The Eastbourne Triathlon took place on Sunday 6th June with top age groupers competing for the opportunity to represent Team GB in both World and European Championships.
Over 800 competitors took to the start in almost perfect conditions, racing over both sprint and standard distances on what is widely regarded as one of the very best triathlon courses in the country.
The sprint distance race (age-group qualifier for the 2022 sprint distance world championships, was dominated by the young local athletes from Team Bodyworks (British Triathlon Satellite Centre in Eastbourne), and event sponsors Eastbourne College. 19-year-old Eastbourne College student and Team Bodyworks member Hamish Reilly dominated from start to finish, exiting the swim first, just ahead of Michael Gar and Morgan West (Bodyworks).
16-year-old Daisy Burton (Bodyworks) had an incredible swim exiting the water first for the women in 5th place overall only 42 seconds behind Reilly and 45 seconds ahead of Bodyworks teammate Abi Bedwell.
After the challenging bike route on almost entirely closed roads, Reilly held a lead of over one minute with West moving up to second and Matthew James up to third. West finished the day off with the fastest 5km run split of the day (16:33) but it wasn’t enough to catch Reilly who held on for the win with a time of 1:00:12. West finished second, less than a minute behind with James rounding out the top three.
Following a strong bike split, Abi Bedwell took the lead from Daisy Burton and came off the bike with a lead of over a minute. Bedwell finished with a strong run to take the win by two minutes over Burton, with Megan Ormiston completing the podium.
In the standard distance race, Alex Woodman (Tripurbeck) lead out of the water just ahead of Morgan Rhodes (Bodyworks) with Jamie Bedwell (Bodyworks) and Henry James (Western Tempo) a minute down on the lead. Henrietta Tarasewicz (Bodyworks) finished the swim first woman (and in 5th place overall) with a lead of over a minute ahead of Chloe Scotchbrook.
Woodman held his lead on the bike, taking a 20 second lead into the run ahead of Rhodes, with James biding his time in third. James then dominated the run with a time of 33:37 for the 10km to take the win, finishing with a time of 1:57:48, with Rhodes also passing Woodman to hold onto second place and Jamie Bedwell (Bodyworks) climbing to fourth.
However, Rhodes would then be disqualified for crossing the central white line on the bike, elevating Woodman to second and Bedwell moving onto the final step of the podium.
Tarasewicz continued from her dominant swim performance to take the win in 2:16:51 almost two minutes ahead of Anna Bergstrenm who was closing the gap with the fastest run split of the day and with Rachel Nicholl completing the podium in third.
The race was highly praised by many seasoned athletes as one of the best organised events of their career, with one saying, “to have a race in such an amazing location with closed roads is the stuff us age groupers can only dream of”.
The 2022 Eastbourne Triathlon will take place on Sunday 12th June 2022 and entries are now open at www.eastbournetriathlon.co.uk.
In the meantime, event organisers (TriBourne Multisport Events) will be hosting the inaugural 255 Triathlon at Goodwood on the 8th August which is sure to be one of the must-do events of the year and will feature a unique new and exciting team relay format (www.255triathlon.com).
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