Dearne Valley Quadrathlon WQF Cup Race

Jean Ashley
 
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! 

 

Sharing the Quad Love as always!

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!

 
 
 
 
 
Dearne Valley Quadrathlon Results
With the Winners Below Congratulations, lots more photos on the BQA Facebook page
Jules Vet 60 Winner
Stuart Vet 50 Winner
John Vet 70 Winner
Helen Ladies Winner
Tora Vet 40 Winner
Helen Vet 50 Winner
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Natalie Vet 60 Winner
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BQA TROPHY RESULTS  BQA Trophy after 3 of 5
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! 
 
Swim Start
Here we are at Manvers Lake, second venue in the National Race series , and not in my usual confident frame of mind.
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!

Overall Winner Adam Norfolk
Helen was out of T1 swiftly, but I was struggling with a helmet catch that wouldn’t play ball, and didn’t catch Helen up till near the turn around. It was a fast bike course, unfortunately a couple of incidents occurred but all were ok apparently, and into T2.
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.

Jules in his Surfski
Adam was well clear , exiting the lake as I started my last lap ! Very strong paddling .
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!