What a weekend! As we said in the preview, it was a good job that we got some extra daylight as Sunday, the longest day of the year, saw us following races from the pre-dawn in Japan right through the domestic fixtures and then across to the USA for the ITU Dextro Energy World Championship Series race in Washington DC and then finishing up with another Ironman in Coeur d'Alene.

We have covered the ITU race in a separate feature but the headline news is that Al Brownlee proved for the second time that youth is no barrier to winning at the senior level as he stayed with the lead breakaway group and then outran Javier Gomez in what is becoming his trademark style of 'leading from the front'. Honest racing on the new ITU circuit - it's proving to be quite a revelation! For the rest of the weekend, read on...

Sunday

A quick text from the northern outposts (thanks to John Muddeman) told us that Phil Graves and Jill Parker had won the National Championships up in Northumberland on Sunday morning. The full podium looks like this, provisional results are HERE.

There was another win for the Graves family on Sunday - both are members of Team ActivInstinct (www.teamactivinstinct.com) - as younger sister Victoria, the European Junior Duathlon Champion won the Jane's Appeal Leeds 10km in 37:20. Triathlete Jacqui Slack was second (38:32), while Victoria's team mate Lois Rosindale finished third (38:59). Steve Worthington also took fourth place in the men's race (33:01).

After the weekend preview was posted, we got an update from Blair Cartmell saying that Fraser was not racing the Northumberland Triathlon but had entered the Dutch Long Course Championships over 3k/110k/30k to be held in Stein. Today we get a 'tweet' from Fraser that he's now the Dutch Long Distance Champion... ":) ... felt so good out there that I think I maybe got my taper out by a week! I think the margin was 13 minutes!" Top result there.

Provisional results are in from Chester Tri Club's Deva Triathlon with the podium looking like this, full results are HERE.

The Harwich Standard Triathlon podium contains a real blast from the past - good to see Ali Hollington back in action! Full results can be found HERE.

Provisional results for the Liverpool Triathlon are now up on their website. The elite wave was won by Tristan Shipsides (Ful-on Tri) in 1:56:35 while Lucy Bowen (Thames Turbo) dominated the women's field in 2:08:37. The elite podium looks like this, provisional results for all the races can be found HERE.

With the promised heatwave failing to show up in mid–Wales, it was up the 95 triathletes taking part in the Cerist Tri Sprint to spread some sunshine in Machynlleth for the second year. Danny Thorogood and Paula Tunnadine took the honours and a full set of results is HERE.

Tracking Ironman races round the world on the longest day is possibly some form of torture banned by the Geneva Convention... Ironman Japan kicked off in the very early hours of Sunday morning and with a 15-hour cut-off it meant that the bulk of the action would be over before breakfast was served in many households. Our tip for the top was Luke McKenzie and he duly obliged, albeit after an early strong performance by Kieran Doe who finally abandoned the chase on the run. McKenzie was so far ahead by half way through the run that there was a risk that he too had overcooked it but he survived Courtney Ogden's challenge while third place went to 'Mr Reliable' - none other than Petr Vabrousek who is having one hell of a season so far.

Hillary Biscay looked good in the early stages and after an early challenge by Maki Nisiuchi it was Nicole Klingler who set about the task of taking away the win. About two thirds of the way through the run it was clear that Biscay had blown and was going backwards while Klingler took the lead and held it despite a late challenge from another Nicole, Nicole Ward. Megumi Shigaki was third and Biscay ended up fifth. Online commentary is available on Ironman Live.

Last of the big races to finish was Ironman Coeur d'Alene, a race which proved once again that making predictions for longer distance races is a mug's game... Francisco Pontano stuck in a solid swim and bike combination to bring him to the front of the field and then built that into a ten minute lead on the run which neither T J Tollakson or Max Longree could make a dent in. The women's race was pretty much sorted once Tyler Stewart had blasted a new bike record and it was down to a tussle between Kate Major and last year's champion, Heather Wurtele for the minor honours. Full commentary and images are up on Ironman Live, the podium times were as follows:

Despite the last-minute change of venue the second OWS Aquathlon at Liquid Leisure saw some pretty rapid racing at the front of the field. With the second-placed runner taking a wrong turn and ending up with fourth instead it could have been even closer but Deon Coetzee had enough of a lead to secure the win while Carin Hume's performance in the women's race left the rest of the field trailing. Full results are available HERE.

Given the OWS Aquathlon had a slightly unfair advantage in that a member of the Tri247 team was doing their results for them, the first proper set of data came once again from Will Whitmore for the South Cerney Classic and Sprint. A full set of results for the full distance are HERE, the podium was as follows:

Winners of the sprint race were Dai Gittins in 1:05:41 and Kerry Mcgawley in 1:08:49, a full set of results are HERE.

The latest round of Concept Sport's Fast Twitch Series was at Marlborough and victory here went to Matt Newman (Bad Tri) in 1:26:25 and Tracy Cook (Tri UK) in 1:36:53. The rest of the podium looks like this and a provisional set of results are up on the Concept Sport website.

David Edwards reports from the Knockburn Standard Triathlon in Scotland. "A beautiful but windy day at the now legendary Knockburn Loch in the Highlands saw a battle of the Scottish Ironmen with Graeme Stewart showing fine speed in his buildup to Roth to overcome Scott Neyedli who struggled in the aftermath of IM Lanzarote on the very tough run. Jennifer Eilertsen of Dundee Uni returning to competion after finals took the ladies win with Lynsey Henderson making the journey from Shetland in second and posting a strong swim split despite having to borrow a gentleman's wetsuit at the last second following a zip catastrophe." Full results can be found HERE.

The Ayr Open Water Sprint saw wins for Graham Leitch (Fusion TC) in 1:04:16 and Jo Parker-Morgan (Glasgow TC) in 1:17:42. Full results are HERE.

Results for the Jenny Clark Try a Tri event organised by TriSport Epping are HERE.

The Allerthorpe Triathlon was cancelled at short notice due to a 'serious family illness'.

Saturday

Early doors on Saturday for the ETU European U23 Championships at Tarzo Revine in Italy and, as predicted, a medal for Jodie Stimpson. According to a report on the BTF website Jodie was in the lead group off the bike after a decent swim and headed the field on the first of the run laps but was overhauled on the second lap to end up 30 seconds behind Yulia Sapunova (UKR) but a clear minute ahead of Emmie Charayon (FRA). Aaron Harris didn't fare so well and came home in 30th place with the win going to Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) with Alessandro Fabian (ITA) and Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) completing the podium. A full set of results are HERE.

In the European Junior Cup it was a clear win for Jonathan Brownlee who was 1:26 clear of his nearest rival, Alex Ascenzi (ITA). Joshua Cardwell was 11th, Robert Bowles 18th and David Bishop 31st. In the women's race Lucy Smith was 6th.

Jonathan Hotchkiss may have missed out on going to Ironman Japan but he took some compensation with a near two minute clear win at the Dambuster. Provisional results are on the RaceTimingSystems website and we'll load a copy as soon as they are finalised.

The Harwich Sprint Triathlon - their full distance race was on Sunday - saw almost total domination of the podium by East Essex Tri Club. Full results are HERE.

Slipped into the calendar at short notice was the Leybourne Lakes Saturday Sprint race, full results for this are HERE.

Another local race we didn't know about was the North Devon Beach Aquathlon, part of the Goldcoast Oceanfest. Full results can be found HERE. There's even a video of the race already up on YouTube.

The two other races scheduled for Saturday, the Accelerace West Highlands Ultra and the Tan Hill Duathlon, were both cancelled. In the case of the Tan Hill Duathlon it seems that too many people wanted to withdraw making the race unworkable - their online entry system was only showing eight people entered out of the 100 available slots.