OULTON PARK SPRING DUATHLON -RESULTS

5 Mar 2017 by Ian MacKENZIE

We had 2 athletes in action today at Oulton Park near Chester, where the weather turned decidedly miserable – horrible sleet, really cold. Both the Sprint and Standard races were qualifiers for the ITU World Championships in Canada. Andy Biggs was chasing a Sprint place and Graeme Walton was after a Standard distance qualification – both athletes are part of the DTC Development Squad. Andy has qualified for Team GB previously, but this was Graeme’s first time – actually, this was Graeme’s first proper competitive duathlon! Happily, the results are way better than the weather! Andy Biggs, in the Sprint, finished 7th in his Age Group, crucially within 106% of the winner’s time – his best percentage yet so he’ll have moved well up the leaderboard in the hunt for a place. Graeme Walton, in the Standard (2h 6min out in the elements) finished 15th in his Age Group, a stunning result in his first event! And that will get him on to the leaderboard for qualification, around 111% of the winner’s time. (The Qualification rules are a bit complicated: you have to finish in the first 3 or 4 on the day in the specified race to guarantee qualification; after that there’s a ‘rolldown’ system where percentage of the winner’s time becomes critical. To 3 decimal places!) So they’ll have to wait until all the qualifiers are over to see how it pans out, but they both have another qualifier race to make the cut automatically. A great result guys on a miserable day, we’re proud of you! Well done!

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