Pair tri hard - to good effect

MAMMOTH Triathletes Will Dorsett and Karl Read competed at the Norwich Triathlon on Sunday based at Whitlingham Broad - and both finished in the top ten.

The event in its fourth year comprises of two distances the Olympic (1500m swim, 38k bike and 10k run) and Sprint (750m swim, 18k bike and 5k run). Will was entered into the Olympic race and Karl the Sprint.

The Olympic event was first to start, and Will was in the first wave with a total of some 260 competitors taking part.

While Will is now in his second year of triathlon, this was the first time he had competed in the Olympic distance although his duathlon racing in the spring should hold him in good stead.

Will had a strong swim, exiting his wave in a creditable 13th position, in a time of 25:21.

Will was swiftly onto his bike for his strongest discipline and had a very good leg, on what is an undulating course with some technical turns.

Will raced back to transition with a bike time of 1-02:03, in his inimitable style, and set off for the demanding 10K run. The sun had now got out and so this was a very warm and testing run. There was nothing to be concerned about and all the hard winter training had paid off with Will overtaking a few more competitors to finish in a brilliant fourth place overall, final time 2:04:52 and good enough to win his age group.

Karl was off in the final wave, competing against 110 entrants. Karl swam the 750m course very well, exiting his wave in first position some 80 yards ahead of the second-placed man in a time of 11:38.

Quickly into the transition, Karl had a strong bike leg, feeling very comfortable, with a time of 33:21 and still leading his wave.

Onto the run which is his weakest discipline of the three, but Karl by his own standards ran well in what felt a very long 5k. Karl's final time was 1-16:15, giving him a position of seventh place overall and second in his age group.