Race organiser of the Northwich Aquathlon, Carl Loftus has been in touch after what was a successful debut event on Sunday. Below is a local press report on the event, followed by a report from one of the athletes taking part.

Father and son took first place in the first Northwich Aquathlon held at Moss Farm Leisure complex on 3rd May 2009.  The event, organised by Warrington Triathlon Club, comprises of a swim and then a run, the distances, which increase with each category is appropriate to the age group, was the final part of the North West Junior Series. 

Harry Dooley (8) of London Road, Northwich was the first boy out of the water after swimming 50m and kept it that way as he headed out onto the 600m run and finished first boy in the Tristart category. The category was won by first timer Georgina Denham who finished over a minute ahead of Harry, and then just had time to dry herself off before leaving to compete in a rugby match in Wilmslow!

The event continued with age categories Tristar 1 (9-10), Tristar 2 (11-12) ,Tristar 3 (13-14) and through to youth/junior(15-19). Then it was the turn of the Seniors (20+). Many of the competitors in the seniors had been on hand to cheer on their children and it was definitely a family affair as Harry’s father Brian also left the pool first in his category. The 500m swim was followed by four laps of Moss Farms sports field which totalled 5km, to those who know the area that means four times up the hill in the bottom corner. This did not slow down Brian Dooley who was determined to make it a double for the family. 

The event was blessed with dry weather and everyone enjoyed themselves with many promising to make a return next year. The organisers would like to thank the Moss Farm Leisure Complex for all their help in organising the event and helping to make it a success and are looking forward to next year and hopefully the inclusion of a Junior Triathlon.

Tri Team Wigan had three senior and two junior triathletes in Northwich.

Matthew Holiday had some problems in the swim banging his head on the poolside, but then put in a very good run to finish in second place just three seconds behind the winner. His run was well paced with a brilliant sprint finish!!

Sophie Myers finished in third place in T2 girls and put in good efforts in both the swim and the run sections despite feeling ill for most of the morning.

In the women's open age category, Sarah Morris and Joanne Bishop went in the first heat, Sarah led the race out of the pool and was only overhauled at about 4km into the run she finished 4th overall in her category. Although Jo wasn't very happy with her swim she put in a steady run finishing 8th overall.

Mellissa Gee was in the second heat and recorded times of 10:51 for the 500m Swim and 25:02 for the 5K run finishing in the medals in third place overall!

Full results for the event can be found here.

The event was well organised and the results were out very quickly -  thanks to Warrington Tri Club for an excellent day out.