Race History

The inaugural Cricklade Triathlon took place on 12th July 2001 when nine athletes raced over an Olympic distance course. All athletes finished the race which was won by Lyndon Campbell-Black who returned in May 2002 to retain his title.

2002 marked the start of the current race format when a Sprint distance event was staged alongside the Olympic distance event and £3,000 surplus fees and sponsorship was donated to charity.

The event grew in 2003 with participants from Stroud, Derby, Bracknell, Northampton and Southampton helping to make up a field of  9 Olympic and 27 Sprint athletes. 

Disappointingly no ladies took part over the 2004 Olympic distance nevertheless we saw the event continue to grow with 13 of the 24 event records being broken.  

The 2005 event drew the largest field to date and a strong female contingent in the Sprint event ensured that more records tumbled. 2005 also saw us stage the first Cricklade Junior Triathlon. 40 children aged between 8 and 13 took part in a "fixed duration" event which has become a popular and regular fixture.

Records were re-written in 2006 when a high quality Olympic field turned out in sweltering conditions and Bryn Mayell set a new course record to win his third title.

The 2007 event was disrupted by the threatened closure of the Leisure Centre so numbers were down in the Senior events. Bryn Mayell took a consecutive fourth title in the Men's Olympic event while husband and wife pair Neil and Victoria Wilson took the Sprint titles before emigrating to sunny Australia. The growing popularity of the Junior event was demonstrated by a record turn out of  83 despite its hasty organisation. 

There was a festival atmosphere for the 2008 event, which was staged in conjunction with the anniversary celebration of the Leisure Centre's re-opening under community management. In the Olympic event, Bryn Mayell earned the right to keep the winners trophy after recording his fifth win. 2008 also saw the return of female competitors to the Olympic event  with new "all comers" records being set in the swim and cycle stages. The Sprint field once again saw a healthy contingent of local athletes with the Men's title staying in the town and the Junior event matched the success of 2007 with a field of over 80 Juniors. 

Torrential rain, hailstones and a cold wind battered the 2009 competitors but the full turn-out in all 3 events ensured a talented field able to break several records despite the severe weather. Phil Parsons (men's Olympic) Julian Fairley (men's Sprint) and Claire Smith (ladies Sprint) each added their names to the shield after setting new course records. 

In the hope of ensuring better weather, 2010's Senior event was run a month later in July so this gave us the opportunity to add a new junior event alongside the popular triathlon. Unlike the "fixed duration" triathlon the new Youth aquathlon follows the standard "fixed distance" race format, adding a comptitive edge for the 14 "Tristar3" and "Youth" category children that took part. Ben Francis (boy's youth), Jodie Watt (girls youth), Toby Wright (boys tristar3) and Rhianna Jones (girls tristar3) took the inagural titles. In the Senior event, Julian Fairley (men's Sprint) and Claire Smith (ladies Olympic) both set new course records to take their second titles with Peter Cusik (men's Olympic) and Kim Ingleby (ladies Sprint) adding their names to the list of winners for the first time. 

2011's race kept with the two date formats adopted in 2010. The Junior triathlon was a little quiter than previous years but the Aquathlon race attracted a larger field with Junior B and a pilot TriStar2 categories added. Ben Francis (boy's youth) retained his title, with Jon McDonald (boys Junior B), Amy Stoner (girls youth), Rory Durham (boys tristar3) and Mowenna Craig (girls tristar3) each taking their first titles. While it was a quiet year for the junior event, the Senior race was over subscribed generating strong competition at the head of the field, especially in the men's sprint event which saw Mathew Hammersley pip two times winner Julian Fairley to the title. Joanna Ramsumair took the ladies title. In the olympic distance event, Andrew Fisher shattered the old course record to take the men's title with Dora Hemson taking the ladies title.

Race reports and statistics for each year are available from the page links above.