Rain Fails to Dampen the Spirits of Competitors in the Sefton Triathlon

Lashing rain and howling winds did nothing to dampen the spirits of the 1,200 people who took part in Saturday's Formby Cycles Sefton Triathlon at Crosby Leisure. Olympic and Commonwealth medal winners, ex-sports stars and celebrities joined men, women and children of all ages to make the event a resounding success and cement is position as the world's biggest community triathlon.

Light drizzle and a slight breeze at the start of the event soon made way for far more severe conditions, making the 2.5km running course and the 5km cycling route, in particular, quite treacherous. But that did not put off the competitors, with Olympic silver medallist, Steve Parry, who finished 17th in last year's event, kicking things off for the second year running in the pool.
He was followed by fellow Olympic medal winner, Steve Smith, whose race was cruelly cut short when he pulled a calf muscle as he set off on the running stage - although he did make it to the finishing line, hobbling over with the help of Parry.

Parry said, " I'm so proud to be involved in something so cool in Sefton and I take my hat off to the guys at St Mary's College for organising such a great event. It is tremendous watching people of all ages and abilities having a go, we even had some guys who had come straight from an Iron Man event in France to take part today, which is fantastic and shows what a great event it is."

Steve Smith said, " Unfortunately I got on the run and felt my calf pop. It's a shame because after last year's poor show[he finished well outside the top 100 in a time of around 40mins] I had actually trained really hard, but what can you do ?"

Renewing old football rivalries were ex-Everton skipper Dave Watson and Liverpool legend Alan Kennedy, with Watson utilising his marathon running experience to pull clear on the run. But even the former tough tackling defender found conditions challenging. Watson said, "It was tough with those conditions. Going one way was OK. But as soon as you turned around there were gale- force winds, which made it very difficult, despite that it was great to see so many people turn out and raise so much money for the various charities.

Kennedy said, "I would class that as one of the best and worst experiences I have had for a long time. Last year I climbed a mountain in Burma for charity and that was tough. But doing this triathlon in 35-40 minutes is probably the hardest thing I've done since then. This was my first triathlon, which, at the age of 52, isn't bad, but it might be my last - it was very, very hard work. Everybody who completed it deserves their medal because that was very hard indeed."
John Tasker, owner of Formby Cycles, who are sponsoring the event for 3 years and giving £30,000 to the race and the charities it supports said, "That was very tough. I did quite a bit of training but the conditions made it very hard. It is a great day and I'm happy to be involved in such a wonderful community sporting event."

Organiser John Moran said, "I would like to thank all those who took part and especially all the volunteers, marshals and everybody else who helped with the organisation in the weeks leading up to the event. We have broken 2 records in this year's event by having 1,200 competitors taking part and raising over £40,000 for the nominated charities."