Sunday 8th July saw the Bournemouth International triathlon take to the seas as usual bright and early at 7am. Representing Somerset RC Tri was Nick Mace & Jonathan Ayres, local training partners who would be continuing their friendly rivalry that has seen Mace edge out his rival - over this longer distance of 1500 metre swim, 42 km bike & 10 km run – on the previous 2 occasions.

The pair both had strong swims with Ayres exiting the water in 4th place in his wave where each age group starts at its allotted time. His swim time of 26:37mins almost matched by his younger rival who took to the water 15 minutes later in his own age group with a 26:51 swim.

As the two mounted their bikes in their respective waves - despite being initially greeted with a lung busting hill as they climb out from sea level away from the coast - out towards the flat and fast time trial like bike course. Mace passing his club mate in terms of time with a 1hour 06 minute split compared to Ayres with a 1:08 effort. Leaving the result very much undecided off the bike and on to the 10km flat run.

Ayres entering his strongest discipline soon set about clawing back the gap and also over hauling some of his stronger biking rivals. His 10k time of 40:47 took him to 4th in his 40+ age group just missing out on a trophy by a mere 3 seconds, with a 2 hour 17 minute finishing time. Mace despite missing out on any recent run training due to repeated illness dug deep and managed a 44:34 run to take an impressive 5th in his age with an overall clocking of 2:18:49.