National elite titles on the line in Windsor
12th June 2014
Many of Britain's best triathletes will descend on Windsor this Sunday for the 2014 British Elite Standard Distance Triathlon Championships, which are also the second leg of the British Triathlon Super Series.
The Triathlonguard Windsor Triathlon has been named British Triathlon's event of the year seven times and high standards are expected to be maintained this year across the Elite and mass-field races, in Sprint, Standard Distance and Team Relay.
The Super Series got underway last week with a Sprint race over the 750m swim, 19.8km bike, 5.7km course at the Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research Blenheim Palace Triathlon, where Matt Sharp won the men's race and Emma Pallant the women's to take early leads in this season's standings.
Some of the Elite racers who lined up at Blenheim are focusing theirefforts on the 2014 ETU European Standard Distance Championships next weekend but many will be competing over the Standard Distance course of 1.5km/42km/10km at Windsor looking to build on their performances at Blenheim.
Katie Synge, who came fifth at Blenheim said: "Obviously Windsor is double the distance of Blenheim so it's a completely different race but I hope to back up my Blenheim performance with another good swim and get in the lead pack on the bike.
"I'll be doing all four races of the Super Series. It's always good to put in good performances in the Super Series, especially the British Triathlon Championships Liverpool and the Windsor Triathlon as they are Elite championships as well. It gives you a chance to compete against other British athletes and to see where you are at."
Synge will be joined on the start line by her fellow top-10 finishers from Blenheim Lucy Smith, Alice Sharpe and Hannah Kitchen.
The men's field features two of last year's top three in the final Super Series rankings. Stuart Hayes came second at Windsor and in the final rankings, and he will be joined by Andrew Christy, who came third in last year's Super Series final rankings and 10th at Windsor.
Hayes, who represented Great Britain at the London 2012 Olympic Games, won the Windsor event in 2009 and will be up against another returning champion in Richard Stannard, who first raced at Windsor 17 years ago and won the race in 2007 and 2008.
Christy said: "It's always a great event and although I'm not quite in the same shape as last year I'm still hoping to give it a good shot and to improve on last year's result. My main aim this year is to try to peak for the British Triathlon Championships Liverpool."
The 2014 Triguard Windsor Triathlon will be broadcast on Channel 4 at 7am on Sunday 29th June.