Royal Windor Triathlon ­ No Need for alarm Karen

Triathlete Karen Sindall competing for Ilford AC Tri woke early before her alarm on Sunday morning for the 9am womenıs elite start of the Royal Windsor Triathlon, Britainıs premier and most popular event of the year with an overall entry of some 2500 competitors. It proved more than a worthwhile exercise as she completed the course in 2hrs14mins 22seconds to end up on the podium in 3rd place and scooped a major prize in the process. Sindall didnıt relish diving into the River Thames for the start of the 1500metre swim course but she was soon heading the pack chasing a formidable lead being built up by the eventual winner Sam Herridge of Total Fitness Bath.

Such was the command of Herridgeıs swim that the lead was already nearly a minute and a half by the time of the swim bike transition. Jodie Stimpson of Birmingham TC had also got clear in second as the riders headed out on the bike course, with Sindall prominent in the chasing pack.

Herridge had stretched the lead to an unassailable 3minutes over Stimpson after the 40k bike section with the main chasers led by Sindall, and  Eloise Crowley a further 3 minutes down the road. The run which was set against the magnificent backdrop of Windsor castle and the grounds of the picturesque Eton College saw Sindall disposing of the challenge of Eloise Crowley early on as she began to make inroads into the gap to Stimpson in 2nd. However Yvette Grice of Team Bodyworks XTC was sitting just behind moving the smoothest of all and now came through as both athletes overtook the flagging Stimpson on the 3rd lap.

The Ilford triathlete, always her own biggest critic, confessed to be slightly disappointed especially with being overtaken on her run which she considers to be her strongest discipline. Nevertheless she still managed to clock 38.15 for 10k in what was her first major triathlon for over a year and she now hopes to improve on her performance in next monthıs Corus Elite series event in Hyde Park.




Lejog  

Vince Heaney is today starting out on his charity raising cycle ride from Land's End to John O'Groats. Many club members remember Vince's epic attempts back in the 80's to break the 880 yard two minute barrier which unfortunately he never quite made missing out by a mere few hundreths of a second on more than one occasion.

Vince has already passed his fund raising target of £3,000 for the charity Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability based in Putney. FULL DETAILS are available on www.justgiving.com/vinceheaney <http://www.justgiving.com/vinceheaney>  where you can sponsor Vince.

Madigan is glad again (okay it's a rubbish headline but they won't use it anyway)

Under 20 Ilford athlete, Gary Madigan battled torrential rain to break his personal best in the 100m with a time of 11.46 at the midweek Watford open.  He ran strongly throughout although was pipped to second by just 7 hundredths of a second.  He was joined a batch of talented Ilford sprinters including Sam Malekout (11.78), Dominic Husbands (12.12), Rachel Giwa (12.62), Sarah Kigozi (13.0) and Rochelle Kaur (15.1).  Malcolm Muir and Mo Swamad also made light of the poor weather as they both got personal bests in the 1500m with 4.17.79 and 4.22.70 respectively.  Swamad ran maturely, tracking the leader to the second lap but was run down by the quicker runners, including Muir, who ran the last 700m on his own to break his 6 year old best performance at the distance.  The weather made the javelin and long jump both treacherous, so it was credit to Andy Carle's throw of 36.79m in the javelin and Malekout's performances of 36.30m and 5.79m respectively.  Husbands also leapt well for 5.53m.

Other results:-
Rachel Giwa (LJ: 3.69m), L Husbands (100: 12.91), Sarah Kigozi (JT: 15.12m), Rochelle Kaur (LJ: 3.53m), Craig Burrow (14.8 / 32.85m), Matt Maple (4.28.04)

Muir closes the Kirton (I like this one)

Malcolm Muir's relentless form continued last Friday in Kirton, Suffolk as he won the 5 mile race by just under a minute in 26.39.  Apart from a ferocious first half mile, Muir was never led and handled the undulating course well to clock a creditable time.  He was joined for the long journey by Matt Maple who was a little down on his best to come 36th in 30.13

Burrow's Bronze

Craig Burrow achieved an excellent third place in the Southern Counties championships at Crystal Palace at the weekend.  He putt a distance of 11.64 metres before moving to the discus where he threw a distance of 37.60m for 10th place.

Aaron Balogun has reached such a high level of ability that reaching two finals still left him disappointed.  Under 20s star, Balogun was 7th in the 100m and 6th in the 200m finals, achieving times of 11.25 and 22.08 respectively.  His 200m time was over half a second behind his best, which would have been good enough for a gold medal.  Aaron will hope for better fortunes at this weekend's national AAA's championships.  

Rachael Giwa narrowly missed the final by 3 tenths of a second to record 12.74 in the under 20s 100m, while Marvin Tuffour recorded a creditable 23.34 in the senior mens 200m.