Tri-ing for Imperial at BUCS championship

A 6-strong team from TriIC donned their lycra (or to be precise a pleasant Nylon-Spandex mix) to compete in the 340-strong field of May’s BUCS sprint triathlon championship. Arriving at the sunny Wiltshire in the morning, avoiding the wealth of carbon time trial bikes in the car park, the task of 750m of swimming, 25km of cycling and 5km of running lay ahead.

Swimming in a heady mix of chlorine and sweat from the 300 previous competitors is unenviable stuff but Andrew Gordon, in particular, made it look very comfortable, covering the distance in an impressive 11:31. Three other team members (the Captain Stephen Cooper, new-comer Luke Johnston and Will Palmer) were coincidentally placed in the same lane, allowing for the convivial competition over the next 85 minutes or so. The next disciple saw Andrew again set the quickest time amongst the Imperial team, averaging 33km per hour over a windy and hilly course.

The final element, a 5km undulated run saw three of the team run under 19 minutes placing them in the top 50 for that disciples: Rueben Bogg (18:12), Andrew Gordon (18:54), Sam O’Neill (18:55). And it was these three who led home the TriIC team overall.

At the top of the leaderboard, some high-jinx (in the form of cycling in a group which is not permitted) from six of the top ten competitors meant that the BUCS champion was only determined once those involved in the shenanigans were handed time penalties. Naughty boys ! For the team event, with 60 university teams qualifying, Imperial ‘A’ finished 25th and the ‘B’ team 52nd.

TriIC have a number of informal and formal training sessions for all beginners to experts. Any men and women out there who would like to join in then please see www.union.ic.ac.uk/acc/triathlon/.