Margaret Masters triathlon once again (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Margaret Masters triathlon once again

9:33am Wednesday 25th November 2009

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Margaret Smith and Natalie Thomas got off to a bad start to the weekend for the British Modern Triathlon Championships.

After breaking down they arrived at Wolverhampton six hours after they left Andover and unfortunately both were in the first shoot detail and had to be up at 6.45am so not surprisingly neither shot well.

Despite this, Margaret, in the Masters Ladies’ was amazed to find out she had won by 31 points, for her tenth ‘best shoot’ medal at the Nationals. Her swim was later that morning, and she clocked a third place 100m time of 1.37.83, nine seconds faster than in a competition a month ago. She at last started to relax, and after a good sleep it was off to the final event - the 1,000m run. Margaret had a huge lead on the points table, which equated to 90 seconds on the run. She won by seconds in 3.56 and became British Masters Ladies Modern Triathlon Champion for the third consecutive year. She was the oldest in the class and would still have won without any age points. Natalie also suffered badly from the journey and was disappointed with her shoot, but she put that behind her and snatched the ‘best swim’ medal by a fingertip - .08 of a second, in a fine time of 2.24.12. The next day Natalie was in good form for her 3,000m run, upping the pace as it went on and looking strong and relaxed. She broke the 12 minute barrier and was just three seconds off her personal best, taking third in the Senior Ladies.

In his first year in the Youth B class (age 15-16) Mat Dewey was seventh in the shoot then paced his 200m swim well to clock 2.26.91 for 16th place. In the fastest of the heats for his class, Mat led the group for the 2,000m run to record a 15 second pb for sixth place and finished the competition in a very good tenth place.

Also in the Youth B class, Kathryn McEwen scored the highest of the Andover squad for the shoot, just seven short of her best, and was placed fourth. Her excellent swim was less than a second off her pb for 18th place then the next morning she was running in the middle of a big group and crossed in 18th and her points total put her into 12th.

Glenn Weavind, in the Masters Men’s was only two down on his best for his shoot, for a very good fourth place total of 149. He was 11th in the 100m swim and looked strong throughout his run, but was disappointed with his time of 7.57 for sixth place, giving him overall 12th.

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