Corus Elite Series, Reading - 18th May 2008

Report by Nina McArthur

A cool, bright morning set the perfect race conditions for the first leg of the Corus Elite Series at Green Park, Reading. The Corus Elite Series is basically a 3 race series of elite standard, draft legal races held around the UK, the first of which doubled as the British Elite Sprint Distance Championships. It was to be a technical race with the 750m swim course being altered the night before due to shallow water and a risky exit, the 20km 5 lap bike course including several roundabouts and dead turns and a slightly simpler, undulating 5km 3 lap run course.

MTC were well represented in the race with myself, Jacqui Slack and Sam Glover lining up against names such as Andrea Whitcombe and Kirsty McWilliam (European Junior silver medalist) in the women's race, and Tim Don and new Zealander Kris Gemmell in the men's.

A deep-water start set the women's race underway and the swim was demanding from the outset. The pace was pushed right from the word 'go' and I was soon battling to keep my position as I got cut off from both sides and after getting a few sharp elbows and attempts from others to swim over me, I regained focus and tried to find some clear water to get into a rhythm. It was another scuffle at the turnaround buoy as the wide spread of athletes had to be narrowed down to single file. It was at this point I got a few elbows and hands lashing out at me from one athlete who wanted my position but a quick tug of their wetsuit leg soon sorted that out!

Coming out of the swim in 18th place, I was in much lower position than I normally am due to my battles at the start and so after a quick transition I managed to get into a group with two other athletes and through working together by the time we'd completed one lap, we had caught up to three more women, including Jacqui who had a strong swim that put her in 13th position. Our bike pack went from strength to strength with Jacqui using her bike strength to bring us past several more athletes, some of whom joined our pack and others who we dropped. After the 5 laps we'd gained some considerable ground on the pack in front and had sorted out the cyclists from the 'hangers on'!

It was now into the final 5km run where I managed to push on past Jacqui and all but two of our bike pack. It came down to myself, Jacqui and one other athlete in the tussle for 14th, 15th, 16th. I was maintaining my pace well over the first 2.5km until my re-occurring stitch problem appeared and despite still managing to keep them within sight, I dropped off the pace on the final lap. Jacqui however, went from strength to strength and overtook the competition in the final stages gaining 14th place out of 28 athletes in a time of 1.06.38. I finished 16th, just 11 seconds behind with a time of 1.06.49.

Sam Glover was the sole MTC representative in the men's race with our European top 10 placed athlete Jeremy Gilmour being ill. Not much to report on this race as unfortunately Sam DNF due to cutting his hand during the swim and getting cramp in his legs during the run. Tim Don was the overall winner in the men's, sprinting away from Kris Gemmell to gain the one second win in a time of 53.50.

It was great to see more and more MTC members bridging the gap to the elite level and I'm sure we'll see a similar strong representation in the third race of the Corus Elite Series, the 'Supersprint Eliminator' in Strathclyde in September.

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