Record numbers of athletes headed to Snowdonia over the weekend for the 2015 instalment of iconic race the Slateman Triathlon, drawn by vibrant mountain landscapes, challenging quarry trails and a glistening, freshwater lake.
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>>> Slateman 2014 race action
Day one saw more than 500 triathletes embark on the Slateman Triathlon Sprint event. The first day also included the Slateman Junior race where over 170 youths participated.
On Saturday Andrew Nash and Ruth Purbrook emerged as individual winners of the men and women Slateman Tri Sprint, after storming around the course in a time of 1:10:29 and 1:21:06 respectively.
The sprint in Llanberis consisted a 400m Padarn lake swim, 20km bike leg – which took in the beast-climb that is the Llanberis Pass – and a scenic but demanding 6km trail run in the quarries above the race village.
Nash went on to dominate the field, winning with over 3mins to spare. Second place went to Kieren John, with Dan Gennazzini claiming third.
There was a shock in the women’s race as The Manchester Tri athletes who had dominated last years sprint were beaten into first place by Ruth Purbrook.
Purbrook produced a scintillating performance to finish in first place ahead of last year’s winner Pauline May (Manchester Tri) and Kate Morris who finished second and third place respectively.
The race was decided when Purbrook displayed her sheer power and quality in the bike leg were she produced a scintillating time of 42:08, over 2mins quicker than any other female competitor.
Slateman Full
After 500m of swimming, 51km on the bike and closing with an epic 11km trail run, it was 2014 winner Ewan Brown who emerged victorious in Sunday’s men’s race with an incredible time of 2:16:22. Brown beat Lewis Eccleston who finished in second place and Alex Foster, who finished third.
Last year’s women’s winner Suzie Richards also regained her Slateman Triathlon Champion title, although it wasn’t all plain sailing as Natalie Seymour pushed her all the way to finish line.
Richards’ unbelievable time of 2:36:54 proved to be enough to keep Seymour at bay who finished just 47secs behind. Slateman Savage sprint winner Ruth Purbrook finished in third to complete the women’s podium.
Mark Palmer was the quickest athlete completing the legendary Kinetica Quarryman challenge with a sensational time of 09:14. Palmer was rewarded for his amazing effort with loads of Kinetica goodies!
Slateman Savage
This year saw the introduction of the Slateman Savage, in which competitors raced over both days in the Sprint and the Full distance races.
The winner of the Slateman Savage in the male category was Dan Gennazzini, who produced and extraordinary time of 03:50:28.
The winner of the Savage in the women’s category was Ruth Purbrook, who completed the eye-watering challenge in 04:02:58.
“Wow, what a weekend! The Slateman was the first ever event Always Aim High Events organised. In the first year we had around 400 athletes participating, so to see over 2,200 athletes come to Llanberis over the weekend is something to be really proud of,” said events director Tim Lloyd.
“The race action across the weekend was superb. All the winners were worthy of their titles. I want to reserve special congratulations to Ewan and Suzie who retained their Slateman Triathlon title; it really is a great achievement.
They’ve set themselves up nicely for the Sandman and Snowman to really kick on and challenge for the Always Aim Tri-series, which will see the champion fly to the beautiful Caribbean Island of Nevis and compete in the Nevis Triathlon.”
For full results head here.
(All pics: Mel Parry)
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