Author Archive

What a fitting way to close the season and the children’s series in glorious sunshine at the Cleveland Aquathlon.

25 One Life children took to the start line. All doing the swim in a small 20m pool . So small in fact that no spectators were allowed on poolside. The children went through the door onto poolside one minute and emerged minutes later having completed their swim! The run took place around a 400m track under the hot September sun.

First up were the Tristarts. Rhianna Nitsch took 2nd, with Amelia Robertson 4th, Abbie Pearson 5th and Sarah Jackson 6th. Very encouraging performances from our girls with only 13 seconds separating the One Life quartet.

Patrick Lally, fresh from a football game earlier in the day, was the sole One Life representative in the boys finishing in 3rd place.

In the girls Tristar 1 Jill Dickinson showed that she is more than just a swimmer.Not only did she take first place overall, but was the fastest runner as well as swimmer. Rhianna Stoves finished 6th, with Poppy Harris-Pratt 8th and Martha Robinson 9th.

The Tristar 1 boys category has been dominated all season by One Life. This was no exception with the first 3 places once again going to One Life. Jake Duffy finished the season with his 100% record intact coming home first. His strong swim giving him an unasailable lead. Max Pearson put in a great running performance with the fastest run of the day to take second overall. Henry Sanderson completed the One Life clean sweep with 3rd place. Christopher Jackson finished 11th, in an age group he will still be competing in next season.

In the Tristar 2 boys One Life had 8 out of the 9 competitors, but none of them could compete with the very impressive Jack Willis. Toby Routledge finished 2nd posting the fastest swim and runs from One Life. Finlay Robertson gave it his all on the run to take 3rd place and can take heart from the fact he will be in this age group again next year.As will 4th placed Fergus Robinson. Matthew Jackson finished 5th, George Sanderson 6th, Ollie Allcock 7th, Adam Todhunter 8th and William Bell (with the fastest finish of the day) in 9th.

In the Tristar 3 boys Charlie Harris-Pratt became the second One Lifer to finish the season’s series with a 100% record. An impressive run from Charlie where he progressively increased his speed to power clear. James Dickinson finished 7th, Mark Todhunter 8th and George Bell 12th.

Well done to every One Life youngster who has competed this year. The club has grown out of all proportion and is producing competitors the Club and Tynedale can be very proud of. 

Roll on winter training and the prospect of an even more enjoyable and successful season next year!

On Saturday 1st August 33 One Life Triathletes took part in the Tyne and Wear Fire Service Children’s Triathlon at Hebburn. All children put in tip-top performances with two One Lifers coming away with gold medals.

One of the big highlights of Hebburn is the Have-A-Tri section (under 8’s), with Angus Thompson, Bethan Nitsch and Madeleine Duffy all participating in their first ever triathlon. Angus brought it home strongly on the run, burning his dad Julian off in style! All 3 had great fun and thoroughly enjoyed their first triathlon experience.

In the Tristar age group Rhianna Nitsch finished 2nd with Isobel Maxwell-Gray one place behind in 3rd.In the boys race Aidan Pinkney did very well to finish 2nd.

The Tristar 1 age group was where One Life had their biggest success with 1-2’s in both the girls and boys. Rhianna Stoves, who has been improving all season, collected her first gold medal of the campaign with 3 strong disciplines. Jill Dickinson with excellent swim and run sections finished in 2nd. Sophie Speed was 4th with sister Phoebe in 6th, Abigail Thompson 8th, Ellie Barr 10th and Rosie Mitchell 11th. In the boys Jake Duffy continued to show strength in all 3 disciplines as he put in an impressive performance to take gold. Henry Sanderson followed his friend home in 2nd place after having a ding-dong battle with Rhianna on the run! Thomas Copland is improving all the time and excelled on the bike section to finish in 6th overall. James  Mitchell was 8th and George Cook 9th.

In the Tristar 2 girls Hannah Pinkney finished 4th with a very gutsy display. Many of the One Life boys have been evenly matched all season. This time it was the turn of  Toby Routledge to emerge victorious amongst the One Lifers with 3rd place overall. Closely followed by Finlay Robertson in 4th. Adam Todhunter finished 6th with Joe Cook 9th, James Bland 11th and Nathan Copland 12th.

In the Tristar 3 girls Katie Pegg came in 7th. In the boys Mark Todhunter was 3rd just ahead of James Dickinson in 4th, with Toby Harris in 9th, Jack Howieson 11th and brother Angus 12th.

In the Youth’s section Katie Smith finished 2nd in the girls with Rob Howieson showing guts and determination to finish 10th in the boys.

This was the last Triathlon of the Children’s series for this year with all One Life triathletes showing great improvements throughout the season and many in the bottom of their age groups.

The future looks bright – better wear those shades (Timbuk 3 – do you follow me!)

2009 Co-op sponsored One Life Children’s Triathlon

Let’s start with a quote from a visiting parent :

‘ The best organised and ran event that I have ever been to … and I’ve been to Ironman events!’

Take a bow One Life Racing

Great venue, great competitors, great parents and supporters, great marshalling, great goodie bags and the weather behaved itself too.

The day started early. Very early for some, marking out the bike and run courses along with the transition area. Someone had cut the grass the day before which left conditions tricky on the bike course . Not a problem. An army of One Life parents set about clearing the worst of the loose grass. Special mention to the Pughe boys, Dylan and Rowan, who played their part too.

Now to the competition and for the record 141 children took to the start line, including 63 from One Life and a healthy contingent from Paddle Tri Club in West Cumbria. One girl travelled up from Harrogate with her mum. She competed last year for the first time and enjoyed it so much she came back.

8.30am and ready to go. Tristarts were first up. 15 in total and 9 from One Life, many of them competing in their first ever Triathlon. Well done to all of them. Rhianna Nitsch, Abbie Pearson, Sarah Jackson, Freya Barr, Isobel Maxwell-Gray, Lois Libretto, Charlotte Griffin, Aidan Pinkney and Zach Hill. Aidan had a crashing fall into transition, but picked himself up to post the fastest time amongst the boys.

In the Tristar 1 girls Jill Dickinson produced a gutsy performance to take second overall. A confident swim followed by solid bike and run legs. Rhianna Stoves just missed out on third by less than 10 seconds finishing 4^th. Poppy Harris-Pratt finished fifth with a cluster of One Life girls following up. Abigail Thomson in 7^th, Elena Bluck 8^th (with a strong run leg to finish) and Sophie Speed 9^th. Freya Murphy, Phoebe Speed and Ellie Barr finished 12^th,13^th and 14^th respectively with only 13 seconds separating them. Rosie Mitchell was 18^th with Laura Griffin 20^th and Martha Robinson 23^rd.

The One Life Tristar 1 boys kept up their 100% record taking the top 3 spots again. Jake Duffy keeping his personal 100% record for the season intact leading from the off with a powerful swim. He never looked back after that, apart from when his chip got caught in the bike chain and fell off (thanks to Dave Smith for retrieving it).

Max Pearson and Henry Sanderson renewed their battle for 2^nd and 3^rd places with both boys exiting the pool area with little to choose between them. Nip and tuck on the bike with Henry taking a slight advantage into the run. However Max battled back on the run to get in front of Henry and maintained this position to the finish. Thomas Jepson finished 8^th, with Thomas Copland, Jake Dunlop, James Mitchell and Christopher Jackson 11^th,12^th,13^th and 14^th respectively. George Cook was 19^th along with Seamus Libretto 24^th and Daniel Dunkley 25^th.

The Tristar 2 girls faced stiff competition with Emily Witty being the first One Lifer to finish in 4^th place. Hannah Pinkney came in 7^th with Laura Vickers 9^th and Harriet Townsend-Rose 10^th.

The Tristar 2 boys was undoubtedly the most hotly contested category of the day both overall and for One Life. 14 One Life children competed in this age group – the biggest of the day.

The first 4 finishers from One Life had only 3 seconds separating them! George Sanderson, Toby Routledge, Finlay Robertson and Fergus Robinson renewed their rivalry from earlier in the season., although who would have thought it would have been that close. Transition training required here as this was definitely where this tussle was won and lost. After the lead changed hands many times and strong bike sections from Finn and George and good runs from Fergus and Toby it was left to the chip timing to come into its own and give third overall to George with Toby and Finn joint 4^th (only a second behind) and 6^th to Fergus (only a further 2 seconds back). Who will take the next battle in the series – only time will tell.

The other T2 boys put in admirable performances with Matthew Jackson 9^th after bringing it home strongly on the run, Adam Todhunter 10^th, Sean Wylie 12^th, Ollie Allcock 13^th, Dylan Pughe 15^th, James Bland 18^th, Wiiliam Bell, Joe Cook and Nathan Copland 21^st,22^nd and 23^rd respectively and Benjamin Bluck 27^th.

Fran Ronan and Katie Pegg found the competition tough in the Tristar 3 girls with Fran finishing 4^th after strong swim and bike sections and Katie, who has another year in this age group, 5^th.

Charlie Harris-Pratt also maintained his 100% record for the season with victory in the boys Tristar 3. With 2 impressive transitions he overhauled his nearest rival with a strong run section.

Daniel Rushton, Mark Todhunter and Rowan Pughe finished 5^th, 6^th and 7^th respectively. Alistair Maxwell-Gray was 9^th with Jonathan Pape 11^th. Jack Howieson 13^th won the family battle finishing 10 seconds ahead of Angus Howieson. Dominic Briggs finished 16^th.

In the youths, Katie Smith finished 3^rd in the girls and Dave Watchorn put in a sterling performance, nose bleed and all, as a guest in the boys.

So it’s all over till next years event.

What a monumental effort from all involved.

Well done Angela, Lisa, Alan, Tim and everyone who contributed in some shape or form to make this an enjoyable, fun and successful event.

The bar has been well and truly raised!

On Sunday 31st May 28 One Life Triathletes took part in the Benfield PLD Childrens Triathlon. This was the first triathlon of the 2009 North East series and the first ever triathlon for some of the competitors.

All athletes put on a sterling performance on a very warm sunny day in Benfield. Of the 28 One Life competitors 8 came away with competitive medals (2 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze).

In the Tristarts (8 and under) it is non competitive with everyone getting medals. For the record Rhianna Nitsch put in a sprint finish at the end of the run to cross the line first. Sarah Jackson came in a very creditable 4th.

In the girls Tristar 1 (9-10yrs) Rhianna Stoves came away with a silver medal, maintaining her place after a strong swim in the pool. Abigail Thomson finished 5th and Martha Robinson 6th.

There was a clean sweep of the medals for One Life in the boys Tristar 1. Jake Duffy put in an impressive performance leading from the front to collect gold, with silver going to Henry Sanderson and bronze to Max Pearson. Thomas Copeland and Christopher Jackson finished 9th and 10th respectively. A good effort for their first triathlon in the bottom of their age group.

In the boys Tristar 2 (11-12yrs) there were no fewer than 12 One Lifers. An excellent bike section from Finlay Robertson saw him finish with the silver medal. Fergus Robinson took the bronze followed by George Sanderson 4th, Toby Routledge 5th, Sean Wyllie 6th, Adam Todhunter 7th, Matthew Jackson 9th, Ollie Allcock 10th, Matthew Pegg 11th, William Bell 12th, Dylan Pughe 13th and Nathan Copeland 15th.

In the Tristar 3 category (13-14 yrs) Katie Pegg, in her first triathlon, collected the bronze medal. In the same age for the boys One Life took their 2nd gold medal thanks to Charlie Harris-Pratt. A first class performance from Charlie bringing it home in style on the run. Other One Lifers in this age group were James Dickinson 7th, Mark Todhunter 8th and Rowan Pughe 9th.

In the girls youth race Katie Smith finished in 4th place.

All in all some great perfomances and an excellent start to this years series. The overall support and camaraderie of the competitors and parents was a joy to see and a credit to the club.

Roll on Monkwearmouth in a fortnights time!!