National Championships Bude Awesome Foursome 2018

The Final Race of the season and our National Championships for 2018, as ever Bude lived up to its reputation, and we were in for some great racing!  A strong turnout of athletes, the regular BQA members, all fighting for those extra ‘BQA Trophy Points’ and age group placings, plus a couple of strong newcomers, and locals from the local surf-lifesaving scene, some compete as individuals but there are also lots of teams or pairs competing too.

It had been wet and windy the day before, and their was plenty of heavy swell in the sea. It was a little chilly at 7.00 am on race day, but we had  sunshine and light winds, and as the day went on it got warmer and proved to be good race conditions, even though most of us found the sea challenging!

After the race briefing we all headed down to the sea lock, the swim consists of two 400m loops split by a 200m run across the sands of the beach, the tide was higher than expected and the beach was completely flooded. so the beach run was a wade through knee deep water instead. In the individual event Alan Cole was out first (20.28) with newcomer Billy Butler in 2nd place (22.10) with Nigel Unwin (23.30) and Andy Parrritt (23.30) close behind, there were a lot of locals in the team and pairs event amongst the top swimmers, all looking strong in the choppy swell.

The Bike is a course of two halves, a very hilly 1st half, along the coast road to Widemouth and then up those 30% climbs out of Millook, the 2nd half is very fast down the A39 into Bude. Alan managed to hold onto his lead for a while but his legs were still suffering from the Conwy Mountain Tri the week before. Nigel loves this bike course and put in the fastest bike split of the day (54.49) which took him into the lead. Alan stayed in 2nd (58.58), there were some good splits from Peter Tindall (56.00), Nigel Leeson (57.01) all looking for those Trophy points!

The 10km kayak section consists of two loops of the canal, with tight turns at either end, it was nice and calm and had started to warm up. Nigel pulled away and opened up a gap between him and Alan, but then paddler Billy Butler started to make huge gains on everyone, he produced the fastest kayak split by far (44.52) leaving everyone in his wake! Nigel was still 2nd fastest (51.29) Andy Parritt (53.05) with Alan (53.41) and Nigel (53.54). Race organizer Simon Hammond also produced a strong kayak split (54.36) … so all the age groups were still in contention!

The first couple of miles of the run are along the flat tarmac of the canal towpath, then up hill across fields and down to the coast road into Widemouth Bay, where you climb up the coastal path towards Bude, before a final descent to the Canal Warf. Billy had built up a strong lead, and maintained his position with a good run split (43.47). Nigel running the fastest time of the day (42.02) couldn’t quite catch Billy so held 2nd place, with Alan in 3rd (45.17) . There were some excellent age group performances, but the National Championship Title was well deserved by Billy Butler producing a fine win in his first ever Quadrathlon!

In the Ladies race Helen Russell came out of the swim in first place (22.51) with Jacq Davies 2nd (24.59), Natalie Abbott 3rd (26.23) followed by Alison Parritt, Bethany Goodlad, and Jean Ashley. Helen increased her lead on the bike (1.01.00), Natalie also having a strong bike moved into 2nd place (1.05.44) with Alison close behind (1.06.25).

Going into the kayak Helen maintained her lead (57.19), and the positions were to change again. Natalie was some what disadvantaged paddling a heavy sea kayak, so Alison moved in to 2nd (58.45) and Jacq into 3rd (1.00.03). Jean in her favorite discipline started to make up time and had the fastest kayak (56.48) which moved her into 4th place.

Helen maintained her lead and went on to take the National Championship Title for the 2nd year on the run, Alison stayed in 2nd place with Jean running into 3rd place. Some excellent racing from the ladies with a good quality of field, great to see newcomers to our sport performing well and strong performances from our BQA members too.

A special congratulations must go to our 2 BQA members who have done all 6 races in our BQA Calender, John Kavanagh and Lance Ball … a superb effort! Lance also deserves another mention, he was just at the start of the famous Millook climb when his chain broke, he quickly got his ‘chain tool out’ and proceeded to mend it … he then noticed a fellow ‘athlete in distress’ just ahead of him, who also had a broken chain …. so he mended hers  so they both could continue to finish the race. Genuinely a top guy, showing us what a true advocate he is to our sport!

Everyone that completes this awesome course finishes it with a huge sense of achievement, its a true testament to the standard all our Quadrathletes, some out at the front, and some behind … equally your all just as important… Strong motivated and giving 100%, that’s what makes you all special!

A big thank-you to Simon Hammond and his Team for putting on another brilliant race, as always very friendly plenty of support, great commentating and lots of happy smiling faces!

National Champions 2018

1st Billy Butler Elite winner 2:51:00
2nd Nigel Unwin Vet 50 winner 2:51:42
3rd Alan Cole Vet 40 winner  2:58:24
4th Nigel Leeson Vet 50 3:02:50
5th Des Gosling Vet 50 50 3:09:31
6th Peter Tindall Vet 40 3:12:03
7th AndyParritt Vet 60 winner 3:12:49
8th Simon Hammond Vet 50 3:13:43

1st Helen Russell Vet 40 Winner 3.07.33
2nd Alison Parritt Vet 50 Winner 3:24:50
3rd Jean Ashley Vet 60 Winner 0 3:28:42
4th Natalie Abbott Vet 50 3:29:18
5th Bethany Goodlad Elite Winner 3:33:42
6th Jacqueline Davies Vet 50 3:36:02
Emma Whitehouse Elite 3:50:46

BQA Members
Peter Chappill Vet 50 3:32.57
John Kavanagh Vet 60 3:34:44
Lance Ball Vet 50 3:39:52

Full Results Bude 2018 results

This was also the last race of the Quadrathlon Trophy Series for 2018. This trophy is awarded to BQA members only and is based on your best 3 finishes out of the 6 trophy series races. Alan Cole took the overall Men’s trophy series win this year, whilst Helen Russell defended her Female British Trophy Series Champion status with the overall in the women’s series.