Feb:28 Ladies in open water

Open water swimming is always a bit of a challenge, though why ladies should find it harder than men is a mystery... Anyway, Swim for Tri and Tri and Run are organising an open water training day in the safety of Waltham Forest College Pool on May-02. Bring your wetsuit or, if you haven't got one, they'll hire you one for the weekend. The 3-hour session will be broken down into drills, a coached swim and rough water practices and will cost you £30. For details please email .

Feb:28 Places left at Ironman camp

Tri-Iznajar still have places left on their May Ironman camp. The camp runs from May-14 to May-21 and will be led by Lawrence Oldershaw. It's aimed at all athletes targeting a summer Ironman. Full details are available on their website or by email to .

Feb:25 Lessing signs with Ironman Wetsuits

Simon Lessing's long-term association with the Aquaman brand has finally ended and he's now officially an Ironman Wetsuit sponsored athlete. Although he will continue to mix short and long-distance racing it's obvious that his sights are now firmly set on the big one -- Hawaii -- although, ironically, the suits will be of more use to him in cold water races such as Alcatraz. For more information check out the Ironman Wetsuits website.

Feb:25 Swindon Duathlon goes back in time

The tenth anniversary of the Swindon Duathlon sees it return to Wroughton Airfield, near Swindon -- a venue some of the more ancient among us may remember! The race also gets a new sponsor in Guru, the Canadian bike company. Because of the traffic-free (and hill-free) venue, the organisers, Tri Ferris Promotions, are including other events such as fun runs, drafting races for the elite, junior and youth contingents and hope to be including wheelchair athletes as well. The Science Museum, who now manage the facility, will be open free of charge throughout the day. Further information and entry forms can be found on the Tri Ferris website.

Feb:24 Windsor is FULL

Hard to believe, given that it is February and the snow is still trying to settle on the ground but, according to the Human Race website, Windsor is now officially full for 2005. Based on last year that should see around 2,200 racers on the day and, according to a brief email from John Lunt, one of the strongest elite fields in country this year.

Feb:22 BTA names its elite

The BTA website is currently carrying a list of the Elite athletes that it is putting forward as the World Cup squad and, for the first time we can remember, it has also published the criteria by which these athletes were selected. One can only presume that, for at least one of the athletes, Rule 2.5 comes into play as there yet again seems to be a case of selection based on past potential rather than recent results.

Feb:16 Regional news

Dates for the 2005 West Midlands Duathlon series have been announced; they are Worcester (Mar-20), Hereford (May-01) and Halesowen (Nov-06). Athletes must compete in two of the three races to qualify, results will be updated on the TriPeople website.

The entry form for the 2005 Eastern Region Sprint Triathlon and Main Series are now available on the Eastern Region website.

Feb:14 Events update

The organisers have told us that the Sevenoaks Spring Triathlon on 17 April 2005 is now full.

However, any triathletes running the London Marathon, or in Ironman training mode may wish to know that there are still some places open in this Sunday's (Feb-20) Dover Mercury Half Marathon. The race is held around the quiet lanes near Dover and based at the Duke of Yorks Royal Military School. Entry forms can be downloaded from www.dealtri.co.uk or if you want an entry on the day please be nice and early please as the race starts at 10:00 am.

Feb:13 220 Awards

We didn't go to the awards dinner last night (although Sigma kindly invited us) so we don't know the whole story but we do know that Sigma Sport picked up the Triathlon Retailer of the Year award and Human Race (nice site re-design, John) scooped Race of the Year for Windsor giving them the double after getting the BTA Award for Windsor at the AGM last year. Oh, and apparently we came second in the website category -- not that anyone told us that we were even nominated! Many thanks for the recognition and congratulations to whoever actually did win (someone said that Tri Talk got it but there's nothing on their site).

Feb:13 New race in the NorthEast

Not satisfied with re-launching their club as Hartlepooltriathletes.com, the club will be staging their first ever race in 2005. The Hartlepool Marina Sprint Triathlon, which will also be the North East Sprint Championship, is to be held on Sunday 28 August and will feature a 750m swim in the Marina, a s0k bike to Seal Sands and back and then a flat 5k run. Entry forms are available from their spiffy new website.

Feb:11 New BTA Handbook

The new BTA Handbook landed on the doormat this morning and, in all honesty, it's nice to be able to say that someone obviously took notice of the comments made about the 2004 edition. Spiral bound so you can actually open the pages, smaller so you can carry it around, separate rules booklet for easy reference (shame they didn't highlight changed rules) and generally tidied up. Still not sure about the events ranking system, too many options and symbols but at least you can flip the key out to refer while reading. Overall, a major improvement.

Feb:10 National Elite Champs find a new home?

It's always the same! You sneak off for a few days holiday, somewhere where there's no internet and the phones don't work, and you get back to find that the rumours have started... Rumours that come from anonymous email accounts that have been closed down as soon as the mail has been sent so you know that they probably belong to people who need to keep their identity under wraps for just a little bit longer.

So, enough of the tittilation: it looks as though there's a strong possibility that the National Elite Championships may be heading for the London Triathlon. On the face of it that seems to make sense: it's a proven venue, it's nothing to do with the now departed Nova International, it has guaranteed TV coverage and it has the infrastructure to cope. But, dig a bit deeper and there are a few cracks in the idea. First, it's the same weekend as the Hamburg ITU World Cup (Aug-7) which may make it a bit of an awkward choice for any elite athlete wanting to get ITU points [remember that they had to use a 3 line whip last year to ensure that elite didn't miss Liverpool...] and secondly, something over 70% of the athletes doing London are non-BTA so it's a bit of an oddity to hold the Championships at an event where there are so few BTA athletes.

Oh, and London is sponsored by an alcoholic beverage. Now, we aren't clear what the BTA's policies are on sponsorship these days -- they don't seem to have a public one -- but while Bud Light used to sponsor races over here back in the 80s it's obvious that Michelob are putting themselves in the frame as a 'lifestyle' drink and we aren't entirely sure that it is appropriate for the BTA to harness its elite athletes to that particular sort of branding... Age groupers, no problem, but elite?

Feb:05 Wetsuits at Sandown

Batman's Ironman wetsuit will be raffled off at the Triathlon Cycling Running Show, Sandown Park on Feb-12 or Feb-13. So, last chance to get those tickets at £1 each via the Team Deviant website or his own JustGiving website.

If you don't win the suit in the raffle, Ironman Wetsuits themselves are running a free draw for anyone buying an Ironman Wetsuit at TCR05 with the prize of a free race entry to an Ironman North America Race of the athletes choosing. (There will be an alternate prize available if they don't want to race and that's a free weekend's swim course with Swim for Tri). To enter the draw just pick up a card from the retailer selling the suit, fill in their contact details and hand it in at the Ironman Wetsuits Swimzone along with a copy of their invoice.

Feb:05 West Midlands Series

Athletes living in the West Midlands region will be able to compete in a regional series again this year. The selected events are: Malvern (May-15), Redditch (May-22), Hereford (Jul-10), Worcester (Aug-07), Wolverhampton Standard (Aug-28), Wombourne (Sep-11) and Cobra (Sep-18). Competitors must live in the Region and complete four of the seven races to qualify. Very generous prizes have been supplied by Up and Runing and further details can be obtained from .

Jan:31 Annie launches training camps

Annie Emmerson has joined forces with Andrew Potter and Dorothy Cooper to launch T3Performance. Their initial offerings are a series of workshops at Esporta Chiswick Park on Feb-12, Feb-27 and Mar-03 to cater for beginners and 'not so beginners'. The courses will focus on swimming as they recognise this is often the most challenging element. Annie and Andrew will also be speaking at the TCR show on Sunday Feb-13. All the initial courses are one-day (9am to 6pm) events and cost £85 or £75 for Esporta members - all inclusive of lunch and all refreshments.

You can find all the details of their events via the website or by emailing Andrew, Annie or Dorothy at .

Jan:28 London Region AGM

The Annual General Meeting of the London Region will take place on Wednesday, Mar-02 at 1900hrs at SkillsActive's head office in Castlewood House, 77-91 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1PX. In accordance with the current constitution, members are invited to nominate candidates to stand for vacancies on the London Region Committee. Everyone in the Region should have received an email with further information, including vacant positions and job descriptions of all roles. If you have not, and would like to be sent a copy, please email .

Jan:25 SouthEast Championships, anyone?

Now that the South East Region has absorbed the old Southern Region it has increased in size to cover Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. Approximately 25% of British Triathlon members reside in the new Region and there are in excess of 60 clubs. The BTA South East Regional Committee would like to offer South East region event organizers the opportunity to host the 2005 BTA South East Regional Championships. With such a large catchment, the Regional Championship event would potentially attract a large field, who would rightly expect the quality of the event to befit the status.

If you would like your event to be considered as host race for the 2005 BTA South East Regional Championships please submit your request and details of the event to the Regional Committee by Feb-09. Applications should be submitted to Martin Harris (mharris at itwdelfast dot co dot uk).

Jan:22 Volunteers needed

The BTA need volunteers to help run the Quintana Roo Indoor Triathlon at the Triathlon Cycling and Running 2005 exhibition, Sandown Park on Feb-12/13. In return for your efforts, you will be entitled to a free pass into the exhibition (worth £9.50). For further information, or to put your name forward, please contact Tim Weeks on 07739 526 558 or .

Jan:21 Sherborne bike and run now online

The new bike and run courses for IMUK are online, no maps yet but there's a full description with all the road numbers that you should be able to follow on a decent area map. See the Ironman UK website for more details.

Jan:20 Nova and BTA part company

So, the BTA National Elite Championships won't be a Nova International event in 2005 then... As we suggested earlier when the BTA announced their major events list and left the Elite Champs off, we did wonder where the event would be hosted after its lightning tour of cities with money to burn; Stockton, Swansea and Liverpool. [And, when we say money we are talking six figure sums here -- and how much of that gets into the BTA coffers? As Paul Daniels used to say: "Not a lot!!!"] The BTA website has details and some fairly vapourous comments from both sides... ...but no information yet as to where the Champs will be located. One interesting question might be as to whether the departure of the previous BTA Chairman had anything to do with Nova's decision although money (or lack of it) was obviously an overriding factor. Suggestion for the new Chair: go back to the way things used to be and run a proper Open Championship at the best race venue you can find!

Jan:12 HIMUK update

The pre-registration opened for HIMUK today and within 4 hours 400 people were keen enough to put their names down. Of course, those aren't entries, the actual race hasn't been announced yet, but it is yet more evidence of a growing enthusiasm for going long among this country's triathletes. Now, there's an obvious commercial opportunity for the BTA: a National Long Course Championship, which they own... Want to see what's happening in the USA about National Championships? Go take a look at the Slowtwitch website for one of Dan's incisive editorials on that particular issue!

Back to IMUK, we understand that the new course will be unveiled within a couple of weeks so keep an eye on their website for news.

Jan:07 Kelly College camps

Kelly College are running two 1-week residential triathlon camps for athletes 13 to 17 years old. The first runs from Mar-28 to Apr-03, the second from Jul-24 to Jul-30. The camp is being run by Kelly's triathlon coach Rich Brady and the cost is £280. For further details contact or phone them on 01822 610817.

Jan:04 Paula Craig gets MBE

Congratulations to Paula Craig on her MBE in the New Years Honours. The official wording is for her services to the Police, she's a Detective Sergeant [UPDATE: no, make that Inspector...] in the Met, but we'll take that as at least partly honouring her through her continued involvement in triathlon and Aspire, the disability charity.

Jan:04 More New Years results

We can't remember this many events taking place over the Christmas and New Year for quite a while - must have been something to do with the double weekend. Deal Tri also got in on the act with an allegedly 'non-competitive' [yeah, right...] 5km run/walk/stagger in aid of Breast Cancer Care Charity. The run proved very popular with both local runners and the public and nearly 400 [see what we mean...] turned up on the morning raising in excess of £2000 for the good cause. Results were not important, but Lynton Lythgoe (Deal Tri) was first male, and Nikki Barron (also Deal Tri) were home in around 17 minutes. Full results courtsey of Ian Pettitt are now on the Deal Tri website.

Jan:04 Course needs people

A few weeks ago we posted a link to the tritalk website's Endurance Training Camp thread. Course details are now available on the SevernFitness website but apparently take-up has been slow and unless a few more show interest the course will be cancelled.

Jan:03 Yes, we're still here...

It's just that it's very quiet at the moment with only a couple of results from races over Christmas and the New Year to report. In fact, about the only think that seems to be generating any 'news' is the TriTalk forum but that's mainly as a result of Speedy Gonzales' postings!