On Sunday 14th June, Blenheim Palace hosted the third round of the British Youth and Junior Super Series and the first of the Senior Super Series, where a record 21 Welsh athletes took to the water and magnificent undulating grounds. The former home of Winston Churchill made for one of Wales' most successful visits in recent years, with a full house of podium positions and other promising performances.

 

The Youth Super Sprint was the first two race of the day, with the boys starting at 08:28 and the girls 2mins later. Issy Morris (Chrickhowell) lead the way for the Youths, just missing the front group out of T1, but cycled comfortable with the chase group to run into 7th place at the finish. Tomos Nesham (Pontypridd) chased the boys home after swimming and riding well and was looking to be in the fight for a top 6 place, but had problems on the run causing him to slow and cross the line in 20th.

 

The Junior and Seniors race was combined with the girls, once again, leading the way. Ffion-Haf Harrett (Glynneath / L’bor Uni) had an excellent swim exiting with the front group, which then worked well together in the bike. A minute down out of the water Bronwen Owen (Scarborough) continued to lose some time out on the bike, but unleashed the fastest female run split of the day to pass Ffion-Haf during the second half of the run to take the top junior spot and 5th overall, with Fffion-Haf second junior and 7th.

 

David Flanigan (Penarth) lead the way for the Welsh Junior men for the swim and bike, being positioned in the front bike group whilst Deri Stewart (Neath / CMet) and Ieuan Cooke (Haverfordwest / Cardiff Met) were in the chase group. On the run Deri made up ground running himself in to 8th place.

 

Morgan Davies (Porthcawl /L’boro) and Iestyn Harrett (Glynneath / L’boro) continued to keep the flag flying high in the final Elite event, whilst Kieran John proved that patience and persistence are key ingredients to continual improving. All three of the athletes swam well to make a large front bike group which navigated its way through the twisting and undulating grounds of the palace, out of T2 the racing got exiting with a group of 5 breaking away early on. This whittled itself down to 3, which Morgan was one of, but he didn’t have the legs for the sprint finish. After the race Morgan said ‘ I’m really pleased with my result today, after the injuries and problems had this winter, it’s great to be on the podium and I know I’ve got better performances come’.

 

Rich Brady Welsh Triathlon Performance Development Coach said afterwards, ‘It was fantastic to see so many Welsh athletes racing today across all the elite categories and winning a handful of medals. Five years ago we only had 5 or 6 racing across the youth and juniors ranks at Blenheim, today we were competitive across the board in every elite category’.

 

Youth Boys

 

20th Tomos Nesham (Pontypridd)

35th Sam Johnson (Llandudno)

36th Rhys Jones (Cardiff)

43rd Sam Holt (Llandudno)

44th Luc Bartlett (Neath)

45th Jack Boniface (Flintshire)

48th James Waite (Mold)

 

Youth Girls 

 

7th Issy Morris (Chrickhowell)

25th Awen Lewis (Ystralyferva)

26th Abbie Williams (Haverfordwest)

 

Junior Men

 

8th Deri Stewart (Neath / CMet)

15th Ieuan Cooke (Haverfordwest / CMet)

17th David Flanigan (Penarth)

 

Junior Women

 

1st Bronwen Owen (Scarborough)

2nd Ffion-Haf Harrett (Glynneath / L’boro Uni)

 

Senior Men

 

3rd Morgan Davies

5th Iestyn Harrett

16th Kieran John

 

Senior Women

 

DNF Zoe Thomas

 

Full results can be found here