Not only did Sam Rose win her Age Group at the World Triathlon Series, Leeds, but she also came away with a spot on the podium as 3rd woman overall, no mean feat against some 4000 entries.

Sam went into this race with the intention of really pushing the swim and then stepping back into a steady rhythm on the bike and run (due to having had bad back pain the week before). It was her first race with a split transition, so that was another challenge to face on the day! Setting off at 08:16 in wave 21 of 27, Sam had a good start, quickly breaking away from the rest of her wave, and catching people from up to 3 waves in front as the swim went on. On exiting the swim, there was a 400m run up a gentle hill into T1, which was a good way to kick the legs into gear before starting the bike. After a very long T1 Sam jumped on her bike and set off on the hilly course; she told us “I felt quite strong on the bike, which was good considering I’m not usually the strongest climber”. On the run, Sam gently eased into her stride over the first few km of the 5 lap course with nearly 4000 competitors in the Standard Distance event. Being in one of the last waves to set off, it was challenging getting around a lot of the runners, however, in summing up Sam reported, “I felt reasonably strong, despite not going too hard, and there being a fair few hills again! We had to wait until the afternoon to see any kind of results, but I came 3rd woman overall and first in my Age Group in a time of 02:14:42, 6 minutes in front of the next lady. I had the fastest female swim time, which was my aim for the race, so I’m really happy with that”.

A big thank you to our sponsors for making it happen; we couldn’t do it without you.