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In cool and blustery conditions, Will Clarke and Hollie Avil claimed victory in the first race of British Triathlon’s inaugural domestic Corus Elite Series in Strathclyde Country Park near Glasgow, the proposed venue for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games triathlon.
In the women's race, the 30 athletes were led out of the swim by local favourite Kerry Lang who set a hard pace to spread out the field. On the bike a group of six athletes consisting of Lang, Lisa Norden of Sweden, Hollie Avil, Kirsty McWilliam, Carol Bridge and the Czech Republic’s Lucie Zelenkova managed to maintain a breakaway from the chasing field that included favourites Michelle Dillon and Andrea Whitcombe. This break proved to be decisive as onto the run Dillon and Whitcombe found themselves seventy seconds in arrears and had too much to do over the 5km run course.
By the end of the first lap of the run, Norden, McWilliam and Avil were clear of the chasing athletes, and were left to fight for the victory whilst Michelle Dillon ran down those ahead of her. In the closing stages Nordon and Avil pulled away from local girl, McWilliam; but it was Avil who showed an impressive turn of speed in the final 200m to outsprint the Scandinavian and claim victory in the first Corus Elite Series.
British Junior, Avil was both shocked and delighted to have won, commenting:
"It was a really tough race out there today, but to have finished ahead of the likes of Michelle (Dillon) and Andrea (Whitcombe) is a fantastic feeling. I have had a great start to my season and I'm hoping to build on this throughout the year".
Female Elite Results:
1. Hollie Avil, England
2. Lisa Norden, Sweden
3. Kirsty McWilliam, Scotland
4. Michelle Dillon, England
5. Kerry Lang, Scotland
6. Carol Bridge, Wales
7. Lucie Zelenkova, Czech Republic
8. Andrea Whitcombe, England
9. Taryn McLeod, New Zealand
10. Heather Jackson, England
In the men's race a field of over sixty athletes fought it out in the loch on the swim, and were led out by the young Scotsman, Blair Cartmell, who celebrated his birthday with the honour of being the first into transition. He was quickly followed by a large pack of athletes including the experienced Richard Stannard, Dann Brook, Stuart Hayes and former European Junior Champion, Olly Freeman.
After two processional laps on the undulating bike course, it was the World Junior Champion, Alistair Brownlee, who started to work at the front of the bike in an attempt to break the pack up; however Stuart Hayes turned the raise of pace into a break away as he accelerated up the hill at the far end of the course to carry a 25 second lead into the second transition.
As Hayes left for his 5km run the chasing peloton dismounted their bikes and set about closing down his advantage. A trio of Freeman, Will Clarke and Brownlee ran together for much of the first lap, however Hayes still held a ten second lead going onto the final 2.5km run loop. With just a kilometre to go, Brownlee and World Under 23 Champion, Clarke caught Hayes. With all three athletes side by side they entered the final straight, where it was Clarke who strode away to hold off a resilient Hayes and impressive Brownlee. Freeman finished fourth with the Scottish pairing of Fraser Cartmell and Andrew Fargus taking fifth and sixth ahead of South Africa's Hendrik De Villiers.
Clarke said on his win:
"My performance bodes well for the World Cup race in Madrid next week. I have been trying to get back to full running fitness these past couple of weeks and it seems to have paid off. The race was excellent, really exciting, and it was a great feeling to win in front of a British crowd."
Male Elite Results:
1. Will Clarke, England
2. Stuart Hayes, England
3. Alistair Brownlee, England
4. Olly Freeman, England
5. Fraser Cartmell, Scotland
6. Andrew Fargus, Scotland
7. Hendrik De Villiers, South Africa
8. Richard Stannard, England
9. Jonny Brownlee, England
10. Mark Threlfall, England
Britain’s top athletes will now head to Madrid, Spain for next weekend’s BG Triathlon World Cup, before returning to Wales for the next round of the Corus Elite Series and National Championships in two weeks time.
For more information about the Corus Elite Series and British Triathlon, please visit: www.britishtriathlon.or.
About the British Triathlon Federation
The British Triathlon Federation is the National Governing Body for triathlon, the UK’s fastest growing sport. At elite level Great Britain boasts a strong squad of world ranked triathletes and duathletes who regularly achieve international success, and has some outstanding young talent emerging from its youth programmes. Since becoming an Olympic sport in 2000, British Triathlon has seen large annual membership increases and now totals over 12,000 members throughout its Home Nation Associations. There are over 500 triathlon events conducted in Great Britain each year including the London Triathlon, the largest triathlon event in the World; and the BG Triathlon World Cup race in Salford, one of the leading international events.
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