Friday evening saw the second Freedom Tri annual awards party.

A club championship series took place over the season, comprising of a Sprint, an Olympic and a half Ironman distance Triathlon. A system was applied to allow athletes of all age groups to compete against each other fairly.

Jody Flett won Male Sprint Champion

Dave Hamill took the title of Male Half Ironman Distance Champion.

Rob Willis won Olympic distance and was also crowned Overall Male Club Champion.

In the woman’s events Suzy Hawkins won all three distances giving her the title of Overall Female Club Champion.

The following awards were all voted on by the members of Freedom Tri.

Athlete of 2011. This award recognising the biggest overall achievement in 2011. The male award went to Rob Sedgwick who took part in a 10 day mounting bike race in South Africa, The London Marathon, The Cowman Half Ironman, and Ironman UK among many other events, all in his first year in the sport. The Female award went to Amy Willis who raced from April to September demonstrating great improvement.

Robbie Laughton was awarded the Enduroman, an award that recognised the athlete who excelled in long distance events, for his performance at the Norseman extreme triathlon - notoriously the hardest Triathlon in the world.

Jackie Livings won the Newman, an award for a new member who has done well in races and has embraced the Freedom attitude. Jackie rarely misses a club training session, and built up to taking on her first tri. Jackie also helped out with Freedom events.

Simon Jackson took the title of Raceman, which recognised the athlete who race and performed well all season.

Freeman, an award for the member who encompassed the general Freedom attitude, was awarded to Rob Sedgwick. Rob raced thousands of miles in Freedom kit, always with a huge smile, and helped organise Freedom Tri events.

Chris McCue was crowned Disasterman, a fun award for the member who spent more time in A&E than on their bike! Chris suffered more than his fair share of injuries and misfortune during 2011......

Chris McQue was also awarded the Chairmans award for his outstanding contrubution to the club.

On Saturday Freedom members Rob Willis, Louise Willis and Shelly Watson took part in the Hell Runner "Hell down south" race. The 11 mile race cross county course included the bog of doom, the hills of hell and lots and lots of other hills. Over 2000 started the race with about 1700 completing the race. First over the line was Rob Willis with a new PB of 1 h 12 min 28 sec finishing 18^th overall. Louise Willis finished 636 overall and 43^rd female in a time of 1 h 44 min 17 sec followed by Shelly Watson in a time of 1h 51 min 29 sec finishing 835 overall and 83^rd female.

It was a busy weekend for Letchworth based triathlon club, Freedom Tri, with members out enjoying a variety of events in the varied autumnal weather.

Rob Sedgwick and Natasha Pitman tamed The Mens Health “survival of the fittest” race on Saturday.  The event took the form of a 10 k running race over an assault course made up of 10 major obstacles, ranging from climbing through tunnels, over and under rope nets, climbing through wrecked cars, scaling a 9ft wall, and to prove how extreme the event was, there was even a section involving running with a 40kg bag of sand over your shoulder!  The pair finished the event in an awesome 50 minutes!!

Also on Saturday, Richard Allen took part in the Winter Ball Buster Duathlon.  This Duathlon really lives up to its name, and consists of an 8 mile run, 24 mile bike followed by another 8 mile run, and as it that wasn’t hard enough, it involves climbing the notorious Box Hill in Surrey a total of 5 times - twice on foot and three times on the bike leg!  Despite difficult road conditions caused by the foggy and damp weather, Richard managed to knock 3 minutes off last year’s time, finishing in 3 hours, 50 minutes and 55 seconds.

Freedom Tri is open to new members.  Anyone interested in training in a friendly, welcoming environment, please visit www.freedomtri.co.uk for more information.