WaldenTRI's successful team at the National Club Championships, from left, Louise Rolfe, Paul Neaves, Dave Mather, Clare Thompson, Donna Dale and Jeremy Lovell.

FOR the first time in the club’s history, WaldenTRI entered a team into the National Club Triathlon Championships on Sunday - and they put in a magnificent performance to finish second.

Clubs travelled from as far away as Cumbria to be part of the championships, held near Milton Keynes, and the standard was very high - many times Olympian and former world champion, Tim Don, led the field home. It was a sprint distance triathlon made up of a 750m open water swim, followed by a 20k bike, then finally a 5.5k run.

Each club entered a team of six. All did the whole triathlon with the aim of coming as high as possible within their age group. The better their age group position, the better their individual score. Individual scores were then added up to give a team score from which a final team position could be calculated.

All sixof WaldenTRI’s team competed superbly. Dave Mather was first home for the club, ninth overall but crucially 1st in his age group. Paul Neaves was next home, 19th overall and 3rd in his age group.

Another 3rd place followed through Jeremy Lovell, just behind Paul in 20th place overall. The bar was raised again when Louise Rolfe charged home, 26th overall, 4th lady, but a magnificent 1st in age age group.

The team was completed by two further excellent performances: Donna Dale, who only completed her first triathlon 18 months ago, came home 117th overall and 5th in her age group, followed by the senior member of the team, Clare Thompson in 120th place and 4th in her age group. Clare Thompson’s position could have been one place higher had she not received a controversial two-minute time penalty for drafting. However, every member of the team had clinched a fantastic top-five age group position.

When the team results were calculated these performances gave the WaldenTRI team the second best score of the day.

Club captain Pete Thompson said: “I’m so proud of the way the whole team performed. Every one of them gave it absolutely everything, sprinting to the line to ensure that they gained every possible place that they could.

“Before the race started I felt a top 10 slot would have been a great achievement in our first attempt at a national championship event. To be so close to the top team is a testament once again to the quality of the athletes we have at the club.

“Next year we will be going flat-out to bring home the big prize of being National Club Champions.”