The Home Nations triathlon for 2005 took place on Sunday August 7th in London. It was incorporated into the London triathlon.

The Welsh Team selected was:-

Male veteran	Grant Howells
Male senior	Pete Beaumont
Male under 23	Dan Beynon
Male junior	Aled Thomas
Female veteran	Wendy Yarranton (late replacement for Paula Jeffs)
Female senior	Leanda Cave
Female under 23	Helen Tucker
Female junior	Alice Bevan

Team Manager Dean Hardie

Team coach Chris Goulden

Grant Howells was the first off for Wales. The male veterans were starting with the sub 2.30 wave. Grant made a great start by entering the 1st transition ahead of the whole field, although the very experienced Peter Younghusband was not far behind. Although clocking the fastest run split of the Home Nation vets Grant was unable to run down Peter who had taken a substantial lead on the bike section, however he finished in 2nd place.

The next wave involved Alice Bevan. Wales did not have a junior available to race so Alice stepped up an age group to compete. She was therefore competing against some athletes who were 4 years her senior. Alice did a great job for the Welsh team and finished 2nd behind English international Rosie Clarke.

The junior men competed next and Aled Thomas was representing Wales. Aled performed well in all 3 disciplines and finished 4th overall in the Junior elite wave but, more importantly for us, 1st for the Home Nation event ahead of the experienced Scottish international Ritchie Nicholls and English international Todd Leckie.

Leanda Cave and Helen Tucker were off next in the female elite wave, the seniors and under 23's racing together. What drama was about to unfold. Anneliese Heard was also competing in this event hoping to gain nomination for the Commonwealth Games team to compete in Melbourne, Australia next year. Helen and Leanda had both gained nomination the previous weekend with their great performances in the Salford World Cup. Helen, Leanda and Anneliese exited the swim together in first place with Emma Snowshill of Australia. In London athletes, after exiting the swim, have to remove there wetsuits immediately and put them into bags. These bags are then carried into the transition area by the athletes. Helen had a disaster as she was unable to undo the zip on her wetsuit and could only watch as the other 3 athletes disappeared into transition. One of the officials came to her aid and helped her, but it took over 30 seconds to get the zip undone although it felt more like 5 minutes. Further drama occurred as Emma reappeared at the water exit – she had forgotten to pick up her wetsuit bag and was sent back from transition by the referee to pick it up, by this time Liz Blatchford had joined them. So this all meant Leanda and Anneliese were away on the bike on their own followed some 30 seconds later by the chase group of Helen, Emma and Liz. These bike packs never changed although Leanda and Anneliese did extend their lead a little. Emma had a fantastic run to win the event but Leanda held on for 2nd and Helen 5th overall. However they were both 1st in the Home Nations event. Anneliese finished 4th overall which meant she gained nomination for the Commonwealth Games to join Leanda and Helen.

Pete Beaumont and Dan Beynon competed in the male elite wave for the seniors and under 23's respectively. Pete was competing in his 1st elite event for triathlon. He had a solid swim and run but had to bike most of the time on his own as he missed the main packs. In a drafting event like this that would always be a huge disadvantage. However, Pete finished 3rd for the Home Nations behind the eventual event winner Stuart Hayes of England and Andrew Fargus of Scotland. Dan Beynon had a decent swim and remained in the big main chase pack putting him in a good position for the run as none of the Home Nation athletes were in the lead group of three. Dan suffered some stomach cramps on the run so didn't have his best run but still managed to come 3rd behind rising star Will Clarke of England and Frazer Cartmell of Scotland.

Paula Jeffs had to withdraw from the event the day before due to a foot injury she sustained 2 weeks earlier which had failed to heal. Wendy Yarranton was already competing in the event and kindly agreed to represent Wales at very short notice. She finished in 4th place for the Home Nations event.

Final Table:-

England 10
Wales 13
Scotland 16
Ireland 28

The Welsh Home Nations Team selected for 2005 at the London Triathlon on August 7th is:-

Male veteran	Grant Howells
Male senior	Pete Beaumont
Male under 23	Dan Beynon
Male junior	Aled Thomas
Female veteran	Paula Jeffs
Female senior	Leanda Cave
Female under 23	Helen Tucker
Female junior	Alice Bevan

This year the Home Nation Duathlon championships were incorporated into the National Elite and Age Group championships at Emberton Park in Milton Keynes on 12th June 2005.

Unfortunately Ireland were unable to produce a male or female team, Wales similarly could not put together a female team of any quality. England and Scotland also had similar problems and sent incomplete female teams. This was due a combination of factors such as clash of events and females preparing for Commonwealth Games selection races. While there are usually plenty of male specific duathletes to select a team from there are always problems finding female duathletes who often end up coming from the best triathletes.

As a result this year the event was based on 3 male teams from England, Scotland and Wales.

The Welsh team this year was:-

Male veteran	Martin Powell
Male senior	Jonathan Wills
Male under 23	Andy Lane
Male junior	Ben Powell

I am very grateful to Gareth Hall for taking the team up to Emberton Park as I was unavailable due to other commitments.

The veterans raced in their relevant age-group as part of the National age-group championships. For some reason the Scottish veteran raced in the elite wave which was inappropriate as this was a drafting event. Martin Powell came in comfortably first for Wales with a time of 1:59:45 over the 10k/40k/5k course. He also won the age-group championships so well done to him.

The senior and under 23 males were all due to start together in a drafting wave over the same distance. Unfortunately the organisers altered the start times slightly so when the gun went off for the start Andy Lane was in the portaloo and Jon Wills was elsewhere. This meant Andy started a minute or so late and Jon had to make up about 200m on the lead pack of runners.

Jon had a very good race and came in 2nd for Wales just three minutes behind Tim Don in a time of 1:50:52. Andy had it all to do against the very experienced Oliver Mott and Andy McGhee. He finished 3rd in a time of 2:04:27.

The juniors had there own drafting event over a sprint distance of 5k/20k/2.5k. There was a quality field and Ben Powell was competing against top junior internationals Ritchie Nicholls of Scotland and Gary Hughes of England. The whole event was very close; all three were virtually neck a neck after the first run and at the end of the bike section. Only over the last 2.5k run did Ritchie and Gary push ahead to gain 1st and 2nd spots respectively. Ben finished in a time of 57:44 less than one minute behind Ritchie and Gary.

The final team results were:- 1st England 6
2nd= Wales 9
2nd= Scotland 9
DNS Ireland

The Welsh Home Nations Duathlon Team selected for 2005 at Emberton Park on June 12th is:-

Male veteran	Martin Powell
Male senior	Jonathan Wills
Male under 23	Andy Lane
Male junior	Ben Powell

The 2005 Home Nations Duathlon will be held on June 12 at Emberton Park, Milton Keynes. The team will comprise of 1 veteran, 1 senior, 1 under 23 and 1 junior (under 19) in each sex. Seniors and under 23's will race in the elite drafting wave and juniors will race in their own elite drafting wave. Both of these events are the British Championships as well as qualifiers for the World Championships. The veterans will race in the age group wave which is the National Age Group Championships and also a qualifier for the World Championships in Australia. Anyone wishing to be considered for the Welsh team needs to contact Dean Hardie by email on by the end of April.