Records Fall at Big Ben Nevis Triathlon
25.09.2009
On Saturday 19 September 2009 22 year old endurance athlete Hannah Barnes from Fort William smashed the senior female Big Ben Nevis Triathlon record by a massive fifty one minutes. She completed the 1.9km open water swim in freezing cold Loch Linnhe, the 90km mountain bike ride on the long, loose climbs and fast singletrack descents of Glen Nevis and the 21km fell run up (and then back down) Ben Nevis in a blistering 8 hours 19 minutes and 54 seconds.In the men's race Eliot Challifour, an adventure racer from Bath, broke the senior male record (a record that has stood since the first Big Ben Nevis Triathlon in 2006) by an impressive eight minutes. Having lined up at the start with 55 male and female endurance athletes he completed what some say is the toughest off road triathlon on the UK circuit in 6 hours 49 minutes and 34 seconds. This was Eliot's Challifour's second Big Ben Nevis Triathlon. In 2006, the inaugural event, he came second in a time of 7 hours and 19 minutes so this year he was not only determined to win the race but he also wanted to smash his previous time. He left the Highlands a very happy man.
This year the Half Big Ben Nevis Triathlon was adopted by Triathlon Scotland as the inaugural Off-Road Triathlon Championship for Triathlon Scotland members. This half distance race ran alongside the main event with swimmers exiting after one lap of the swim, two laps of the cycle route and turning at the half way point on the Ben Nevis ascent. Sean MacFarlane picked up this national off-road title having completed the course in 3 hours 50 minutes and 39 seconds, beating his nearest rival Graham Whyte by more than 12 minutes. However MacFarlane was only third overall in the half race. First and second places in the senior male category went to Adrian Pottinger (3.46.06) and Jimmy MacFadyen (3.48.56).
In the senior female category Megan Shields won both the Off-Road Triathlon Championship and the overall title with a time of 5 hours 1 minute and 34 seconds with Mhairi Fergusson (5.36.34) in second place and Fiona Tannock (5.55.48) in third.
Frazer Coupland from No Fuss Events said: 'Huge congratulations go to local girl Hannah Barnes. To break the course record at only 22 years old is incredible but to smash it by 51 minutes is an amazing achievement on such a tough course. She is an awesome endurance athlete and I am sure we will see her on the world stage very soon. And we mustn't forget Eliot Challifour's course record in the men's race. It is great to see adventure racers taking on triathletes and coming out on top.
