A TRIO of talented sportsmen entered as a Suffolk team in last weekend's Michelob Ultra London Triathlon Olympic Team Relay and ended up finishing an outstanding third overall.

By Carl Marston

A TRIO of talented sportsmen entered as a Suffolk team in last weekend's Michelob Ultra London Triathlon Olympic Team Relay and ended up finishing an outstanding third overall.

Fielding a Suffolk team was the brainchild of William Catchpole, a member of Ipswich Triathlon Club.

Catchpole initially recruited top Suffolk cyclist Steve Grimwood, from Ipswich Bicycle Club, and also persuaded leading Suffolk runner David Miller to run the anchor leg.

Shortly afterwards, he added Dale Barker, a British Masters champion from Stowmarket Swimming Club, to do the first leg.

All three live in Ipswich, and so they competed under the name of Ipswich XRT.

From a field of 451 teams competing in the Olympic Distance Relay, Ipswich XRT were a fantastic third in a combined time of 2hrs 03mins 21secs.

Miller said: “We were seven minutes faster than last year's winning time.

“In fact, six teams went faster than last year's winning time, and the winners were all professional athletes.

“We realised that our transition times were some way down the rankings, and in fact we had always said that that could be our Achilles heel.

“I think we could definitely improve on that in the future.”

Ipswich XRT splits were as follows: 1,500m swim (21.26, seventh fastest); first transition (2.57, 124th fastest), 40km bike ride (1.03.09, sixth fastest), second transition (1.20, 217th fastest); 10K run (34.31, fourth fastest).