World duathlon medals for Forest-based athletes

THREE New Forest-based athletes medalled at the recent World Duathlon Championships in Pontevedra, Northern Spain.

Barbara Walton (Lymington Tri Club) and Mick Anglim (New Forest Cycling Club and Hardley Runners) both won sprint duathlon silver for Great Britain in their respective 70-74 categories and Christchurch’s Anja Heijnen claimed bronze in the standard distance duathlon for Holland in the W50 category.

The sprint duathlons were made up of a 2.5k run which climbed from the stadium through the narrow alleyways of the medieval centre of Pontevedra over two laps, followed by a bike course that climbed over 250m in 10k before a 40+ mph descent to the river, the race was rounded off by running another lap around Pontevedra.

The result takes Mick’s international medal tally to 19 and Barbara’s to seven.

Anja Heijnen, who was competing for Holland for the ninth time, won standard distance duathlon bronze for Holland in the W50 category in 2:31:40 to claim her fifth international medal.

She ran the standard distance race of four laps of the track followed by a 36k bike leg, which took in the same long climb as the sprint race, followed by running a further two laps of the course.

Next up Barbara will be contesting the World Aquathlon Championships, which she previously won in 2014. Meanwhile, Mick will be travelling to Denmark to take on the European Middle Distance Duathlon, which he won silver in last year.