Well done to Gary on his performance at the weekend and best of luck for next. Ed
On the 23rd September, London hosted the Virgin Triathlon at the Excel Expo Center in Docklands.
This popular event attracts over 3,000 competitors and sees the likes of Richard Branson, Jenson Button and David Hasslehof making appearances.
As TRIUK is a major sponsor of the event, its team of athletes were invited to compete at the event racing alongside some of the country’s top age-groupers. East Cowes based Gary Kurth took full advantage of this opportunity and traveled up to race in this late season triathlon.
Arriving extremely late meant Kurth had enough time to sprint to the swim start and leave the bike racking and transition set up to his wife who, with the help of the marshals, was able to sort out the bike racking.
Exiting the 1500m swim in the front pack of 4 in 21min, Kurth struggled to locate his transition spot in the maze of 2000 bikes but was still able to stick with the front pack for the bike leg.
A good bike of 1hr 01min for the 40km on closed roads in central London set things up for a top 20 finish. Slow run times lead to the assumption that the run course was longer than advertised but non the less, Kurth managed a fine result of 17th overall out of the 2000 Olympic distance athletes and 2nd male 30-34.
Gary Kurth will be traveling to France this weekend with fellow athlete Jack Grundy to race in the French Cup, a 6 man team triathlon over the shorter faster sprint distances.
