Tri-mendous effort by Alnwick competitors in Euro qualifiers

Age group winners Tracey Sample and Steve Carragher.

In the last year, with pools shut for a good proportion of the time, Alnwick Tri Club members have made use of our amazing Northumberland natural resources, training in the sea, rivers and lakes. Members also trained for cycling on indoor trainers so the trip outside could be used to keep running.

In the last couple of months, Alnwick Tri Club have thankfully been able to train together again and whilst the swim pace for most is slightly down, everyone is riding and running well.

After two weeks of gorgeous weather and flat calm water, the sea at Redcar on race day was monsterous. Some women were unable to swim out to the first buoy and had to retire from the race. All the Alnwick contingent made it out the water with varying levels of success but in the men’s race Steve Carragher and Andrew Wilde worked together to lead their wave, continuing their collaboration on the bike. Carragher was able to hold off the competition to finish as winner of the 45-49yr category with Wilde fading on the run to finish 7th.

In the women's competition, Anna McQueen had a fantastic swim in 4th place with Tracey Sample battling to come out well up the field, putting a blistering 9th fastest female time in on the bike, passing McQueen just before the dismount line. McQueen ran straight back past Sample to finish 2nd in the 15-19 Age Group whilst Sample ran just fast enough to win her 50-54 category.

Steve Carragher, Tracey Sample and Anna McQueen have qualified for the 2022 European Age Group Sprint Tri Championships with the rest of the Alnwick members all being in with a great chance of getting roll down (fastest loser) spots in the GB Age Group team.

Results – Steve Caragher 1:08:56 1st 45-49; Andrew Wilde 1:14:11 7th 45-49; Andrew Ternant 1:16:22 6th 50-54; Anna McQueen 1:21:26 2nd 15-19; Tracey Sample 1:22:31 1st 50-54; Chris Calvert 1:25:09 11th 60-64; Frances Wilde 1:27:56 6th 45-49; Ian Atherton 1:31:14 7th 65-69; Tania Conway 1:31:36 7th 50-54; Emma Givens 1:31:43 8th 45-49.