Athletes from the Team Trisports Development Squad were out in force at the Northampton Triathlon on Sunday as the race hosted the third and final round of the Team Trisports Club Championship.

With the race being held at the same venue as round one, but over the longer Olympic distance of 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run, the hottest day of the year was matched by equally scorching performances from the athletes involved.

First up, defending champion and elite athlete Stephen Harrison, not competing in the club championship due to his elite status, finished a superb 2nd overall to add another podium finish to his 2009 victory. A blistering time of 1:53:38 saw Harrison finish just 10 seconds behind that of the race winner.

In the club championship, all eyes were on Adam Laycock, the winner of the previous two rounds, to see if he could complete a hat-trick of victories and take an undefeated men’s title.

As it turned out, the presence of fellow veteran and former elite racer Ian Mackerness meant that Laycock was denied a clean-sweep of championship victories; as Mackerness showed that he’d lost none of his Olympic distance pedigree to secure victory in a lightning-fast time of 2:06:5 and finish in 18th place overall.

There was plenty of consolation for Laycock however as he finished just one place behind in a time of 2:08:22 and with it secured the men’s title. The men’s podium was rounded out by Ironman specialist Gavin May who once again enjoyed a race long battle with Laycock to stop the clock just six seconds after in 2:08:28.

Steffan Ford also impressed with a very quick time of 2:09:43 and Simon Douglas produced a PB performance for the second race running to improve upon his 2009 time by almost thirteen minutes.

Kate Jinks exits the water.

In the women’s race it looked to be much closer affair, with any one of three athletes capable of securing victory on race day. Whilst many were confident of predicting the top three finishers, the order was far from certain as the previous two rounds had seen some intensely close competition and a differing podium order each time.

Just as with the men’s race, there was a clear winner amongst the ladies with Development Squad athlete Gemma Sargent going below the 2:20 barrier for the first time and in the process taking the win. Kate Turner was next across the line in 2:24:44 to record three straight podium finishes. And in third place, Katy Jinks, deciding on a non-wetsuit swim, also made it three consecutive podium finishes with a time of with 2:26:13. The race also allowed Development Squad member Anna Holden an opportunity to demonstrate her recent strong progress with a time of 2:34:33.