KIERAN Hill and Claire Vallance took the top spots in young organiser Cieran Alstowe’s Highworth Sprint Triathlon last Saturday.

In the men’s race it was a head-to-head battle between Hill and Phil Kruse. The 20-year-old student, Hill, from Loughborough University took a clear lead on the swim by just over one minute before extending that further out on the bike by another 18 seconds.

Phil Kruse showed his experience with some solid transitions. These left him firmly in the chase to reel in Hill on the run.

Kruse kept chipping away at the leader and posted the fastest run time of the day. Hill saw one minute 24 seconds disappear from his lead on the five kilometer run but held on to record an agonisingly close win by 6.2 seconds from Kruse. Andrew Martin posted a solid race to snatch third from Matt Boon by four seconds.

The womens’ race was not quite as close but equally as exciting. Ffion Davies took a 25 second lead in the swim before Claire Vallance showed her strength out on the bike by gaining back a minute to take the lead.

The athletes then went head to head out on the final section as Claire was able to extend her lead by 14 seconds on the run to take the win.

Third place Charlie Iles showed her great strength out on the run to post the fastest run split of the day to grab third from Liz Ledger.

Race organiser Alstowe was pleased with how the race went, he said: “Around 50 per cent of the athletes taking part out of the 200 at the Rec it was their their first triathlon, so there was a lot of excitement and nerves.

“However overall the race went to plan with all the athletes having a brilliant time.

“I would like to like to thank all the marshals, Wiltshire Police and sponsors, Dan Atallard at executive financial planning and Excalibur.

“I will be donating a sum from the race in aid of Wiltshire Air Ambulance in memory of my mum and also a donation to Alzheimer's UK for a friend who is a sufferer.”