One of the world’s best-know triathletes was in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire last weekend for the Wales Sprint Triathlon – Australia’s Chris ‘Macca’ McCormack, two-time Ironman world champion.
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Also taking place in Fishguard the same day was the Ocean Lava Wales Middle Distance, acting as a qualifier for this year’s Ocean Lava final in Lanzarote.
The Wales Sprint Triathlon saw a close race between the top-10, with the first female, Carol Bridge (Rhondda Triathlon Club) heading out onto the run in second place overall, behind Alex Matchett the 1st place winner.
Des Devlin and Chris McCormack both managed to catch Carol Bridge on the run and over take her to secure a podium finish. Carol finished 4secs behind third place Chris McCormack, which saw her take fourth position overall and first female.
We loved having you @MaccaNow #walestriathlon come back again soon! #inspirethenation pic.twitter.com/lisilqGekT
— ActivityWalesEvents (@aweventsteam) August 1, 2015
A great race by Carol, who had a spare 16mins before second-placed female Claire Manson crossed the line. With very impressive splits of 11:56 swim, 38:58 bike and 20:08 run, Carol Bridge had a huge lead in the women’s race the entire way round the sprint course.
The winners of the Wales Sprint relay were Team Baddies with a time of 1.33.35, followed closely by Team Barnaby’s Angels, the 1st place junior relay team, with a time of 1:34:28. The junior first place went to Tom Kinnear with a time of 1.28.02, 2mins behind Tom’s older brother Billy Kinnear secured second place with a time of 1.30.07.
Ocean Lava Wales Middle Distance
In the Ocean Lava qualifying race, last year’s champion Oliver Simon came out of the water second in the swim, just on the heels of James Grandfield who had a very quick swim split of 28:38mins.
Oliver then took the lead on the bike course, extending his lead to 3 minutes going into the run leg. Michael Birchmore then began to make his move and stun the crowd, not only by taking the lead by the second lap, but by putting a further 5mins into the defending champion Oliver on his home soil. Oliver tried to respond, but Birchmore was simply on fire on the run leg clocking an impressive 1:19hr split on a tough course.
The women’s race saw an incredible battle for first place between Jessica Parry-Williams and Emma Newsome, Jessica exited the swim with a time of 35:15mins, ahead of Emma who completed the swim minutes behind with a time of 38:04mins.
Jessica Parry-Williams comes down the finish chute at Ocean Lava Wales 2015
Emma then took the lead on the bike, with an impressive time of 2.52.19, with Jessica’s bike split at 3:02:36. Jessica Parry-Williams then took the lead on the run and kept it to secure the first place podium finish, an impressive run split of 1:31:15, with Emma Newsome’s run time of 1:43:15.
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The winners of the Ocean Lava Wales middle distance relay race were Team Ross Mcnally with a time of 5:06:14. Matt Bailey from Leicester Triathlon Club won the under-18 race with an impressive time of 5:37:55, seeing him take 52nd place overall.
Wales Sprint Triathlon
Top three men
1st Alex Matchett 1:10:45
2nd Des Devline 1:11:52
3rd Chris McCormack 1:12:10
Top three women
1st Carol Bridge 1:12:14
2nd Claire Manson 1:28:05
3rd Karina Ebsworth 1:28:39
Ocean Lava Wales
Top three men
1st Michael Birchmore 4:24:31
2nd Oliver Simon 4:29:20
3rd David Francis 4:40:46