FOR nine Farnham Triathlon Club members, a long season of qualification and prep races culminated in a trip to Rotterdam for the 2017 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final.

The Netherlands port city hosted a three-day programme of events, comprising the Paratriathlon World Championships, Elite Series finals and age-group sprint and Olympic distance World Championships.

First to go for the Farnham squad was Oscar Coggins who was contesting the Junior Elite World Championship final under his native Hong Kong flag. Wet conditions prevailed as a field of 75 took on a 750m swim, 20km draft-legal cycle and 5km run. After a 9min 27sec swim, Coggins was unlucky to miss out on the small lead bunch heading out on the cycle section as a large chase group was unable to make up ground on wet roads, including cobbled sections on a very technical circuit.

With the front pack and medal chance away and gone by the start of the run, Coggins’ objective to consolidate his place at the head of his group was accomplished with a swift 5k run (16-18) to finish 24th in 57min 52sec. Australia’s Matthew Hauser won the gold medal in 55-54.

The following day’s full schedule of non-drafting age-group races involving Farnham triathletes thankfully took place in sunshine on dry roads over the same course, starting with the Olympic waves over two laps making up double the distance.

James Long has been in impressive form all season in club and open races and was clearly targeting a medal, despite being in a very competitive M45-49 age category. Not much separated his 145-strong field after the flat and calm 1500m dock swim, but Long’s 21-24 and speedy transition put him eighth starting the 40km cycle section. Clocking the fourth fastest bike of 57-48, Long moved up the rankings and headed out on the run in second place.

Despite being overhauled by one runner, a solid time of 36-28 for 10km was enough to maintain a podium position and bronze medal in an overall 2hrs 1min 27sec. A notable landmark too as the first ever club member to gain an ITU triathlon medal.

Other Farnham qualifiers racing over the longer distance were Dom Brooks who finished 24th (M50-54) in 2-14-29 and Juan Marques 60th (M40-44) in 2-15-56.

The afternoon sprint races featured five Farnham members, this time the ladies doing the club proud with creditable performances from all, including three top-ten places.

Anna Bellamy produced the quickest all-round time of 1-19-04 to finish ninth F40-44. Lynda Coggins led her F50-54 age-group out of the water after a rapid 750m swim (11-49) and despite gradually dropping out of medal contention, still finished an impressive eighth in 1-20-01.

New to the club, Sam Taylor had qualified in the F20-24 category and raced consistently an all three disciplines to come 29th in 1-22-38, while Gillian Barrett rounded off a busy season of overseas competitions with 1-33-56 (36th).

Sue Graves was another top-ten performer as ninth F65-69 in 1-47-19.

Ironman Wales has gradually enhanced its reputation as one of the more iconic long-distance races with a two-lap 2.4-mile sea swim in Tenby Bay, followed by a rolling 112-mile cycle incorporating the Pembrokeshire coast and some of South Wales’ toughest hills before finishing with a lapped 26.2-mile run around the undulations, twists and turns of Tenby town centre, with a vociferous wall of supporters, locals and holidaymakers lining the streets.

This year’s renewal was made all the more challenging with the worst conditions in the event’s seven-year history. The wind and rain made safe completion of the course a priority over fast times.

Despite this, five Farnham Tri members conquered the course, with experience coming to the fore as Mark Richardson led the quintet home in 11-28-05 while logging his 16th Iron distance finish.

Benign early-morning conditions in the sheltered bay actually made for fast swim times as Richardson dipped under the hour before the unusual 1km run up the cliff path to transition. Next out of the sea was Chris Taylor-Firth in 1-13-18, followed up the beach by Andrew Robertson, Iain Wheatley and Barnaby Gray.

Out on the bike section, the skies darkened, the heavens opened and the wind picked up as generally times came in over an hour slower than average. Richardson continued to place well up in the M50 category with the quickest time of 6hrs 12mins 29secs. Gray also handled conditions well and a strong ride of 6-24-02 moved him up the field to second of the FTC group.

Gray’s marathon time of 3-50-39 was quickest for Farnham, but Richardson also went under four hours to add yet another top-ten age-group Ironman finish to his CV.

The race was won by Australia’s Cameron Wurf in 9hrs 7mins 3secs and there were 1471 finishers within the 17-hour cut-off.