THE Herts and Essex Super Series Triathlon was back last weekend for 2022 after a 2-year absence due to the Pandemic, the super series consists of four races between local clubs all of which are FREE to enter.

The Clubs taking part are East Essex Triathlon Club, Comrades Triathlon Club, Tri Sport Essex, Harlow Running & Triathlon Club, Walden Triathlon Club and Stortford Triathlon Club.

The first race was a duathlon (4k run, a 16k bike and a 2k run) at Redbridge Cycling Centre on Sunday hosted by Tri Sport Essex, 24 athletes took part some Solo and others in a relay format, the points scoring system consists of the top 7 male and female finishers score between 50 and 20 points and every other finisher scoring 5 points each.

At the end of the first race Harlow Running & Tri Club were overjoyed to have our Pas Blackwell and Fieke Blackwell over the line in 1^stplace male and female. Harlow are leading the way on 325 points and Tri Sport Essex coming a close 2^nd on 305 points. 

Gail Nicholls Head Coach said “The Super Series is something that I’ve been passionate about since we first took part in 2019 in which we came 1^st overall the other clubs. All our clubs have stayed connected over the last 2 years and when we decided to get it together for 2022, we couldn’t have been more excited. It’s been in the planning for 6 months now and all the clubs have worked hard to plan the forthcoming races. These races are free to all members each club taking a turn to host or participate in some way with venue costs, marshalling, equipment, and refreshments all paid for by their respective clubs. The whole concept is to get members involved in Triathlon events and taking part in some shape or form. Triathlon isn’t a cheap sport with race fees so having raced for free is a fantastic opportunity. We encourage all members to come along and have a go and by racing gives those newbies experience in a race scenario and also a fantastic social environment too!”. 

We spoke to some of our members after the race about their experience of Sunday, Liz Roberts was taking part with her partner Martin Westley. Liz doing the Bike Leg and Martin the runs.

Liz and Martin said: “It was a great morning and lovely to see so many members getting involved, we both really enjoyed being able to race together as a team and the inclusiveness of the event. The support from the competitors and Marshalls was great and the event was well organised. We are looking forward to taking part in the rest of the races in the series.

Iain Bulloch doing the race solo said “The super series race was a small, friendly, and free local event set up by local clubs. As a newcomer to Duathlon, it was a good experience, and everyone was very supportive. I’m looking forward to doing more in the series this summer”

Jon Waight another solo competitor said “The course was hard with running on the undulating track, hilly at times Bike then back into that last run but I really enjoyed it plus was a great sunny morning! It was well organised even though there weren’t any time chips the manual timing structure by the Marshalls was spot on! It will be great to see a few more members racing in the next race”

The second race will be another Duathlon at Carver Barracks in Saffron Walden on Monday  13th June, hosted by Walden Triathlon Club, followed by the third race an Aquathlon at Trifarm (800m lake swim and 5k run) hosted by East Essex Triathlon Club on Wednesday the 29th of June and lastly the last race another Aquathlon at Dartford on 9^th August hosted by both Comrades and Harlow. If you would like more information about joining Harlow Running & Tri Club please contact the membership secretary Laura Prime @
https://www.harlowrunningandtriclub.org.uk/