30 pictures from a sun-baked Eastbourne Triathlon Festival

See action pictures by Phil Rhodes from the weekend’s event – and podium pictures by My Sport Photos – on this page and the ones linked.

Over 1,000 athletes took part in the award-winning Eastbourne Triathlon over the weekend, run by TriBourne Multisport Events.

With Eastbourne renowned as one of the best triathlon destinations, the event is a favourite among triathletes from across the country, this year the event served as a qualification race for athletes hoping to qualify for the 2023 European Championships.

The event has been recognised multiple times as the best triathlon event in the country, winning the prestigious Triathlon England Event of the Year award an unprecedented three times.

On Saturday afternoon races took place for children aged 8-16 with the results dominated by junior triathletes from Eastbourne’s local club Team Bodyworks. Saturday also saw novice triathletes taking on a super-sprint distance race with John Hovius and Bronwyn Humphrys (both from Evesham Vale Triathletes) taking the honours. Saturday’s schedule ended with an exciting team relay format race. Windrush Triathlon Club took the win followed by two teams from Tunbridge Wells Triathlon Club completing the podium.

The main events on Sunday were raced over two distances. The sprint distance triathlon is a 750m swim, 18.3km bike ride over Beachy Head and a 5km run along the seafront. The standard distance triathlon is a 1,500m swim followed by a 36.6km bike and a 10km run.

In the sprint distance race, it was local triathlete Charlie Ferris who led out of the swim, however, it was Jack Bowley from Canterbury Triathlon Club whose strong bike and run times allowed him to pass Ferris to take the win by only 8 seconds. Robin Wallond rounded out the podium 4 minutes later.

Isabelle Franco dominated the women’s race from the start, finishing over 5 minutes ahead of local athlete Lorna White, followed by Harriet Cunningham in third place.

In the standard distance race, local Team Bodyworks athlete Jamie Bedwell was unbeatable, starting with the fastest swim and then maintaining his lead with impressive times on both the bike and run. He finished in a time of 1:58:24, over two minutes ahead of Bodyworks teammate Oliver Pritchard. Edward Castro from Bedford Harriers took third place.

Despite coming out of the swim over two minutes down on the fastest swimmer, Megan Chapple (Ful-On Tri) dominated the bike and run to take the woman’s title by almost 11 minutes. Nicola Lilley took second place followed closely by Christina Lutsch.

In just over three weeks’ time, on Sunday, July 9, triathletes will be returning to Eastbourne for the IronBourne Long Distance Triathlon. This incredible event will see over 700 athletes jumping off the end of Eastbourne Pier at 6am to begin an epic day of racing: swimming 2.4 miles, cycling 112 miles and running a full 26.2 mile marathon.

This is a great event to spectate, and you can even get involved as a volunteer. Events like this would not be possible without hundreds of volunteers to marshal the course, direct competitors, manage water stations and much more. Volunteering is a very rewarding experience and is always highly appreciated by both the organisers and competitors. TriBourne Multisport Events are appealing for volunteers to help on Sunday 9th July. Please email [email protected]. For more information, visit www.tribourne.co.uk.