Chatsworth House, the seat of the Duke of Devonshire, provided the beautiful surroundings for the Peak District Triathlon at Chatsworth on Sunday, the final opportunity for age-group athletes to qualify for the 2017 ETU European Championships

The third edition of the Peak District Triathlon at Chatsworth, organized by Xtra Mile Events, attracted an entry of 1000 athletes for its Standard and Sprint distance offerings on Sunday. Well over 600 of those were entrants for the Sprint distance event, which was the last of three qualification races for athletes to secure their spots on the Great Britain team which will travel to Dusseldorf next year. All of that would ensure some high quality racing.

The front of the men’s race would see a very tight battle, which saw the first two athletes separated by just nine seconds at the finish. Benjamin Goodall (Durham University Tri Club), proved his credentials in the water once again with a blistering swim split that was almost 40 seconds faster than anyone else. To that he added a fifth best overall bike time, which meant that any challenger was going to need to produce a fantastic run. That athlete, almost, was Alex Lawton (TORQ Fitness). Giving up a full two minutes to Benjamin in the swim, Alex was still a similar distance in arrears staring the 5km run. He produced the best split of the day, 1:20 faster than anyone else, but he would come up just short and finish in second place by just nine seconds. Andrey Brightwell (Medway Tri) completed the podium.

The women’s event at Chatsworth saw a dominant performance from the experienced Rhian Roxburgh (Gog Triathlon). Many times a Welsh champion, Roxburgh was a clear winner thanks to a third fastest swim, fastest bike and second fastest run combination; fantastic consistency across the three disciplines from an athlete who has several World and European Championship medals to her name.

Harriet Hughes (Serpentine Running Club) and Erica Booth (Tri-Rivington UK) took second and third overall respectively. The bike leg appeared to be the key at Chatsworth, with the top three female athletes all recording the fastest three splits on the challenging Peak District cycle route.

Peak District Triathlon at Chatsworth - Sunday 3rd July 2016

750m swim, 21km cycle, 5km run

Men

1st – Benjamin Goodall (Durham University Tri Club) – 1:05:08

2nd – Alex Lawton (TORQ Fitness) – 1:05:17

3rd – Andrey Brightwell (Medway Tri) – 1:06:31

Women

1st – Rhian Roxburgh (Gog Triathlon) – 1:14:33

2nd – Harriet Hughes (Serpentine Running Club) – 1:17:48

3rd – Erica Booth (Tri-Rivington UK) – 1:19:21

Full results: Vist here

Qualification status: Visit here