The highlight of my season this year was the World Championships in Adelaide, Australia on October 18th. I was defending my age group title from 2014 and the expectation was that the field would be very strong with Australia being the host country.

The weather and the venue were perfect on the day. The first run set off at a fast pace and I was in about 10th place at the start but slowly picked my way through the field.

 

I came through the first transition in the lead and set off on the bike.

Only one cyclist came past me towards the end of the bike leg and I hung on at a safe  distance to keep him in sight.

The second transition was not so good as the leader’s bike wheels happened to obscure the view of my trainers marking my bike rack position as I came into transition. I ran straight past, realised my mistake and doubled back but it was an anxious moment and cost me a few seconds!

The final run went well as I overtook the leader early on and just headed for the finish without looking back.

So I am delighted to say that I managed to retain my title for 2015, winning  my age group (25-29 years) and also winning the sprint distance event overall.

 

 

The full results list is available on the ITU timing website.

 

This event, held at Oulton Park in Cheshire, was the first time that I had completed a Standard distance duathlon, which is basically twice as long as the Sprint distance. It also happened to be the English National Championships. So I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I had a good first run-

and went into the bike leg in the lead, managing to hold this position with no-one overtaking me for a change!

I created a bit more of a gap on the final run and finished in a time of 1:38:24.

So I was delighted not only to win the race but to claim a National title as well.

The presentation was followed by the obligatory lager shower (alcohol free of course)!

Triathlon England comments:

Carl Avery (M25-29) was first male across the line to take the title in 1:38:24. This marked the second time Avery had successfully competed on the course this year, having won the Oulton Park Sprint Duathlon back in March.

Avery said: “It’s a big relief to take the win after all the hard training. I really didn’t expect it. It’s the first time I’ve competed in this particular event and has set me up nicely for the ITU World Championships in Australia in a couple of week’s time.”

For a full write up of the event see:

Triathlon England Oulton Park Autumn 2015 report

with full results at:

English National Duathlon Championships results 2015

 

Extract from Morpeth Harrier’s website:

“Morpeth’s NECAA 10K champion, and brightest prospect, Carl Avery, demonstrated his pedigree by setting new figures of 1:08:47 to place 25th.

Avery’s previous best for the distance was 72:00, set in the same event twelve months ago. Avery had hoped to ‘dip under 68:00 if [he] had a blinder’, but also said of his performance that he is ‘satisfied’, and credits the work of his coach, Jimmy Alder, for his unrelenting progression toward the pinnacle of NE distance running.
Avery added: ‘hopefully this will give me (and the other lads)
great strength for this coming XC season – bring on the mud”.