RUTH Jones of Farnham Triathlon Club reaped the reward of a busy spring qualification schedule by appearing at both the standard and sprint age-group duathlon finals at the week-long ITU Multisports World Championship Festival in Fyn, Denmark.

The standard race comprised a 9.1km run, 33km bike and 5.2km run. The initial two-lap run around the heart of Odense, the home town of Hans Christian Andersen, was followed by a fast and flat out-and-back two-loop cycle and finished with another one-lap run on tarmac with a short cobbled section.

Jones recorded a strong 37mins 23secs for the first run and was well up the field in a competitive international W35 category.

A ride of 1-07-52 lost her ground which she duly regained with a swift closing run of 22-02, finishing 15th with an overall 2-11-39, including transitions. Fellow Briton Rachel Wiseman won this category in 1-55-46.

Two days later, Jones was back on the start line for the sprint championships. It was a similar format and terrain, but the distances were a fast and furious 5.5km, 20km and 2.5km.

Showing little fatigue from her earlier efforts, she had splits of 21-51, 36-47 and 9-44 for an overall time of 1hr 12mins 38secs, improving her position to 11th behind the W35 winner, Kirsten Sass of the USA (1-05-21).

Mike Rix, another Farnham Tri member, was making his fourth appearance at the ‘worlds’ and combined splits of 18-20, 31-04 and 8-37 to finish eighth M45 in 1-01-35.

Farnham Tri’s Ironman bandwagon rolled on as four more members added their names to the list. Ironman Germany in Frankfurt and Ironman UK in Bolton were both over the full distance.

The Frankfurt event was the European Championships and attracted a maximum field of 3,000. Andrew Robertson, the club’s most prolific Ironman competitor, recorded 12-55-09 in this his 14th Ironman since 2013.

Conversely, Robin Snook was taking on a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run for the first time and despite enduring what he described as ‘a tough day’ was happy to collect his finisher’s medal with a time of 13hrs 2mins 15secs.

Farnham TC splits:

Pos 1602 Andrew Robertson, Cat pos 299 M45-49, Swim 1-27-45, Bike 6-16-59, Run 4-58-40, Overall 12-55-09; 1652 Robin Snook, 326 M40-44, 1-16-41, 6-19-04, 4-57-37, 13-02-15.

The recent wild fires in northern England caused a late change to the cycle course for Ironman UK, resulting in a shortened distance of 95 miles. There was also concerns over the swim leg, due to high blue-green algae levels in the Pennington Flash venue.

However, there were still slots for the Hawaii World Championships up for grabs and Farnham’s Cathy Berry was looking to book a place on the Big Island in October.

The swim location was eventually deemed safe and Berry, competing in the female 45-49 category, exited the lake in fourth place, recording 1hr 9mins 24secs.

Relishing the new bike course, she soon took over and completed that section in 5-19-43, heading out on the run with a comfortable lead. A 4-00-58 marathon ensued and a wide margin of victory and Kona qualification was accomplished in an overall 10-39-40.

Simon Carson-Jones was another FTC Ironman debutant in Bolton and battled through the unusually hot conditions to finish in 12hrs 52mins 34secs (1-36-31, 5-33-32, 5-15-16).