Sunshine in Shrewsbury for 2021!

Great to be back at in Shrewsbury for the 8th Shrewsbury Quadrathon, it was cancelled due to Covid in 2020, but this year with some covid restrictions in place SYTRI were determined to give us a great event …. and that they certainly did!  The weather this year was perfect, as always the race was brilliantly organized and the atmosphere buzzing, though for many of us it was back to racing for the first time since ‘Covid lockdown’ so a some apprehension on the start line, but with plenty of smiley friendly quadrathletes offering reassurance the nerves were soon gone!

The racing was good with PB’s and personnel triumphs from many first time Quadrathletes! There were 3 waves this year as wave numbers were reduced due to Covid restrictions first off Open and Vet 40, then Vet 50, 60 and 70 and then all the Ladies together. 

In the men’s race Steve King dominated from the start, producing the fastest splits across the board, (1.29.30)  he finished 5 mins ahead of Ryan Sneddon (1.34.24) who was in the same wave. Nigel Unwin in the 2nd wave was just beaten into 3rd place by 3 seconds (1.34.27) it certainly would of been a very close race if they had been racing in the same wave! Alexander Williamson came 4th (1.38.48) followed by BQA member and Race organizer Phil Holden (1.39.14) a brilliant effort by Phil who had been up to his eyes in organizing and making sure everything was in place for race day!

We had an excellent turnout of Male BQA Members and it was so good to see so many BQA trisuits on the course, it was certainly noted by onlookers who were very impressed by the fact we were doing 4 disciplines instead of 3!

Sadly due to Covid there was no prize giving, just the top 3 in Male and Female. But having said that everyone was rewarded with a great celebratory 10 year Anniversary Technical T-shirt  and beautiful medal, a really nice touch to celebrate this excellent event, I shall certainly be wearing mine with pride!

Male Winners and Congratulations to our BQA Members.

1st Steve King Vet 40 (1.29.30)
2nd Ryan Sneddon Open (1.34.24)
3rd Nigel Unwin Vet 50 (1.34.27)

BQA Members
5th Phil Holden Vet 50 (1.39.14)
6th Pete Tindall Vet 40  (1.40.06)
7th Nicholas Farnell Vet 60 (1.40.46)
9th Peter Chappill Vet 60 (1.46.13)
11th Wayne Smith Vet 50 (1.48.02)
12th Lance Ball Vet 50 (1.49.21)
13th Andrew Lawson Vet 60 (1.52.44)
15th John Kavanagh Vet 60 (1.53.38)
18th Jeff Chappill Vet 50 (1.55.56)
24th John MacLeod Vet 70 (2.08.34)
25th David Jones Vet 60 (2.09.50)

The Ladies race was fought hard from the start, with the lead changing after each discipline!  Liz Dawson had a fantastic swim and was just getting in her kayak as Helen Adams, Natalie Abbott and Jean Ashley were finishing there swim! Jean in her strongest leg chased down Liz and came out of the kayak in the lead. Meanwhile Helen with a great effort on the bike, started to chase Jean and came into transition just ahead of her. Natalie in 3rd place after the bike was now on a mission in her best discipline, she ran a superb time to overtake Jean and then Helen to take a well deserved 1st place. 

 

Female Winners and Congratulations to our BQA Members.

1st Natalie Abbott Vet 60 (1.49.17) 
2nd Helen Adams Vet 50 (1.50.03) 
3rd Jean Ashley Vet 60 (1.51.08)

BQA Members
4th Liz Dawson Vet 50 (1.51.43)  
6th Mary White Vet 70 (1.57.44) 
9th Margaret Huyton Vet 70  (2.07.07)
11th Donna Chappill Vet 50 (2.12.07) 
13th Caz Jones Vet 50 (2.22.23) 

 

There were some fantastic performances from all of the women, strong racing from the age groupers and plenty of big smiles and positive feedback too! We also had lots of great efforts from all our BQA Members, a total of 20 racing at Shrewsbury! Great to see them flying the flag for us … Thank-you! The BQA really appreciate your support and valuable membership!

If we had a ‘Team Trophy’ it would of been presented to the ‘GIRLS, from MADCC a fine crew of 6 …. a huge well done to Natalie Abbott, Liz Dawson,  Nicola Hamerton and Heike Chapman – inspired by our forever young ’70 year old twins’ Mary and Margaret!

However after the race, we did present the ‘BQA Eric Hattliff Memorial Trophy’ to Mary & Margaret  this is given to an athlete showing his/her enthusiasm and commitment to the sport of Quadrathlon. Both Mary and Margaret have been doing Quads for many years now and along the way inspiring many people to give racing a try. During the past 2 years, they have been encouraging their team of ladies at Macclesfield Canoe Club to take part in several of our races, all of them love the camaraderie of the quad training and racing! So a big thanks to Mary and Margaret who will no doubt continue to inspire us for many more years.   

Full Results Shrewsbury Sprint Quad 2021