Lesbury's Helen Waugh sets a new record for Ironman-distance triathlon
Lesbury’s very own “challenge family” returned triumphant from Germany after taking on the world’s biggest and most prestigious Ironman-distance triathlon, the Challenge Roth.
The event, celebrating its 40th year, attracts the world’s best professionals and amateur athletes, with 3,500 individuals and a further 1,800 in relay teams competing.
The event has a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and finishes with a 42.2km run.
Sprint distance triathlons and junior events take place in the days ahead of the showpiece finale.
First up for the Waugh family was dad Joe. Racing the sprint triathlon he finished in fifth place, narrowly missing the podium.
The real excitement commenced on junior race day. Emilia, 13, dominated her junior girls race and was the first girl out of the water.
She continued to work hard on the bike leg, coming off in the lead group before running away to victory.
Finley, 10, was next. He set to work in the swim leading out, before being brought back on the bike.
He pushed hard on the run but had to settle for second place by just two seconds.
The next day mum Helen, a 47-year-old pharmacist, was on the start line for her third Challenge Roth, having taken third in her age group in 2019, and second in 2021.
On a perfect day for racing, Helen shot off the start line, getting a gap early. First out of the swim in her event and out onto the bike, Helen set a strong tempo. She was overtaken by two athletes but content with her split time of 5 hours 31 minutes.
Needing to run 3:23 for the marathon to break 10 hours, Helen tore through the field and went through halfway in 1:33, an astonishing split for an amateur athlete.
Pushing on, she came home with a 3:10 marathon, to finish in 9 hours 47 minutes 19 seconds to win her age group race by nine minutes.
Helen’s finish time makes her the third fastest woman in her age group of all time at Challenge Roth, and the fastest female of any age ever from the North East in Ironman-distance triathlon.
She said: “I sprinted round the stadium to the finish because I didn’t know what my time was. Finley told me my time at the finish, I was surprised and delighted.”