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A view from the Team Manager

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We spoke to Barron Mendelssohn, Great Britain Age-Group Team Manager for Horst ETU Powerman Long Distance Duathlon European Championships, who gave us his full review of the event last weekend. Here's what he had to say...

“Managing the Team for the first time was a great experience”, says Barron Mendelssohn, Great Britain Age-Group Team Manager for Horst ETU Powerman Long Distance Duathlon European Championships. The team returned with 5 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze medals following last weekend’s event in the Netherlands.

“It was a fantastic weekend and the venue itself was amazing. I’ve twice raced there myself but this year the location was a little different. It was a real ‘athlete’s’ course – the run was around a beautiful lake, overlooked by the Park Hotel so family and friends could sit out on the balcony and watch the race below. It was hard, compact gravel underfoot which is much better than running 20km on concrete; being not so fatiguing to the body. The bike course was incredible, with really fast straights and punchy corners – they were kept busy for their 60km.

“However, as the course didn’t travel through town like in previous years, the number of supporters was down.

“Luckily, the weather was kind to us. I turned up when transition opened at about 7am and it was very cold, with the athletes questioning what to do in terms of layers to wear. However, by the time the bike stage began the sun was well and truly out.

“First up was the Women’s Elite race in which we had Vicky Gill competing for GB. It was fought tooth and nail from the outset. The reigning champion took off and built up a three minute lead straight away whilst Vicky continued in a chasing pack. She pushed hard to get into bronze medal position and held it until about 1km to go where she was overtaken. It was an outstanding performance and she was more than pleased with fourth place.

“In his first international race as an elite competitor, Julian Lings started in the Men’s Elite category. He was in an extremely competitive field, with multiple World Champions to battle with along the course. Julian tried to stay in the mix during the first 10km whilst two Belgian athletes stormed ahead with the race. He kept with the pace as best he could and came away with 13th place. The guys were flying, so for him to do that in his first elite international race was a great effort.

“They then set off the M55+ and entire Women’s age-group field. Initially, it was very much a case of putting the feelers out and getting an idea of the pace. Great Britain had a lot of newcomers to the team who had never raced in International Age-Group Championships before, so it was a very different experience to what they were used to.  The standard goes up a lot in championship races, where many athletes are seeking to break into elite racing, so I think it was a shock to the system. They persevered, but the pace was particularly furious.

“The remaining age-group men set off about 35 minutes after this. Some of the boys blasted that first 10km in very quick times.  Alan Murchison, a late entrant to the Great Britain Age-Group Team cut a prominent figure throughout and eventually took M40-44 gold.

“Due to the very narrow roads on course, the team did excellently in not incurring any drafting penalties. They had excellent self-discipline for the entire race and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

“Outstanding performance of the weekend has to go to Alan Murchison, taking a step up from the sprint and standard distance racing he’s used to and doing so in such an impressive fashion.

“The ETU European Championshipsare always tough competition and we had some brilliant challengers in the form of our women. Fran Bungay and Marie Meldrum (W40-44) respectively picked up silver and bronze medals and are definitely performers to highlight.”

Read the full race report here.

 

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