Storming early season action at Harlech Castle

The Harlech Triathlon, now in its second year of being organised by Always Aim High Events, was back for 2019 this past weekend. The stunning location was matched by fantastic weather and the high calibre of athletes and spectators.

One of very few triathlons in the world hosted at a UNESCO World Heritage site, the Harlech Triathlon offers our athletes something very special – the chance to finish inside Harlech Castle itself. The event kicked off with the triathlon, consisting of a 400 metre pool swim, 21 km road cycle and a 6 km run, finishing with ‘Storm the Castle’ – a climb up 127 steps to Harlech Castle!

The conditions were perfect for the event and really showed Harlech Castle, the course, and the surrounding area off to its absolute best. As an Always Aim High Communities Event, all proceeds will be going back into local community initiatives in and around Harlech adding to the event and local community for years to come.

Harlech Triathlon and Duathlon 2019 — Photo:SportPicturesCymru / Always Aim High Events

The perfect way to kick start the season, the Harlech Triathlon offers a thrilling course with close racing throughout; a great way to blow out the cobwebs from winter. Just one look at the stunning location and the amazing welcome the participants receive, it’s hard to see why this event won’t continue to grow year on year.

In the triathlon, the race was a pretty clear cut contest with Tom Garbett taking top spot by more than six minutes with Jonathan Tyler in second. Gareth Bowyer came in just under a minute later in third.

In the women’s race, Helen Marshal took the the honours ahead of Catherine Connell in second and Alexandra Richards in third.

In the duathlon, competitors took on 5km run followed by the same stunning 21 km road cycle as the triathlon, finishing with a 2.5km run – culminating in ‘Storm the Castle’ – a climb up 127 steps to Harlech Castle!

The women’s duathlon race was won by Becky Lewis in a time of 1:12:45 a little under two minutes in front of Celia Boothman. Natalie Duncombe took third spot in a time of 01:17:24.

The men’s duathlon was an extremely close run thing with less than two minutes separating the top three. Sion-Kelly Williams came in first 42 seconds ahead of Steve Abbott in second place. Jonathon Seymour completed the top three.

Rounding off the day’s action was a 3km ‘fun’ run, which culminated in the same 127 steps as the duathlon and triathlon.

Always Aim High Events Director, Tim Lloyd said: “We love coming down to Harlech every year to kick off our triathlon season. The venue for this event really is unique and is one of the favourites in our calendar – I mean where else can you cross the finish line in an actual castle!

“The weather has played a big part and conditions have been perfect all weekend. We’ve seen some fantastic racing from the elite athletes and some amazing achievements from people who are taking part in their first ever triathlon. We’re incredibly proud that through Always Aim High Community Events we can give something back to the local groups that make this part of the world extra special.

“We’d like to thank Harlech Triathlon Club and the Harlech community for helping and contributing to the running of the event, as well as our race sponsors for their continued support. We’d also like to thanks all of the local spectators that turned out to support the athletes around the course”

“Lastly, we’d like to our amazing marshals and volunteers, without whom we the race just wouldn’t be possible”.

Race photographs are available now via sportpictures.cymru

Full race timings for the Harlech Triathlon and Duathlon race are now available at tdleventservices.co.uk