Dearne Valley Quadrathlon WQF Cup Race
Special thanks to Mark Benton, David Jones and the Manvers Team for organising this great quad event, you are a wonderful ‘Team’ of people thank you for your enthusiasm and for inspiring so many to take to the water and embrace the challenge, you have put so many smiles on peoples faces at Manvers. As always the BQA are extremely grateful to everyone involved, we are a small sport, and its good to see so many competitors without a doubt it’s such a fabulous feel good event, enjoyed by everyone, from seasoned athletes to first timers and looking at the photos looks like you had a great day!
The Race this year was part of the BQA Trophy Series, but for the first time ever it was part of the World Quadrathlon Cup, so competitors were given BQA points plus WQF points, this is great to see so many British athletes with World Cup points. The GB team are now in 2nd place in the World Cup Trophy now “The Vaclav Merek National Trophy” this is given to country with the most the points at the end of the year. So huge well done to everyone who has raced so far this year!
Also huge thanks to ‘David and Caz Jones’ who have been organizing Quad Training Days throughout the year and encouraging newcomers to our sport, they do a fantastic job to introducing people into our sport!
With the Winners Below Congratulations, lots more photos on the BQA Facebook page
BQA TROPHY RESULTS BQA Trophy after 3 of 5
WORLD CUP RESULTS R7 National Trophy after 6 of 9
TEAM WORLD CUP RESULTS R7 WQF world cup after 6 of 9
BIG THANKS, to Jules Taylor for his Race Report, we always appreciate our athletes stories and its a great report… Thank You Jules!
I had a horrible experience in the swim at Brigg and having to pull out , I didn’t feel ready to race, and the past couple of weeks training have been all over the place .
Parked up at Manvers Lake, I tried to relax and had a ride around the run course, had a lovely equinox swim in the twilight trying out a new better fitting wetsuit for the first time…. then had a rubbish restless sleep. Come the morning the sun was out and things seemed a bit better.
As others arrived it was lovely to catch up and chat, the Quad community is great and I started to relax a little.
Race briefing over, into the lake , and wait for the start. I put myself on the edge of the main bunch to give me as clear a swim as possible to the first buoy. This was a good plan, and the swim went well, a couple of little hiccups as I didnt feel 100%, and out into T1.
It had gone well , as I came out in the lead group with Helen (ladies winner) and Phillipe Jumeau …both strong swimmers.
I was Pleased!
There were a couple of kayaks out already, Adam and Stuart, and I didn’t realise that Oli was literally on my heels into T2 , time to race !
The lake was a bit squally with the wind and I was more than happy with my choice of Kayak…a Carbonology Flash X surfski…which easily ignored the bouncy water.
By the third lap I was settled paddling hard , and had put a bit of distance between Oli and myself (although I still wasn’t aware of that ), and had passed Stuart to put me into second place.
Out into T3 , and all I knew now was I had second place , felt shattered, but had to get moving as I knew Oli would be running me down as fast as he does. Couple of kilometers done, and I was running as hard as I could, at the end of every straight I glanced behind and so far no one else in sight .
Around the end of the lake and it wasn’t long before the finish was in view with about a kilometer to go. I honestly thought I had this , second place ….awesome! A few hundred meters to go, another glance behind and there was Oli, I knew it …. Aarrgh….have I got enough of a lead, could I run any faster? Another look behind and only a few meters between us now …. then he was past and over the finish line for second place, followed by myself 5 seconds later for third overall and first V60. I could not have gone any harder! What a race, right down to the wire ….fantastic!
Great racing from everyone, amazing strong performance from Adam in a league of his own today, super strong running from Oli , excellent result again for Helen, and a great relay effort from Erik and Rose ….true sporting spirit there as Erik recovers from his injury . How he paddles so fast with just one leg doing all the work ….amazing.
It was a brilliant day for all competitors, lots of smiles and fun . The weather gave us everything except snow, and a big round of applause for the Manvers community putting on another awesome event, thank you also to all the volunteers and helpers. A super day,
headed home later in the afternoon, feeling all was well ….it was a great reset for myself, back in a racing frame of mind at last…Yay!
Onto the 30k bike stage and the course was just excellent. For me personally, I’d checked out the bike course on the previous Friday, so it was full gas all the way, tuck in, shrug the shoulders narrow and get aero, every second counts. The loop out of Waddingham and through Snitterby was just excellent fun. 49:24 later and I’m rolling back into the sports center, thinking now about the kayak leg.
So here we go, the day’s getting done now, just the run to go, 5k’s for the sprint and 9.8k’s for the middle distance event.
Kassel, a beautiful city in the middle of Germany, is a place of parks, wooded green hills, lakes, a river, health spas, great food, museums, culture and people who are just so friendly. It is home to just over 200,000 people and was where the brothers Grimm spent all of their young adult lives from their early teenage years, gathering up folk tales and publishing them into the world renowned fairy tales that we all know today, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood. It is also home to the wonderful Bernd Scheller and his fantastic team, who did such a fantastic job of organizing and running a hugely successful European Sprint Distance Quadrathlon Championships.
It consisted of a 500m swim across the river and back on a triangular anti-clockwise course. Next was a short run from the beach leading to the bike transition and then onto the 18k bike course, with 3 laps of a fast and flat course, based upon the Auedamm, the riverside road, lined with boat clubs and restaurants, that was closed off to vehicles, providing a safe course to race along.
The next leg is way more familiar for me personally and the computer reads 39-40kph, six sets of dead turns, one at each end of three laps and then back in, rack the bike and push on again.
The race overall was won by the incredible all round athlete and multi world champion Ferenc Csima of Hungary, with a time of 1:21:28. The women’s race was won by home club athlete Anna-Lena Klee, who put in amazing split times across all events and won with a time of 1:31:13.
On the bike leg I was pleased to put in a 1:00:40 time, so under the hour with the running to and from transition removed.
I finished first in my age category of 1956-1965 birth year (O60’s) with 3:33:30 to get age group World Champion.
Sadly our National Trophy Series was down to just 3 races this year, Shrewsbury has finally folded completely, which is very sad news, and Bude was also cancelled due to lack of support. Thankfully we still had 3 excellent races in our calendar, The Brigg Bomber (World Cup Event also) Dearne Valley Sprint, and The Brigg Sprint. On behalf of the BQA I’d like to say a Huge THANK YOU to all our Race organizers and volunteers, who work so hard each year to put on these events for us, it is a big commitment and we really do appreciate your time! Thanks also to all the Sponsors who support them, and to you the BQA Members for you annual fees, which are vital so we can run the BQA Governing Body and more important provide the ever important Insurance fees to be able to support the Race Organizers…. Big Thanks! I would also like to say an enormous thanks to John Kavanagh who produces the BQA and WQF Tables after each race, this is a huge commitment and we are all very grateful … Thanks John 
Big Thanks to LincsQuad Quadrathlon Club for hosting the race, and to the ‘Small but amazing Team’ of organizers and Marshalls who work timelessly to make this event possible! The race consisted of a 750m river swim, followed by a 19km road cycle, then a 4km Kayak and finishing with a 5km run. The course is flat, fast and ideal for both experienced quadrathletes and those wanting to race the shorter distance. There was a good turnout of 24 athletes, a lot of them looking for those vital National Trophy Points, as it was the final trophy Race of the Season!
Second place overall , and subject to the time adjustments for the roadworks on the bike section, I really hoped I had done enough for the BQA Trophy Series Win. Due to the roadworks it turned out to be a real headache for the organisers working out the results …but in the end, I had done enough…woohoo! 
Shoe change, keep the fleece on, still freezing, eat a cereal bar, jelly babies, move number to the front. Out on the run, lovely run, about 1k into the run took my fleece off, feet were still freezing though, home straight back into the leisure centre job done. The exhilaration at the end is terrific… that’s why you do it! such a sense of achievement. 1
My first Quadrathlon was at Manvers a sprint distance, a fantastic setting for an event, I got to the end of it but thought never again! Well for a day anyway. So planned to try and do 3 of the events the next year, injured my shoulder so did the Triathlon at Manvers instead. I couldn’t kayak but I wanted to do The Brigg Bomber so I entered a Ladies team, everyone loved it, and all said they would like to do it again, I did the swim leg. Then Covid hit putting everyone out of action. Post Covid I entered The Brigg Bomber again, another Ladies team, this time I did the run leg, again all loved it. I announced to the team that I would like to do it as an individual.
WQF FINAL RESULTS 
Registration done Friday afternoon, not a lot of English was spoken, but was assured that at race briefing in the evening, an English version would be done as it turned out I sat through 90 minutes of presentation and explanation, in mostly Hungarian, German and French I think, asked when we would have the Quadrathlon briefing to be told it would be at 7am tomorrow morning, just before we started ….Hey ho.
Our next British Quadrathlon Trophy Race is ‘The Awesome Foursome’ on Saturday 7th September. Every September since 2002 Simon Hammond and his Team have run the ‘Awesome Foursome Quadrathlon’, an extreme multi-sport race for individuals, pairs and relay teams to enter. This is an established event in the British and European Quadrathlon calendar regularly being a World Cup ranking event or the European Short Course Championships. This Year it is part of the World Cup Series!
The BQA were so pleased that Dearne Valley and the Team at Manvers Lake took on the task, of hosting the BQA National Championships, and what a fabulous event it turned out to be! They upped the event this year and made it even better, less laps on the swim course and on the kayak course made it much easy for the athletes, and with the use of chip timing for the first time it was so much better for the marshals and organizers! We were also blessed with gorgeous weather for the 2nd Race in the BQA Series, congratulations to everyone who raced and to everyone who gave up their time to help this event run extremely smoothly!
Also huge thanks to ‘David and Caz Jones’ who have been organizing Quad Training Days throughout the year and encouraging newcomers to our sport, they do a fantastic job to introducing people into our sport!
I hadn’t raced at Manvers home ground before, but on arrival I was blown away by the lake and the whole setting . The lake looked really inviting, and was a great for the swim and kayak. With Amelia (13 yr old daughter) as my support crew we pitched up Saturday evening and had a good night’s sleep .
