You can tell that a race must have been a success when you get two separate reports siging it's praises! John Levison, regular Tri247 columnist and now recovering triathlete, sent this report:

Unlike the rain of 12 months ago, the second running of the Rugby Sprint was greeted with absolutely perfect weather. Fortunately, this proved to be a great omen for the day.

With so many ‘championship’ events, qualifiers, major commercial races and the like on the calendar, it’s worth remembering that the backbone of the sport is the club structure. And the backbone of racing is club-run events, often pool-based, like this one. If this event is a reflection of that, we currently have a very healthy sport.

Venue for the day was the grounds of Bilton Grange School, Dunchurch. The school hosts the swim (indoor 25 metre pool) and the run course is on the school grounds comprising a two-lap, completely off-road route across beautiful parkland. The bike was a one-lap affair, with a fast and flat beginning and end, but a tough, rolling climb in the middle to get the legs working. Despite starting relatively late in the field, this proved to be very quiet and safe. With swimmers starting in groups of five several minutes apart, there was minimal chance of any drafting either.

A full field of 200 was greeted with a bursting goody bag. Personally, I’m not too concerned with the ‘freebies’, but when offered, it’s great to at least be given something useful. In this case: a drawstring bag, a t-shirt (available in ladies cut and sizes too), energy bar, energy powder, large water bottle and energy drink were all provided. Can’t argue with that! A nice touch was the option to register on Saturday afternoon if you wanted, as well as early on Sunday.

The race had the whole range of competitors – complete novices through to elite, with a few relay teams as well. All, at least those I spoke to, had a great morning. Honestly, it would be very difficult to fault the race and the efforts of Rugby Triathlon Club in any way. Results were swiftly produced after the final finishers, and available later that evening on the web. Parking was close by and free. Changing and showers were available. A great course, fantastically well signed and marshalled and a really friendly atmosphere. You could even get a post- (or pre-, if you fancied it…) bacon roll, or just take advantage of the free bananas available at the finish line.

Oh, nearly forgot - overall winners were a flying Andy Tarry and Ruth Welsh…

Great job Rugby Tri Club!

Dave Smith also contributed this report:

Over 180 athletes from all over the UK descended on Bilton Grange School last Sunday [26th August] to compete in the Rugby Sprint Triathlon, organised by Rugby Triathlon Club. The event attracted both experienced campaigners and many people for whom this would be their first event. With weather conditions almost perfect for racing, the first competitors got underway on the 400m swim at 07:30 in the morning. The honour of posting the fastest swim time of the day went to Lucy Hall with an outstanding time of 5:30.

Out on the bike course the fastest time of the day went to local athlete Hywel Davies, who posted a time of 28:56 for the 20km course. This put him in pole position for the run leg, although he was closely followed by Andy Tarry just 60 seconds behind him as they went into the 5km run. In the ladies race Ruth Welsh managed the fastest bike split of the day to allow her to overhaul Lucy Hall’s early lead.

The run section proved to be decisive in the men’s race with Andy Tarry completing the run in 16:44, the fastest time of the day, for an overall time of 52:10, Hywel Davis came second with an overall time of 53:39. Third place went to David Allsop in 57:48. In the ladies race Ruth Welsh managed to hang on to top spot with an overall time of 1:03.36, Lucy Hall came second in 1:04.15 and third place went to Emma Gill, who posted the fastest ladies run time of 21:54, for a total time of 1:05.03.

All the athletes who took part in the event agreed that the atmosphere and organisation of the event were second to none, with many people committing themselves to next years race as they crossed the finish line. For a full list of finishers times and positions go to www.rugbytriathlon.co.uk