Chris becomes double world duathlon champion
Huge congratulations to Land and Planning Manager Chris Nicoll who has become double world champion at the 2024 World Multisport Championships held in Queensland, Australia, competing for the British Triathlon Age Group team.
The annual weeklong race series includes several multi-discipline events based around swimming, cycling and running. Chris’s speciality is duathlon, a run-bike-run event, and he claimed the number one spot in both the sprint and standard distances in the 54-59 age category.
The sprint race involves a five-kilometre run, 20km bike ride and 2.5km run, while the standard distance race involves a 10km run, 40km bike rise and 5km run. As well as being different distances, the bike leg of the sprint race is ‘draft legal’ so riders can work together as they would in a cycle race, to reduce wind resistance and increase speed. Whereas the standard race is ‘draft illegal’ like an individual time trial.
“I have previously competed in both distances at European and World level and won a combination of silver and gold but never two golds, so the motivation was still there to try and win both,” said Chris, who has worked for the company for five years and is based at our Shardlow quarry in Derbyshire.
“We have to go through a team selection process, and it is all self-funded, even paying the team manager’s travel expenses and purchasing race kit, so I am grateful that the company has sponsored my kit.”
After 24 hours of travel time to Australia and the resulting jet lag, Chris was uncertain how he would perform. In the sprint race he went head-to-head with a fellow GB athlete and an Australian up to the final run, where he pushed on to win by less than a minute.
About six athletes doubled up on the two events and, on the standard race, which had a field of 40, Chris went hard from the start, running his own race and winning by over five minutes.
“Being a double world champion is quite rare, and reflects many years of preparation, race education and race execution,” added Chris.