IT was another fantastic weekend for Dursley Running Club triathletes which was highlighted by Fred Yearsley who travelled to the Netherlands for the European Triathlon Union long course (ironman distance) triathlon in Amsterdam and came away with gold.

It was a great achievement to qualify for the ETU event in the first place and a brilliant performance saw Fred win his age group in an amazing time of 11 hours 51 minutes 33 seconds to take the 65-69 year European age group crown, winning by one hour four minutes.

Over in West Wales, Martin Bragg placed 15th in the Vintage Vets category with particularly strong bike and swim legs in the Saundersfoot super sprint event which may be a trial run for Ironman Wales next year.

The final event of the weekend saw ten teams from DRC competing in the emerging event format of super sprint relay at Lake 62 in the Cotswold Water Park.

This is an exciting, fast and furious event format which is to be included in the Tokyo Olympics and Dursley Tri threw themselves into it with gusto.

The first team home for the club were Richard Pitts, Tony Freer, Tara Truman and Mark Histed who finished a creditable eighth in the mixed category with the rest of the teams following on behind.

The event was entered by DRC as a late season festival of fun, encouraging seasoned triathletes, intermediates and complete novices to compete.

The event was a massive success with forty participants from a club that barely had ten people competing in multi-sport events at the start of the year, encouragement and support for the newcomers provided by the more experienced triathletes has made this a friendly and supportive club.

The next event is the Warwick Sprint Triathlon on September 24.