Brigg Bomber BQA Championships
Brigg Bomber BQA Championships
Blustery Brigg makes for tough conditions!
British Quadrathlon Standard Distance Championships 2010
The Brigg Bomber is a quadrathlon, which from its inception has been designed as an international event. It was conceived with the World Middle distance championships in mind, and also as an addition to North Lincs' Adventure Challenge for those who like a swim. The event is made up of a 1500m River swim in the Ancholme followed by a 7km Kayak, 40km bike and a 10km Run to finish. In total 38 competitors took part coming from all over Cardiff, Bourmouth, Chester, Manchester, Newcastle as well as a lot of local Lincsquad members.
The race was very well organized and well worthy of a National Championships, with alot of strong Quadrathletes across the age groups.
The race was open to Teams and solos with the athletes set off in 2 waves the first at 8:30am and the 2nd at 9:00am from Broughton bridge on the Ancholme.
The morning started with heavy rain and strong winds, but it didnt deter any of the athletes and by the time they got to their bikes the wind hadnt droped, but at least the sun was shining! The fastest swim off the day was set by Local Scunthorpe Anchor swimmer and Lincsquad Athlete Lauren York with a very impressive time of 20:36, Steve Grocock (Team Ashley) was 2nd out the water in 22:49, followed by 3rd Paul Clark (Team Manvers) 22:55 and 4th Steve Clark (Lincsquad) in 23:04, Nigel Crowe (Northumberland) making up the top 5 in 24:09.
Onto the Kayak and competitors faced strong head winds making the paddle a real hard effort. Andrew Grimwood from Lincoln moved up from 8th to 1st with a time of 38:23, Steve Clark moved up to 2nd with a time of 43:28. Youngster Josh Hook new to the sport this year, put in the 2nd fastest kayak split in 41.10, a very impressive time for the 16 year old. We wish him all the best at this years World Quadrathlon Championships in CZ on 7th August.
Onto the 3rd stage the bike and Steve Grocock set the fastest time with a 54:36, Andy Veitch from Fat boys gone thin was close behind in 57:07. Clark took the lead with a bike split of 57:48. Grimwood 67:35 held onto 2nd as Messingham man Phil Binch tried hard to chase him down 61:01 to be just over a minute behind him. 4th Pete Connolly recorded a time of 58:57 and 5th was now David Barker with a time of 64:07.
The fastest run of the day was set by Clark to take the overall win to become British Standard Distance Quadrathlon Champion 2010 in a time of 2 hours 45 minutes 5 seconds. Andrew Grimwood (Vet 40) finished 2nd with a time of 3 hours 1 minute 48 seconds. Phil Binch (Vet 40) 3 hours 3 minutes took the final podium spot. The first Vet 50 was David Baker, who took 5th place overall in an excellent of 3.06.51, David is also going to the World Championships, so we wish him a great race and a podium place to!
In the team race the prize was took by the Ashley team with a time of 2 hours 54 minutes 4 seconds closely followed by Team Manvers in 2 hours 54 minute 53 seconds. It was good to see alot of strong athletes racing in the Team event, with some excellent individual times, the fastest Kayak split 36.24 of the day from David Oliver Team member 'Multi Sport Friends' he was very fast in tough windy conditions.
The only female solo athlete in the race was Jean Ashley from Chester with a time of 3 hours 32 minutes 29 seconds. Jean hopes that some of the female athletes that raced in the teams, will take up the individual challenge next year, she said ' their were some excellent female times in the race, and with a little bit more training in all four disciplins she's sure they will soon be taking first place on the podium'.
Well done to all who raced, marshalled, time keepers, spectators and a special mention to Neil Barker, Tim Jones, Dave Finch and youngster Josh Hook who all completed their first standard distance Quadrathlon as solo competitors, we hope you all enjoyed the race and hope to see you all at more quadrathlons in the future.
1st Steve Clark 02:45:05
2nd Andy Grimwood (Vet 40) 03:01:48
3rd Phil Binch (Vet 40) 03:03:00
4th Peter Connolly 03:03:32
5th David Barker (Vet 50) 03:06:51
1st Lady Jean Ashley (Vet 50) 03:32:29
Teams
1st Ashley Team 02:54:04
2nd Manvers Crew 02:54:53
3rd Team York 03:07:35
