Michelle Parsons racing for Team Tri UK won the 5^th annual Upton Standard Distanced Triathlon on Saturday finishing an impressive 21^st overall out the Mens and Womens fields combined and building a winning margin of almost three minutes over second placed Christina jenkins from Ful-On Tri in a time of 2 hours 20 minutes and 46 seconds.

The event which takes place around the picturesque town of Upton on Severn starts with a 1500m swim in the River Severn before a two lap 40 km bike course taking in a circuit through Earls Croome, Kinnersley, Clifton and Severn Stoke and then finishes with a two lap 10km run around the fields and meadow next to the River.  Many athletes are attracted to the race from the South East because of the location and the fact it is one of the few races to be held on a Saturday rather than a Sunday making travelling longer distances much more convenient.  Once again the race was sold out well in advance this year.

Michelle posted her best swim time for the 1500m swim for many seasons at 25 minutes and 42 seconds but this still left her trailing most of the other females swimmers.  As usual though the Tri UK athlete soon set about overtaking those in front of her (both female and male) as she recorded a phenomenal bike course time of 1 hour and 9 minutes and 20 seconds.  This was the fastest female bike split time of the day and over five minutes quicker than the next fastest.

The long transition area on the meadow at Upton meant that the bike times were actually slightly longer than real ride time but also Michelle’s speedy transition skills put her out onto the run course quicker than most and she covered the undulating multi terrain run in 42 minutes and 58 seconds to take the victory.

Thankfully for the competitors the heavy downpours of rain didn’t arrive in Upton until after the race had finished and in fact conditions were good for fast times.  Michelle’s time was 5 minutes quicker than last year’s winner and the best time recorded on this extended course.

Michelle’s husband Phil, made it a family double by winning the male race in a time of 2 hours and 4 minutes and 55 seconds. The Worcester Tri Club athlete set up his win by producing one of the quicker swim times of the day covering the downstream course in 17 minutes and 56 seconds.  He maintained his advantage of the bike completing the 40km in 1 hour 5 minutes and 58 seconds before running a respectable 38.40 for the 10km run.

Evesham athlete Iain Jennings, and a first year member of Worcester Tri Club, came home 3^rd in his age category and 5^th overall in a time of 2.13.07 making up a lot of time on the quicker swimmers on the bike and run where he has undoubted strength.

Next home was Evesham Running Club’s Danny Harris in a time of 2.22.34 making him 27^th overall.  Harris suffered a double whammy of a mechanical issue during the bike section and then upset stomach during the run.  The latter caused by drinking too much of the River Severn during his least favourite 1500m swim.  Chasing close behind was another Evesham athlete completing his first standard distanced triathlon, Dan Gregory.  Dan produced an excellent performance to finish in 2.23.34 including a 1.12.08 bike split time (31^st overall).  Not to be outdone Evesham’s Lee Oliver knocked a great chunk of time off his result from 2010 to finish 2.45.07 (170^th overall).

Worcester Tri Club veterans Mark Elliott and Les Bailey also completed the standard distance race both finishing in very good times within their respective age categories.  Elliott came home in 2.26.07, for once without any major mishap to finish 47^th overall and super veteran once again showed his incredible endurance to finish in 3.04.12 making him 232^nd overall out of the 265 finishers in the standard distanced race.

The sprint distance event saw a few more local athletes competing.  Worcester Tri Club’s Richard Gill finished 4^th overall in 1 hour 13 minutes and 17 seconds just behind his good friend Robert Biddlecombe who recorded an excellent time of 1.09.04 to take 2^nd place.  A week before tying the knot Marianne Day of teach Echelon won a very close female Sprint race in a time of 1.19.12 just 24 seconds ahead of second place.

Michelle Parsons now heads off to Europe for her next two races.  The first being a half ironman distanced triathlon in Italy in two weeks and then the full Ironman distance Triathlon in Regensburg in early August.

Michelle Parsons racing for Team Tri UK on Sunday clinched her first overall victory of the season in a half iron distance triathlon at the Diga in Nibbiano, Italy.

The event was being held for the first at the picturesque setting at the Nibbiano Dam and started with 1.9km swim in the lake created by the dam and then a two lap bike course totalling 82km including some significant climbs around the surrounding area before finishing with a two lap run totalling 20km.

Michelle was competing against a field of only Italian triathletes and was soon out of the swim in 12th position in an impressive time of 34 minutes and 21 seconds. Her deficit to the leader at this point was almost ten minutes but she soon started to work her way through the field and by the end of the first lap she had reduced that deficit to just 1 minute 30 seconds and almost into the overall lead. By the end of the second lap she had not only taken the overall lead but she had built a lead of almost 7 minutes. She recorded the fastest bike split of 2 hours 41 minutes and 53 seconds. Some 10 minutes quicker than the next fastest female biker of the day.

Onto the run and the warm weather turned to drizzle. This didn’t stop the Tri UK athlete from keeping her significant lead even though the chasing Italian athletes closed the gap slightly Michelle came home in an overall time of 4 hours 36 minutes and 52 seconds. Her run split was an impressive 1 hour 20 minutes 38 seconds for the 20km undulating run.

The winner of the male event was Daniel Weil from Switzerland in a total time of 4.11.53. second place was Phil Parsons from Worcester Triathlon club in 4.12.41.

Kevin May had a quite a unfortunate first puncturing at the start of the bike course and then losing a contact lens and costing him a significant amount of time. He continued on to finish strongly in a time of 4.49.10 in 44th place overall.

The day before the half iron distanced race was a shorter distanced event attracting an impressive field of over 200 hundred athletes and some of the country’s elite triathletes.

Two of Michelle’s Worcester Triathlon Club fellow members were local athletes veteran Les Bailey and Iain Jennings. Both were recovering from recent illnesses and both produced impressive performances. Jennings came home with a strong run to finish in a time of 1 hour 19 minutes and 32 seconds to finish 32nd overall and Bailey once again won his age category in a time of 1.49.05.

Next weekend Michelle is competing the National 50 mile time trial championships.