Mark Buckingham and Emma Pallant won the first senior domestic titles of 2015 yesterday at the British Elite Duathlon Championships at Rockingham Motor Racing Circuit in Northamptonshire.
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It wasn’t all plain sailing though – fierce winds forced the organisers to change the format in the junior women’s and both senior races, cancelling the bike leg and make it a straight 10km run.
Buckingham completed the run in a provisional winning time of 31:10mins, finishing ahead of Adam Bowden and David Bishop (times still to be confirmed). “It feels great to win – I’m really happy with how it all went,” said Buckingham afterwards.
“Obviously, we all came here to do a duathlon but the weather just wasn’t on our side. Coming from a running background, I guess it helps me, but knowing Adam Bowden was in the race, it’s still a level playing field. We’re big rivals and great friends – we have been for a number of years – so we had a good tussle.”
Buckingham looks to be on a good run of form with a second place at the ETU Triathlon European Cup in Quarteira, Portugal a week ago, and says he now plans to use April to build up his training ahead of racing WTS Yokohama in May.
Emma Pallant took the chequered flat in the women’s race for the second year in a row, crossing the line in a time of 37:07. The 2014 British Triathlon Super Series Champion was followed across the line by last year’s Super Series runner-up India Lee who finished just four seconds behind in 37:11mins. Third place went to Chloe Cook who completed the 10km in 37:27mins.
