MORPH to Launch UK Quadrathlon Series

Rob / 21.04.2003

Details of the 7 race National Trophy series and the British Championships have been released by the British Quadrathlon Association (BQA) and it all kicks off with next weekend’s MORPH.

Quadrathonlon is a step up the multi-sport ladder from triathlon. The disciplines are swimming, kayaking, cycling and running, though the National Trophy does include several kayak triathlons, which mix kayaking with running and cycling. They are ideal sprint training for AR and the chance for some individual competition.

The National Trophy series incorporates races from Aberdeen to Cornwall, via
East Sussex, Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire, Avon and Northamptonshire. Races vary from a one and a half hour lowland sprint to several mountain races and the results in the Trophy are based on competitors\' best 3 results.

The most important race of the season is the British Open Championship to be held Bude in October. It’s a spectacular course which includes an 800 metre swim in Summerlease Bay, followed by a gruelling 30 kilometre bike ride along the coast road, complete with a 1 in 3 ascent. Then it’s into the kayaks for 10 kilometres along the Bude Canal, before the final run of 10 kilometres, which incorporates both the Canal and the Coast Path.

The other Championship race, the British Short Course Championships, is at Wadenhoe in Northamptonshire, a delightful rural venue in the centre of the country. This is at the other end of the endurance scale from Bude, with a 400 yard river swim followed by 3 miles of river kayak. The bike ride is 6 miles of grass, and the run is 3 miles of grass. The whole race is on private land and the River Nene, and no roads are used.

The most gruelling race of the lot is the Yorkshire Dales Quadrathlon. This monster includes a 2 kilometre lake swim, an 8 kilometre lake kayak, and a 68 kilometre bike ride over the Yorkshire Dales. And the final leg? Only the trifling matter of a 17 kilometre run up the mountain Pen-y-Ghent and back!

Every race in the National Trophy is unique. In Bude the swim follows the pattern used by the local surf life-saving races. At the Morph the kayak leg tests portaging skills, whereas other races have uninterrupted flat water. Some bike legs are flat out blasts along local roads, others are technical mountain bike scrambles. And the first race is this coming weekend – the MultiSport Off-Road Phenomenon, better known as the MORPH, which is in Ashdown Forest, Sussex. (See the calendar for details.)

The BQA has a new website up and running, with all the dates and information if you want to try a Quad.