Blaenafon Report Sunday 15 May 2011

All right the weather wasn't perfect, although it was dry, there were a few course issues but as a race organiser, when you have 90 competitors out of 90 starting the 28th Blaenafon Triathlon, you get a real kick out of there being a complete start list. All the effort that Dave, Lloyd & the club put in and every entrant (& 1 extra) turns up. That doesn't happen often. It really makes that work worthwhile. Thank YOU!

All but 2 of our defending champions returned to fight for their titles and although the quality of the field was higher this year, all won their respective categories. Matt Newman from BAD tri was the overall male Champion with Bethan Fowler ( Team TriUK) retaining the ladies title. Others retaining their titles were Ros Edmunds (Taff Ely Tri) in the Super Veteran ladies, Brian Palmer (Celtic Tri) in the mens Super vets and Paul Belcher in the Vintage vets. We had a new Ladies vet champion in Vanessa Lawson, from Chepstow Harriers and Dave Copeland ensured he took a trophy back to Ipswich as male veteran champion. Well done to all of our winners, we look forward seeing you next year.

The host club entrants put in some great performances Paul Bruton was first NEWT in 12th place, Mark English came home in 41st. We get great support from the Welsh clubs with big turnouts from Cardiff Tri & Celtic Tri with Taff Ely & Rhondda also there, and visitors from across the UK including Leeds & several from East Essex with Dave Copeland & his partner Susannah returning from Ipswich Tri, its always great to see these two friends of Blaenafon.

As I said in the race brief, the quality of the road surfaces, especially on the mountain roads gets worse by the year, unfortunately with public spending squeezed as it is, this situation is unlikely to reverse in the near future. It was unfortunate that one of our more distant visitors had 3 punctures before reaching Blaenafon. But we've never had a DNF with a sheared handle bar before. We have considered alternative routes, for both bike and run, but we have failed to come up with alternatives that did not get the reaction of 'a bit boring'! We'll keep looking but we wont downgrade. We've got 28 years of history to live up to.

This year was the first year that our race founder Gareth Buffet has been absent, preferring the attraction of China to seeing everyone suffer on his courses. That leaves just 2 people who have done all 28 races, Ian and Natalie Parfitt have ensured that the swims have always gone smoothly, despite our best efforts. So a real big thanks to them.

Blaenafon number 29 is provisionally booked for 13 May 2012, put the date in your diary now. Our 30th race will be in 2013. This landmark anniversary needs to be celebrated; I'm looking for ideas on how & what. Let me know please, we want it to be special.

Cheers
Brian, Dave & Lloyd