Watch Stoke-on-Trent City of Sport Triathlon on Channel 4
Watch Stoke-on-Trent City of Sport Triathlon on Channel 4
7 October 2017 at 0700hrs
The Trentham Estate played host to a terrific weekend of triathlon organised for the second year running by UK Triathlon working in conjunction with Stoke City Council.
The afternoon of Saturday 9 September saw hundreds of 7-16 yr olds take on the swim, bike and run within the grounds of the Estate and despite the ‘biblical weather’, they were all determined to cross the finish line with big smiles and a huge sense of achievement as they were awarded their finishers medal.
A dry and brighter day greeted the athletes on Sunday 10 October and challengers of the 2017 Stoke Triathlon were underway from 7.30 a.m. as the hooter sounded and the men’s Olympic wave began the first of their three disciplines, taking on a 1500m swim before a 40k cycle and 10k run.
The A34 was the route for a lapped bike course with four laps for Olympic, two for Sprint and one for Super Sprint and Fun.
Bike course finished and bike & helmet returned to transition, the competitors headed out through the event arena, on to the run course within the grounds of the Estate and into the award-winning Trentham Gardens with the Capability Brown designed Trentham Lake at the heart of it.
Will Morris from Knutsford took 1st place in the men’s Olympic with a time of 02:08:44 followed by local man Lloyd Bebbington of Newcastle (Staffs) Tri Club taking 2nd in 02:10:38 and 3rd was Dean Evans competing with Corporate Games in a time of 02:12:41.
1st place in the ladies Olympic was taken by Amy Grocock from Gainsborough in 02:40:06 with a 3m 19s lead on Claire Birch from Oswestry in 2nd place.
A later start time of 8.45 and 8.55 a.m. saw the male and female Sprint waves into the water taking on a 750m swim, 20k cycle and 5k run. Steven Hanly from Solihull took victory in the men’s race, again closely followed by another Newcastle (Staffs) Tri Club member Lee-J Watso. In the women’s Sprint mother and daughter Carrie and Sophie Hoskins from Henley-on-Thames came in 1st and 2nd with Mum beating daughter Sophie by just 1m 2s.
Other categories included the Super Sprint, a 200m swim, 10k cycle and 2.5k run with Griff Jones from Stone taking 1st male and Jen Moffat from Mawsley 1st female, as well as Relay Teams in both Olympic and Sprint distance and the addition of the Corporate Games competitors for the first time this year.
Throughout the day the top 5 placed competitors from local clubs were entered into The Club Team Challenge. The winning club in both the Olympic and Sprint was Newcastle (Staffs) Tri Club, closely followed in 2nd place by Niteriders. The winners were presented with bespoke pottery trophies for their efforts, designed and produced just for them by one of the renowned local pottery artists from Stoke-on-Trent.
The fabulous weekend of triathlon allowed hundreds of people of all ages and abilities to experience the wonderful world of swim, bike, run whether as an individual or team, fundraiser or just because they could! Coverage of the event will be shown on Channel 4 on Saturday 7 October at 0700hrs and at later dates on CH4+1, Sky Sports, British Eurosport and The Bike Channel amongst others.