WITH the biggest ?eld of quadrathlon athletes from all over Britain, Bude once again hosted the Awesome Foursome Quadrathlon in close to perfect conditions on Saturday, September 15.

The quadrathlon combines the four disciplines of swimming, cycling, kayaking and running into one long endurance event.

The race, which attracted 45 entries, either as relay teams of four, as a pair or as individuals completing the whole event by themselves, makes the most of Bude’s wonderful environment and builds on the very popular Shoreline Triathlon, which was run earlier in the year.

The swim course, approximately 1000 metres, takes place at high tide within Summerleaze Bay. The 30km cycle takes athletes out of Bude along the spectacular coastal roads to Widemouth, Wanson Mouth and the notorious 30% hill at Millook before returning the competitors back to the Bude and its historic canal. Next comes 10km of kayak racing up and down the Bude Canal before the ?nal 10km run stage following the towpath to Helebridge, ?elds to Widemouth and coastal path back to the finish in Bude’s lower canal wharf area.

Race organiser Simon Hammond and his team at Shoreline Extreme Sports have been running this race for the last 19 years.

Simon said: “Its a really nice end of season event. We get lots of great local support both in terms of people volunteering to marshal and also plenty of local competitors. There are lots of races going on within the race, Penbode Vets this year put in three relay teams and an individual entry for Andy Stokes, who managed to beat them all! Another race was the battle between the pair of Chris and Zerran Hammond against Larry Newton and Paul Cottle, all local Bude athletes really just racing against each other. Chris and Zerran ?nishing exactly three minutes ahead in this friendly rivalry. We had teams from the local schools, husband and wife pairs, and more women entries than ever before.”

With an early start this year at 10am, due to the tides, competitors were checking in at dawn! The fastest competitors were ?nishing in just under three hours, having completed the swim in around 20 minutes and then the cycle, kayak and run all taking around 50 minutes each.

The fastest times of the day for each category were: Pair: Chris Hammond and Zerran Hammond — Two hours, 47 minutes and 40 seconds (fastest time overall); Individual Man: Billy Butler — 2.51.00; Individual Woman: Helen Russell: 3.07.33; Relay Team: Scrambled Legs (Laura, Tim, Debra and Pete) — 3.11.09

Simon was delighted with the race, adding: “Thanks to our sponsors and to all the many people that support us including the 26 local volunteers who brilliantly marshaled the course. Next year’s race is already booked in for Saturday, September 21 so start training!”

Photos and full race results can be found on the Shoreline Extreme Sports Facebook page and by visiting www.shorelineactivities.co.uk/foursome.quadrathlon.event