin. With some strong runners close behind it was by no means a certainty who would make the podium.
Newman's Redvenom team mate James Wilson could not quite catch him on the 5.2 km run even after making up 39 seconds but it was the battle for 3rd position that had the crowd exited at the finish line. While Griffin suffered for his efforts on the run, it was another two Redvenom athletes Harry Coates and young Fergus Roberts in a sprint to the finish. Roberts could not match Coates pace though and came in 4th with Coates rounding out the podium in 3rd.
There were plenty of position changes out on the bike course in the women's race with ex World Champion Joyce Mark returning to racing, making huge gains making lightweight of the wind turning a 3 minute deficit into a 2 minute lead out of T2! Becki Newman slipped back to 3rd place off the bike and suffered on the run to finish in 7th with Natalie Batey chasing Mark in 2nd and Mooney down in 4th. The question was could local runner Mooney make up a massive 3 minutes in 5k to take home another multisport victory?
Jane made light work of the run course and in a whirlwind, took the win with an amazing 20:56 run, a full 3:35 ahead of Mark who held on to 2nd place ahead of Batey in 3rd.

We were very privileged and honoured to have Mark 'RunGeordieRun' Allison as our special guest and race starter for the day. Mark commented that he really enjoyed the day and thought everyone who took part was "mad" considering the conditions, and that is from coming someone who has just ran an average of 31 miles per day for 100 days!!!
In the summer of 2007, Mark ran 874 miles from John O'Groats to Lands End in 37 days raising £34,108 for St Benedict's Hospice (Charity No. 1019410). This Hospice cared for his Mum during her final days battling lung cancer.
Continuing to repay the debt of gratitude to the Hospice in May - August 2011 Mark has completed a 3100 mile run from California to New York, all in just 100 days. Mark is raising funds that will be split between St Benedict's Hospice (Charity No. 1019410) and The Children's Foundation (Charity No. 1000013) who does wonderful work with children in the Northeast region. The total raised so far is over an incredible £100,000!
It is important to note that, all funds pledged will be passed to the charities. If you would like to donate to the charities, please use the links above to justgiving.com for St Benedict's Hospice and for The Children's Foundation or why not use both and split your pledge across both charities. Further information can be found on Marks blog at http://www.rungeordierun.com/. Any questions or messages of support can be sent to sponsorship@rungeordierun.com
Congratulations to everyone who finished today's racing, especially those who braved their first ever sea swim (it's not always that rough, honestly!). Thank you to all those who provided some great sprint finishes. If you are looking forward to seeing the photographs, they will appear on www.mattnuttallphotography.co.uk soon.
For those who applied to qualify, full results will be sent to GB Team Manager. Good luck, enjoy Eilat and bring back some medals!
Congratulations to the lucky winner of the Zone3 Aspire wetsuit, Brian Shiel! He will be coming to our weekly Thursday night open water swim training session for a fitting. Vo2 Max Racing Events are the northeast dealer for Zone3 wetsuits and other racing apparel -contact Zone3@vo2maxraingevents.co.uk for more information or to arrange a wetsuit demonstration.
Feedback is pouring in and so far has been great, we're keen to hear from everyone so we can continue to make the events better for you all, please put add your comments via our blog, twitter or Facebook pages.
Many thanks to all the marshals, medics and all other volunteers, once again another superb job and you really do make the difference. Special thanks must go to the water safety crew - the RNLI, Newbiggin Sailing Club and Blyth Kayak Club for their assistance of weaker swimmers, especially on a day with such difficult swimming conditions. Thanks also to our sponsors UTS, Zone3,Northumbrian Water, Eat Natural, Dorset Cereals for all your support.
We look forward to seeing you race at our next event, the QE2 Halloween Duathlon on 31st October, more information here.
Regards,
Tri Northumberland Event Team

Full results can be found here.
Overall Men
1) Ben Newman - Redvenom.com - 01.09.33
2) James Wilson-Redvenom.com - 01.11.27
3) Harry Coates- Redvenom.com - 01.12.02
Overall Women
1) Jane Mooney - Ryton Tri - 01.22.13
2) Joyce Mark-Unattached - 01.22.48
3) Natalie Batey- Ryton Tri - 01.24.18