CIRENCESTER'S triathletes took centre stage in recent events with the club represented at Hardwicke near Tewkesbury, South Cerney and Weymouth over a variety of swim, bike and run distances.

Athletics

Cirencester AC & Triathlon Club

Hardwicke Sprint Triathlon

IN THE Hardwicke Sprint event over a 750 metre swim, a windy 20km bike course and a 5km run over three laps of a caravan park, Gethin Musk was the club's leading contender finishing 22nd out of 134 finishers.

He was a minute clear of his club colleagues after the swim and pulled a further three minutes clear on the bike and maintained his advantage over the final run stage to come home with a total time of 1hr15min10sec.

A close battle was waged between Terry Ranger, Bob Ferris and Martin Pulley who finished within just over a minute of each other. Bob led after the first two stages but a strong run by Terry gave him the edge by 19 seconds over Bob with

Martin a further 57 seconds back despite the fastest run of the trio.

Carol Clarke was the club's only female competitor but she was well placed in her age category and finished 89th overall.

Final positions: 22, Gethin Musk 1:15.10; 44, Terry Ranger 1:21.50; 45, Bob Ferris 1:22.09; 50, Martin Pulley 1:23.06; 89, Carol Clarke 1:31.43.

Cotswold Water Park Ironman

KEVIN SNOWBALL and Trudy Compton took on sterner challenges. Kevin competed in his first Ironman Triathlon which was based at the Cotswold Water Park.

Despite some atrocious wet conditions he was delighted to finish 61st out of 139 finishers, 36 seconds inside 12 hours.

Trudy returned to Weymouth for a race over a total of 115km. She recalled it was as tough as the first time she contested the event, made more so by choppy

conditions for the open water swim, but she was happy to finish in about three hours.

Swindon Parkrun

STAYING on dry land a few the club's runners have been racing in the weekly 5km park runs at Swindon and Cheltenham.

The club's stalwart racer Barbara Thomas was 125th out of a record 405 runners at Swindon, again winning her age category and finishing only 30 seconds outside her personal best from the 112 park run races she has contested.

Lisa Carpenter and Michael Thomas followed her home in 162nd and 200th positions.

The previous week Gordon Jones clocked a competitive 23min14sec to finish 69th and second in his age category. Ruth Fulford was another age category winner with a time of 27.36 at Cheltenham, which was only eight seconds off her best.

Entries for Cirencester AC's Cirencester Park 10k on Sunday, September 28 have reached nearly 300.

Anyone wishing to enter should visit www.cirencester-ac.org.uk and follow the link to register.