Heavy snow in the Midlands and Wales on Thursday and Friday brought fears that this year's Ironman might have to be cancelled. Fortunately, the snow had disappeared by Saturday morning and those travelling on the day had a much easier journey than those who tried to be smart and travel on Friday. A full race line up of 72 competitors were scheduled to attend and it was a fantastic response that there was only one no-show.

For the first time in its history, there was an Intermediate category and 8 ladies took to the start line. In the first race, an interesting newcomer was Jenny Davies-Hoare, who entered at the last minute and is trained by ex-Ultrfit Masters Champion Phil Talbot. She did well to finish 6th, just behind another newcomer, Sally Cooper, who is the General Manager of Life of Leisure in Worcester. Carolyne Waywell came 3rd following her usual close tussle with Hayley Deighan and only 14 seconds seperated the Dragons clubmates. A surprise winner to many was 18 year old newcomer Samantha Saunt who scorched down the course to win by 70 seconds in 23:56. It was no surprise to her aunty and uncle, Lance and Trudi Hawksworth and she has obviously inherited their ability and passion for the sport.

  Sam Saunt                                                                      Carolyn Waywell

14 competitors lined up for the Men's Intermediate, including 5 Masters. There were some excellent close races throughout this category. Mark Rudkins from Calso took 3rd place in the Masters in 26:25. His race was followed by a momentous tussle between Calso clubmates John Currell and Russell Stenning which was only settled on the Weight Carry.John took 2nd place in the Masters in 21:59 and Russell 2nd in the Open in 21:48 In the penultimate race, there was another very tight encounter between Jamie Fraser and Pete Abraham, with Jamie securing 3rd place in the Open by 14 seconds in 23:35. The final race, although disappointing as a spectacle decided the winners of both categories, with Phil Rawle from Life Leisure taking 1st place in the Open in 21:26 and Paul Morton taking 1st place in the masters in 19:20

From left, Paul Morton,Mark Rudkins, Gary Webourne and Russell Stenning.

An excellent line up of 16 competitors wre on view in the Ladies Ironman. Valerie Ritchie took nearly 9 minutes off last year's time, narrowly beating Michele Wakefield in the first race. Chris Rayner beat her personal best to take 4th in the masters in 42:13. The popular Francis Walton smashed her time from last year to take an excellent 2nd place in the masters in 38:29.The 4th race brought another new star to the Ladies category, when Marie Mitchell from Dragons, Derby, trained by Kirk Gibbons produced a fantastic time of 35;18 to take 3rd in the Open.Wendy Terry had a very solid race against Gill Watson to take 5th in 35:54 only 2 seconds behind Trudi Hawksworth, who had a disappointing race against Kirsty Reid, due to illness. Gill put up her usual gutsy performance to take 3rd in the Masters in 38:42. Hayley Powell and Teresa Clixby-Smith had their usual close race, but both would have been disappointed with their times.One of the races of the day followed between Sue Regan-Watts and Becky Ciel. This was only settled on the weight carry when Sue put the  weights down by mistake, thinking she had finished, when she had 2 more studio lenghts to complete. Sue took first in the masters with a superb time of 33:08. Becky, who has been in a rich vein of from, took 2nd place in an excellent 32:59. The winner of the Open was the very impressive Kirsty Reid in 32:40. Kirsty doesn't appreciate how good she really is and will be the one they all have to beat if they want to win the first Grand Prix title.

Chris Rayner                                                                         Hayely Powell

32 men took part in the Ironman, 19 being Masters or Veterans.In the 4th race, ex-Dragons General Manager, Mel Brooke, set by far the fastest time of 34:57 which ultimately gave him an excellent 8th place in the Masters. Alan Storrow was only 4 seconds behind him in the next race. Race 7 provided a surprise 3rd place for newcomer Shane Fisher from Bristol in an excellent time of 34:40. Martin Carter from One on One at Evesham was only 7 seconds behind Shan's time in the next race. One of the best performance of the day came from Veteran Gary Nicholls in the next race with a superb time of 33:56, which would have given him 3rd in the Open! Gary just seems to get better with age and desrevedly won the Best Performance award by a male competitor. Another of the closest races followed this with Life of Leisure's Mark Ruff beating Farouk Vawda by a mere 3 seconds. There was a good time of 32:25 from the consistent Nelson Anderson, but Phil Piggott was flying behind him to clinch a superb 2nd place in the masters in 30:49. Phil, one of the originals, who used to organise the famous Tropicana event has certainly brought some much needed passion and colour to the sport. Andy Lett had a titanic tussle against Steve Oxlade, with Steve securing 3rd place in the Masters in 31:36 by a margin of 29 seconds. Two of the favourites, Steve Watts and Gary Nicholas had a battle royal in their race, but their final times were disappointing and they finished outside the medals. There was plenty of speculation as to whether Life of Leisure's Sam Orgee could repeat his Gorton performance and he answered that speculation in a positive manner by leaving Roscoe Nash in his wake in a time of 28:30 which would have beaten Micky White last year. Two unanswered questions remained! Could Kirk wipe away the memory of last years nightmare and how quick could the greatest competitor that this fantastic sport has known go down what was for him untried territory. Not surprisingly, both were answered very positively, with Kirk winning Masters in a superb time of 29:19 and Hywel winning the Open in an unbelievable time of 26:35. A fantastic finale to a great days racing and the crowd loved every minute of it.

Onwards to Calso and no doubt another top class event