On Sunday 12th June, seven Castlefield colleagues took part in a triathlon in Leeds as part of our continual efforts to raise money for La Renaissance. La Renaissance is a primary school established in 2004 in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, West Africa. La Renaissance is an inclusive school incorporating children from all backgrounds with a range of different abilities and needs, specifically those who are visually impaired who would not otherwise have access to education.
You can learn more about the school here: http://larenaissance.org.uk/
John Ditchfield took part in the individual sprint event which comprised a 750m open water swim in Roundhay Park, a 20km bike ride through the streets of Leeds finishing off with a 5km run around the city centre.
Both Castlefield teams had guest swimmers, Heather Novickis for “Castlefield 1” and Sam Smith for “Castlefield 2”. Mark took the cycling leg for Team 1, with David Gorman doing the 5km run. For Team 2, Andy Wynne cycled and Matt Coppin ran.
John’s times were very good; Swim 00:14:45, Bike 00:42:39, Run 00:20:47 and he finished the race 4th in his category – a fantastic performance.
Both teams performed creditably. Castlefield 1 got off to a cracking start in the swim, thanks to Heather and she handed on to Mark for the bike ride while the runners hung about anxiously in Transition 2. Heather swam 13m02secs and Mark rode a time of 43mins, with David running around 27mins.
Sam Smith got Team 2 off to a good start (17:19) and handed over to Andy for the bike leg (49:18). Matt completed 5k in a time of 28:11.
The atmosphere at the event was great, with plenty of vocal Yorkshire support lining the route. All in all, we had a fantastic day! Roll on next year!