Organiser

Name: Ty Whitlock.

Occupation: Fire fighter

Ty has been involved in X Training for a great many years. He is respected by everybody - he is devoted to this sport and constantly arranging a challenging event with excellent judging and time keeping at the Hampshire Esporta Health Club. He is also an outstanding highly qualified personal trainer.

WGC. Wale is a teacher from the Itchen College , Southampton. He has stepped up to the mark and introduced a group of Students called the Itchen Eagles to see how X Training is  run today .

WGC How many students came along today Wale

Wale: Six Students

WGC: What are their ages?

Wale : Between 16 and 17.

WGC: Are they all keen athletes at the moment , or trying something different and seeing what X Training has to offer?

Wale: They are all keen athletes, but the one thing all want to do is join the public services, or become fitness instructors, so I take then for a unit at College called Physical Preparation and Public Service Fitness. They all want to be fit and this is to keep them focused.

WGC: Have you  done X Training before Wale or is this something new to you as well.

Wale: I competed about in the Tropicana National Cross Training Championships and also the Superteams in 1999.

WGC: So what brought you back to X Training?

Wale: I have always had an interest in X Training even though I haven’t competed for some time. My training has always been X Training based and to show my students the benefits of X Training, we entered this event.

I have always kept up with the internet links. Dbmax , UKXTA – sometimes just for ideas in what to do for my classes.

WGC: Are you classes aimed at a specific age group?

Wale: Mostly 16 to 19 that I teach.

WGC: Do you do Personal Training outside of that?

Wale: I don’t get enough time. I do Youth work as well in the evenings.

WGC: When you do your youth work what does that involve

Wale: It involves engaging with young people between 13 and 24. And funny enough we have just been donated some fitness equipment at the Youth Club, so I am going to be training some of those kids as well.

WGC: How old are you now Wale?

Wale:35

WGC:Does this mean we may see Wale come back into X Training challenges in the future?

Wale: Next year I hope to train for the intermediate one, I’m slightly out of shape at the moment, but I am looking forward to it – it will be good.

WGC. And of course you will try and get your students to come along and support you – or compete too

Wale: Yes. They will be doing the intermediate next year too.

WGC: Do you know of many people within the X Training community - Do you aspire to any of them? Do you keep track of who’s doing what in these events.

Wale:Well upstairs we have seen Kirk Gibbons, so all my students want a picture with him which we go on to our College web site .Also Hywel Davies, Cassius Frankson, Rob Volpe in the masters, Will Whitmore from dbmax and Jacqui Macquisten those are the guys who names keep popping up.

WGC: Thank you Wale .I commend you for doing all your work especially the youth work and bringing the young people into the sport right now , which is what this sport needs for the sport to grow. It’s great hearing about your past involvement and how you have kept in touch with events – its fantastic that you have down here to see how it works now and especially bringing your students with you. Thank you very much Wale and well done.

Quote of the day

"I need to thank you and the other competitors and organisers for making the youngsters really feel like part pf the sport. Kirk's gesture of giving his trophy to one of my students who struggled on the team bench press was priceless!!"

Many thanks  

Wale Olufunwa

Kirk Gibbons

Race Report

By Stuart Leng.

The excellent Esporta gym in Southampton was the venue for the Hampshire Fire X-Training Challenge. This is the longest running event in X-Training and due to the hard work of Ty Whitlock provided another superbly organised competition.

A new sprint event was the pipe-opener, with the vast majority of entrants coming from the Itchen Eagles, a local college nearby, with whom Ty has done a great deal of hard work. There were 6 entries in both categories and local girl Hayley Wright came an excellent second in 7:21. The other two places were filled by two of Steve Dowse’s personal training clients, with Emily Lockhart 3rd in 7:43. His girlfriend Rebecca Robert was a comfortable winner in 6:36 to supplement her recent victory in the Dubai sprint. Rebecca will be a very interesting competitor in next year’s Intermediate Grand Prix.

Liam Dowling was third in the male sprint in 8:31 and it was very tight for the top two places with Aaron Martin 2nd in 7:47 just 13 seconds behind Olawale Olufunwa-who gave the commentator a few headaches!

There was a very heavy entry in both Intermediate categories. Laura Pearce set the early pace with 16:45, before a great race between the classy Nicola Humphrey and the unknown Sally Wood, a local Triathlete  was only settled on the bench press by Nicola In 15:42. Hayley Deighan and Carolyne Waywell, both from Dragons in Sale had a battle royal in the next race with Hayley just having the edge in 15:19 ten seconds ahead of Carolyne.  Local girl Michele Gaultier, another tri athlete flew down the course on her own in the final race to win easily in 14.30-a shame she doesn't’t do a few more.

Sean Blyth held the lead for a period with 16:36 before the unknown Scott Young obliterated that with 14:26 which the following 16 competitors could get nowhere near. Second and third place was fought out by Calso’s Russell Stenning and Keith McGurk who had a great race with Russell 2nd in 14:51, 11 seconds ahead of Keith. Nigel Pinney and Stacey Cross from Calso were an unlucky 4th and 5th in 15:06 and 15:10 respectively.

The Open event is a very tough course and was reflected in the times. Valerie Ritchie battled away to take third in the Ladies Masters in 29:43 and Francis Walton knocked nearly 5 minutes off last year’s time to take second in 26:36. The comfortable winner in 24:31 was Sue Regan-Watts. It was good to see Teresa Clixby-Smith competing again with a solid fourth in 24:18. Hayley Powell came off a night shift at the local fire station to secure her first podium finish in 23:50- a well-earned result for a gutsy competitor. The ever consistent Trudi Hawksworth was just 7 seconds ahead of Hayley, but both were well adrift of a superlative Becky Ciel performance in 21:34. It sure would have been interesting to see whether Kirsty Reid or the SuperMac could have beaten that.

The men found the going equally tough and Tony Fountain led for a while in 23:21 with Tony McGarr and Nelson Anderson leading the Masters in 24:14. Simon Bellinger set 22:42, before a great race between Kevin Dykes and the evergreen Gary Nicholls produced new leaders for both categories with 22:36 and 23:17 respectively. Kirk Gibbons comfortably won his race against Steve Dowse to take 3rd in the Open in21:26. A brilliant race between Gary Nicholas and Steve Oxlade settled the minor placings in the Masters with Gary overtaking Steve on the bench after trailing most of the race in 21:54 and 22:00 respectively. Sylburn Miller was a surprisingly easy winner in a fantastic time of 20:39 before the last race of the day between Will Whitmore and Andy Wood settled the top places in the Open. Andy was previously noted for preferring the lighter courses, but his second at Gorton and here showed he is equally effective on the heavier courses. Will, full of confidence after his great win in dubai always looked in control to win in 20:23.

Special mention should be made of the hard work by many of the young helpers which made the event run so smoothly. Their performance in the events and the judging and timekeeping was superb. A madcap team event finished the day and a fantastic array of trophies was given out by Ty at the presentation. Many stayed on for the Xmas Party afterwards, with Will putting in another trophy winning performance!!

No time to stop training as the infamous Ironman takes place on 10 February 2007-do you think you’re hard enough?

Ironman 2007 is an Extreme Event. Train hard.

WGC: Ty, half way through the day, how do you think it is going?

Ty: Good – a lot of good feedback from the competitors that entered the sprint and intermediate, which is a good thing. No unhappy people. And looking at the turnout – a superb turnout, which is good from my point of view. Looking at it now – the last two of the ladies open are going through. Again – no problems with the time keepers or judges and from my perspective it has been easier for me. So I am really happy. Really happy.

WGC: From a competitor point of view (me). It has been a fantastic event and I am really happy too – the judges have been great. And that guy that organises it is a little bit special too. He’s been around a few years in X Training and put a few years in to this sport. Remind me again – how many years?

Ty: Well Sean, this is the 14th year I have done it on behalf of the Hampshire Fire Service– and 11 years for the Open category – where friends and family could take part. I enjoy doing it. As long as everyone is happy and then I am happy.

WGC: Ok Ty, here’s a question – 14 years from now , where will this sport be?

Ty: Well I think with the good work a lot of people are doing, higher up then me, like yourself Sean and the UKXTA -well if this can’t be recognised as a really , really good sport and maybe an Olympic profile, or on the tester list. I will be very, very surprised. You know I can remember when it really took off years ago, hence my involvement with my clients and a few guys from the station and if we can do this in 14 years on limited budgets, limited venues the chances are good. And  if we start getting good sponsors in, I can’t see why in fourteen years, looking at some of the children that are here today, I can’t see why we won’t have a some quality Olympic athletes in this room right now.

WGC: Well said Ty. You are an absolute star and I am so proud of what you have done today.

Ty: Well done today Sean. I think you surpassed your own expectations .It was good – it is a tough course and anybody that enters this I have got nothing but admiration for them. And also the work you are doing Sean. I know it goes a little bit un noticed at times, but not from my angle – thanks very much.

WGC: Cheers Ty –I appreciate that