With a one-mile ice swim event being considered for inclusion at future Winter Olympics researchers at Winona State University in Minnesota and the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA) have investigated the performance and human physiological response in water -5° Celsius or less.
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The scientists analysed more than 80 ice swimmers ((71 male, 17 female) who completed ice mile swims, in an attempt to understand how age, gender and environmental factors such as wind chill affected performance.
Ice swimming was a demonstration sport at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and is being considered as a permanent addition to the event line-up in future Winter Olympic games.
“It’s amazing to see how a ‘silly’ idea eight years ago has taken off,” said Ram Barkai, IISA founder and board chairman.
“Our study of the IISA data set wonderfully describes how much we as humans can ask our bodies to do while in an adverse environment (water that is 5° C or less) and how we can train our minds to accomplish these goals,” said Spencer Treu, a member of the research team.
The team found a slight correlation between age and swim speed: The older the swimmers were, the slower they swam. However, the correlation was modest and suggests that ice swimming could be a sport in which individuals could be competitive in well into their 30s and 40s.
The research team also noted improvement in swim times among those who participated in more than one ice mile. Out of 24 one-mile swimmers who swam two or more swims, 15 were faster on their second swim.
Among the eight swimmers who did three or more swims, six improved their speed from their first to third swim. “We also discovered that for one-mile ice swimmers, wind chill did not greatly affect swim speed. Finally, we discovered that statistically, gender does not influence the effect of age on swim speed,” Treu said.
Swimming in such cold water is not without risk, but it is possible to compete safely with the proper training and safety measures in place. “This is a potentially dangerous sport, although in the world of RedBull racers, ironman competitions and the like, perhaps the word ‘extreme’ is a more appropriate term,” Treu said. “The reason many swimmers can successfully complete these swims is most likely due to the intense training and preparation they put themselves through to prepare their bodies and minds.”
Increasing your anaerobic capacity in addition to your aerobic capacity help long distance runners improve their times new research shows.
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The researchers from Simon Frasier University (SFU) in British Columbia measured aerobic and anaerobic capacity in 10 male mountain marathon runners and found a runner’s pre-race anaerobic fitness capacity is a key factor in determining who will have the fastest finishing times.
Aerobic fitness refers to how the body uses energy when there is enough oxygen, such as the energy burn that occurs when running at a comfortable pace. Anaerobic fitness refers to the body’s ability to exercise when there’s not enough oxygen, such as during a sprint to the finish line at the end of a race.
The 10 runners were of similar age, weight and height and aerobic capacity was measured by having the subjects run to the point of exhaustion on a treadmill, while anaerobic capacity was assessed through seated cycling ergometer.
“All our participants finished the race. The regression results indicated that those with higher anaerobic capacity were predicted to have a faster finishing time. This prediction of race finishing time was significant at a five percent level and explained 54 percent of the variance in finishing times,” said Michael Rogers, a member of the SFU research team. However, he added that the findings suggest the need for further research to explain the remaining 46 percent variance in finishing results.
The results suggest that long distance runners should aim to increase their anaerobic capacity in addition to their aerobic capacity.
“Typically, anaerobic capacity can be improved with high-intensity, shorter-duration training, such as in repetitive uphill sprint training,” Rogers said. The team also made a new observation: High-intensity efforts at greater than about 80 to 85 percent of maximal age-predicted heart rates can be being maintained for several hours in these mountain ultra-marathons. This is novel because “these are races that are typically thought to be performed at considerably lower exercise intensities,” Rogers said.
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Four hill running sessions to boost your triathlon race speed
For more running advice check out our run training section
Denver, Colorado:
– AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat Mad Dog Vachon on a 3rd fall COR
– AWA Tag Team Champions Larry Hennig & Harley Race beat Ernie Ladd & Wilbur Snyder in 2 out of 3 falls
– World’s Junior Heavyweight Champion Danny Hodge no contest Eddie Sharkey
– Terry Funk beat Butch Levy
1971
Honolulu, Hawaii:
– AWA Champion Verne Gagne beat Mad Dog Vachon
– Lonnie Mayne drew Mil Mascaras
– King Curtis beat Bobby Shane
– Billy Robinson beat The Pro
– Don Muraco & Frankie Laine beat Ripper Collins & Dale Lewis
1976
Raleigh, North Carolina:
– Blackjack Mulligan defeated Paul Jones to win the NWA Mid-Atlantic United States Title
Fort Myers, Florida:
– Southern Title: Billy Robinson defeated Missouri Mauler to retain title
– Ft. Myers Championship: Tom Jones defeated Ali Pasha (sub for Great Mephisto)
– Pak Song & Rock Hunter defeated Pedro Godoy & Bill Dromo
– Frank Goodish (Bruiser Brody) drew Bob Orton, Sr.
1978
Memphis, Tennessee:
– Mr. Seki beat Kojak
– Darth Vader beat Roger Howell
– Terry Sawyer beat Jim Starr via DQ
– Steve Kyle beat Steve Jackson
– Jos LeDuc beat Don Kernodle
– Jerry Lawler beat Jos LeDuc via DQ
– Southern Tag Champs Jerry Lawler & Bill Dundee beat Sonny King & Norvell Austin
1983
Lafayette, Louisiana:
– The Midnight Express (Dennis Condrey & Bobby Eaton) defeated Magnum TA & Mr Wrestling II in a Loser Receives 10 Lashes Match to win
the Mid South Tag Team Titles after Mr Wrestling walked out on his partner
St. Paul, Minnesota:
– AWA Champion Nick Bockwinkel beat Rick Martel
– Hulk Hogan & Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell beat Bobby Heenan & Ken Patera & Jesse Ventura
– Jerry Blackwell & Sheik Adnan beat Mad Dog Vachon & Baron Von Raschke
– Brad Rheingans beat John Tolos
– Curt Hennig beat Jacques Goulet
– Steve Regal drew Buck Zumhofe
1985
Shreveport, Louisiana:
– Terry Taylor defeated Ted DiBiase to win the Mid South North American Heavyweight Title
1989
Memphis, Tennessee:
– Robert Fuller & Action Jackson beat Frankie Lancaster & Jim McPherson
– The Master of Pain & Dutch Mantel beat Bill Dundee & Brian Lee
– Jimmy Valiant & Jeff Jarrett beat Tommy Rich & Buddy Landel
– Tracy Smothers & John Paul beat Don Bass & PY Chu-Hi
– The Shogun & The Samurai beat The Wrestling Machines
– Jimmy Valiant & Jeff Jarrett beat The Master of Pain & Dutch Mantel
– Tracy Smothers & John Paul beat The Shogun & The Samurai
– Robert Fuller & Action Jackson beat Jimmy Valiant & Jeff Jarrett
– Tracy Smothers & John Paul beat Robert Fuller & Action Jackson to win the vacant CWA Tag Team Titles
1992
Ft. Bragg, North Carolina:
– Terrence Taylor pinned PN News
– Vinnie Vegas pinned Big Josh after Mr. Hughes interfered
– Abdullah the Butcher fought Cactus Jack to a double disqualification
– Rick & Scott Steiner defeated WCW TV Champion Steve Austin & WCW Tag Team Champion Bobby Eaton
– Johnny B. Badd pinned Richard Morton
– Sting & Ron Simmons (sub. for El Gigante) defeated WCW US Champion Rick Rude & Larry Zbyszko
1993
Manchester, England:
– Johnny B. Badd defeated Scotty Flamingo
– Maxx Payne defeated Michael Hayes
– Davey Boy Smith pinned Vinnie Vegas
– Rick Rude defeated Van Hammer
– Big Van Vader defeated Cactus Jack
– WCW World Champion Sting defeated WCW TV Champion Paul Orndorff
1994
Knoxville, Tennessee:
– Chris Jericho & Lance Storm defeated the Infernos
– Mike Furnas defeated Killer Kyle
– Tracy Smothers defeated Chris Candido in a non-title ladder match
– Bob Armstrong defeated Dick Murdoch & Jim Cornette in a handicap match
– SMW Heavyweight Champion the Dirty White Boy & Dirty White Girl defeated Brian Lee & Tammy Fytch
– SMW Tag Team Champions Tom Prichard & Jimmy Del Ray defeated Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson in a 60-minute Ironman match, 3-2
Kassel, Germany
– 2 Cold Scorpio & Marcus Alexander Bagwell defeated Paul Orndorff & Paul Roma
– Frank Anderson defeated Harlem Heat Kane
– Maxx Payne defeated Harlem Heat Kole
– WCW TV Champion Lord Steven Regal defeated Cactus Jack
– Vader defeated Ricky Steamboat
– Sting defeated Ron Simmons
– WCW World Champion Ric Flair defeated WCW US Champion Steve Austin
1999
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
– ECW World Tag Team Champions Sabu and Rob Van Dam defeated the Dudley Boyz and Tommy Dreamer and Shane Douglas in a Three Way Dance
– Dean Malenko defeated Essa Rios to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Title
2001
– Crash Holly defeated Dean Makenko for the WWF Light Heavyweight championship
2002
Santa Ana, California:
– Christopher Daniels defeated Samoa Joe and Frankie Kazarian in a Three Way match to win the UPW Heavyweight Title
2005
Orlando, Florida:
– Christopher Daniels won the TNA X Division Title in an Ultimate X Challenge match over Elix Skipper and Ron Killings
2011
TNA Victory Road: Orlando, Florida:
– Rosita and Sarita defeated Angelina Love and Winter to win the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Titles
– TNA X-Division champ Kazarian defeated Jeremy Buck, Max Buck and Robbie E in an Ultimate X match to retain the title
– AJ Styles defeated Matt Hardy
– TNA Tag Team champions Beer Money defeated Ink, Inc
– TNA champion Sting beat Jeff Hardy
Grandstand tickets for the 2016 Columbia Threadneedle World Triathlon Leeds, are now on sale. Ticketholders will be able enjoy unsurpassed views of the thrilling racing action from seats overlooking the finish-line in the heart of Millennium Square.
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The much-anticipated Columbia Threadneedle World Triathlon Leeds, will provide the British public with a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch local heroes Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, as well as other leading GB triathletes including Non Stanford and Vicky Holland, battle for glory against some of the world’s best triathletes in their last race on home soil ahead of Rio.
Ticket holders will see the elite athletes pass them seven times on the bike and four times on the run, before witnessing the race finale, which often end with a thrilling sprint finish. A big screen will be located opposite the Grandstand showing the live BBC coverage so that ticket holders can stay up to speed with the race whilst it momentarily goes out of view.
Jack Buckner, Chief Executive of British Triathlon, said: “The Columbia Threadneedle World Triathlon Leeds is the final opportunity to watch Britain’s world-class triathletes race on home soil before they travel to Rio and we are expecting the city of Leeds to come out in force. The Grandstand is located in the heart of the action and will provide the perfect location to watch the stars of our sport cross the finish line and deliver an atmosphere to remember.”
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Tickets will be priced at £30 for adults and £20 for children (U15s). With the women’s race starting at 13:00 and the men’s at 15:45, ticket holders can expect well over four hours of live triathlon action.
The USA athlete Gwen Jorgensen unbeatable run is over and she has to make do with silver as Brit Helen Jenkins wins WTS Gold Coast, her first WTS win since 2012. The New Zealand athlete Andrea Hewitt took third. Fellow Brit Jodie Stimpson finished in 12th, about three minutes behind Jenkins.
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“I can’t quite believe it,” said Jenkins. “I did not have the best swim today and then on the bike, because it was so technical it was just as hard even if you were at the front, so I sat in and me, Flora [Duffy] and Andrea [Hewitt] were able to get a gap. I have so much respect for those girls, they were smashing it today. And I got to the run and just went for it. But the whole time I was waiting for Gwen, you can never underestimate how quick Gwen’s running is.”
Jenkins was strong from the start, and came out of T1 in the top group of 20, led by Spain’s Carolina Routier . The group eventually dwindled down to tally 18-strong, with Duffy (BER) and Jenkins taking turns forging the pack and pushing the pace. The chase group entered the first transition about 20 seconds behind the leaders, with contenders Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) and Jodie Stimpson (GBR) leading the charge. However they could not close the gap as Flora Duffy, Erin Densham (AUS) and Jenkins continuing to take turns to push a furious pace on the lead pack, the gap extended to 55 seconds on the next lap and only continued to widen as the leg carried on.
Duffy, Hewitt and Jenkins then brokeaway from the lead packpushed away as a threesome and were able to have to a ninety-second advantage heading out onto the run, a lead Jenkins was not going to waste knowing Gwen, with her phenomenol run, would be chasing her down. She wasted no time in blasting away to get out on front, and held onto her phenomenal stride and was able to carry herself right into the finish line.
Although Duffy and Hewitt were able to give themselves an advantage at the start of the run, Jorgensen came off the bike with guns blazing. Down by almost two minutes, she used her strongest discipline to earn some ground and close the gap little by little each lap.
It wasn’t until the final lap where the excitement intensified when Jorgensen caught up to Duffy and Hewitt. A sprint finish on the blue carpet ultimately determined the podium as Jorgensen was able to edge out Hewitt by a nose and take the silver. Hewitt was left with the bronze and Duffy finished in fourth.
“Helen was really strong today and she was the better athlete,” said Gwen. “Her, Andrea and Flora were riding really strong and yeah they just had a great race. I was just trying to run as fast as I could, a lot goes through your head and it is hot out there. They were running amazing and they just had a great race. It didn’t even look like I was gaining any ground on Helen, she was just going for it. It is great to be back racing against Helen, she was gone for a bit, so it was great to see her race well.”
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Hewitt said “I rode as hard as I could. I saw that some of the girls were struggling on some of the corners so when we got the break we just kept riding right up until the end. I felt a little wobbly on the run, but I tried to keep pushing, I was with Flora and then Gwen came up at the end. I tried a bit earlier in the sprint, but there was just the technical bit at the end. It was just a tough race. This is my first Olympic distance of the year and I braced myself on the run, I could judge on the U turns where Gwen was and where Flora was. It just came down to the blue carpet at the finish.”
Showing unbeatable form Spaniard Mario Mola is has won his second WTS race of the series and his third straight season win, after taking gold in the Mooloolaba World Cup.
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Despite the heat, Mola was able to remain within the top tier from start to finish and then showcase his signature running speed in the final two and a half kilometres to bypass Great Britain’s Jonathan Brownlee and compatriot Fernando Alarza.
Mola said: “It was really tough. Jonny was really strong during most of the run. I am very happy for Fernando that he got second place. I felt great during the whole race. I tried to stay in the front as much as I could on the bike in order to make it a 10k run and I think things went well and I am very happy with the result.”
Running past Brownlee in the final kilometre to earn the silver was Alarza, with Brownlee ending the day with bronze.
“It was an amazing final run, I thought I was only going to get the bronze medal and then when I saw that Jonny was down, I thought now, now now, so I am very happy with the silver medal,” Alarza said. “This is for my family and for my girlfriend. I think this was my best swim, my best cycle and a good run so I am just so very happy.”
The top men all positioned themselves on the right side of the pontoon, to try and make the most of the current at the Broadwater Parklands. It was Richard Varga (SVK), as usual, who led out the swim, followed by Igor Polyanskiy (RUS), Henri Schoeman (RSA) and Jonny Brownlee.
This leading pack were joined by seven others, including Aaron Royle (AUS), Ben Kanute (USA) and Alessandro Fabian (ITA), in the first bike lap to create a 12-strong lead pack on the bike.
However with Alistair Brownlee (GBR), Ryan Fisher (AUS), Ryan Bailie (AUS), Thomas Bishop (GBR) and Mola in the chase group, the leaders were hard-pressed to make their break stick, and by the third lap the peloton then tallied 29.
An episode of breakaway attempts then occurred in the latter half of the bike leg. Alistair Brownlee was first to enjoy a solo ride and his pushed through a lap on his own. But he retreated back to the pack when he was unable to gain any company.
It was then that Ben Shaw (IRL) and Tom Bishop (GBR) went together on a breakaway push and were able to create a gap of 50 seconds and enter the second transition zone together with a slight advantage.
However Mola and Brownlee ran them down and running stride for stride, Mola and Jonny Brownlee stayed together for the first three laps of the run, before Mola was able to finally kick in some final energy in the final lap and bypass Brownlee and cross the finish line and claim his third straight victory of the season.
Alarza found himself in a comfortable third place position for the first three fourths of the run, but when Brownlee started to run out of gas in the final kilometre, Alarza was able to come past him for silver.
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Australian Bailie was fourth, cementing his place on the Australian Olympic team. He said, “It hasn’t quite sunk in yet to tell you the truth, it has been a lot of hard work to get here. I knew what I had to do and I just wanted to take it out of the selector’s hands. When Rio did not go quite as planned I knew this was the race that I wanted to peak for. I just can’t believe it to tell you the truth.”
On Saturday 9 April the cream of UK triathlon attended the 12th annual 220 Triathlon Awards at Stratford Town Hall, including a wealth of athletes, brands and industry greats, to find out who had won top honours in each of the ceremony’s 21 categories – as voted for by you, the readers of 220 Triathlon and 220triathlon.com.
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The evening was hosted by 220’s editor Helen Webster alongside guest speaker and track legend Derek Redmond, who delivered the memorable pre-awards speech about his Olympic history.
The award winners had more of a foreign flavour this year, with the cream of international triathletes beating our Brits in the major elite honours. In a change from the Brownlee norm, taking the Men’s Elite Triathlete of the Year title was Javier Gomez after a year that saw him become the record five-time ITU world champion, as well as taking bronze at the Ironman 70.3 Worlds in Austria. Gomez edged out Ironman and 70.3 world champ Jan Frodeno to take the award.
Storming to victory in the Women’s Elite Triathlete showdown ahead of Vicky Holland and Lucy Gossage was America’s Gwen Jorgensen, the short-course superstar who extended her unbeaten ITU run in 2015 to successfully defend her ITU world champs title. Gwen also edged out Gomez and Frodeno for the International Triathlete gong, while Emma Pooley won Duathlete of the Year.
You voted Charles Pennington your Men’s Age-Grouper of the Year. Royal Marine Pennington was fifth out of the age-group athletes at the Ironman Worlds in Hawaii last October. Crowned Women’s Age-Grouper of the Year was Lucy Charles, who beat the vast majority of the pros by producing the fifth-fastest swim at the 2015 Ironman World Champs in Kona, Hawaii.
The Men’s Paratriathlete of the Year award once went again to Phil Hogg, who won the GB National Champs in 2015 and is vying for Paralympic selection at Rio. Another repeat winner was Lauren Steadman, who claimed the Women’s Paratriathlete of the Year.
Simon Ward continued his hold on the Coach of the Year award, with the Yorkshireman now having guided over 250 Ironman finishers during his coaching career.
The evening ended with the one award shortlisted by readers but with the final result chosen by an industry panel: the Jane Tomlinson Award for Outstanding Contribution to Triathlon. This year’s panel was made up of Helen Webster, Liz Barrett and Matt Baird from 220, as well as our columnist Tim Heming and former editor James Witts.
This year’s award was posthumously awarded to Peter Howard, a stalwart of the UK triathlon scene for many years who passed away in May 2015 aged 81 years. Peter became involved in the sport back in UK triathlon’s formative years in 1983, and he’d medal at 15 world Olympic-distance and long-course championships during the period, competing in all but one ITU world championships from the first in 1989 until 2010.
Away from the race course, he was a driving force behind the development of the sport on a domestic and international level, which included his chairmanship of the British Triathlon Association in its early years. Locally, he was an ambassador for the sport in his native Yorkshire, where he influenced the establishment of clubs and inspired individuals to become involved with the sport he was so passionate about. Quite simply, he’s everything the Jane Tomlinson Award represents.
What a great weekend for British women triathletes – not only did Helen Jenkins win WTS Gold Coast but there were two Brits on the Ironman Port Elizabeth podium; Susie Cheetham in silver and Lucy Gossage in bronze. Kaisa Lehtonen won.
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British triathlete Jodie Swallow was the early leader, with an expected strong swim in some choppy water, however a fall on the bike allowed Australian athlete Annabel Luxford the opportunity to take the lead, which she held until T2. Swallow carried on and remained in second position until T2 with the gap between first and second over five minutes, howver she withdrew 2km into the run.
Lehtonen stayed as close as possible to the leading pair on the bike, entering T2 in third with Lucy Gossage (GBR) and Susie Cheetham (GBR) following.
Luxford headed out onto the run with a valuable time cushion considering the running talent in the chasers, however the winning trio, passed her after 13km. It could have been gold for Britain but Lehtonen managed to hold off Cheetham’s charge to win her first Ironman.
Racing a good friend helps you push through the pain! Brilliant race @susiecheetham . Love and hate racing with you! https://t.co/8BiiIpKtsB
— lucy gossage (@lucygoss) April 10, 2016
Staged in Nelson Mandela Bay and the city of Port Elizabeth, South Africa’s second oldest city. The day begins with a one-lap, 3.8km swim course. The bike course, featuring a new route in 2016, takes athletes out on two flat, fast laps of 90 km on one of the most spectacular bike courses on the Ironman circuit. Athletes return along the coast to the transition area to start the run.
Although it is commonly believed that exercise helps fight, and prevent cancer, scientists have been unable to explain quite why until now. However University of Copenhagen now believe that have found a link that explains why running can reduce cancer risk and tumour growth.
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They discovered that training mice regularly on a wheel (the mouse version of a treadmill) decreased the growth of multiple types of tumours, including skin, liver, and lung cancers. Furthermore, mice that exercised regularly had a smaller chance of developing cancer in the first place.
The beneficial effects of running went beyond tumor formation and growth, extending to cancer-associated weight loss, a process termed cachexia that is seen in cancer patients. Mice that exercised regularly showed no signs of cancer-associated weight loss in the researchers’ lung cancer mouse model.
The researchers say they identified several factors behind the anti-tumor effects of exercise. These anti-cancer effects are linked to the release of adrenaline (also called epinephrine), a hormone that is central to the “fight-or-flight” response. Adrenaline production is known to be stimulated by exercise.
In particular the production of adrenaline results in a mobilisation of immune cells, specifically one type of immune cell called a Natural Killer (NK) cell, to patrol the body. These NK cells are recruited to the site of the tumour by the protein IL-6, secreted by active muscles. The NK cells can then infiltrate the tumour, slowing or completely preventing its growth.
And there is no short cut injection either that works instead of running, as the researchers note that injecting the mice with either adrenaline or IL-6 without the exercise proved insufficient to inhibit cancer development, underlining the importance of the effects derived only from regular exercise in the mice.
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Their conclusions of this study is published in Cell Metabolism
The annual shindig, that is the 220 Triathlon Awards were held last weekend at Stratford Town Hall in London, with Olympic legend Derek Redmond on hand to give out trophies to the winners.
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In his speech Derek spoke about the impact sport has had on his life, and that iconic moment when his hamstring went in the Barcelona Olympics and his father helped him cross the finishing line.
The beautiful Stratford Town Hall
Ian Whittingham from Sigma Sport making his way to receive Retailer of the Year
Ben Dijkstra getting up to collect his award
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For full details of all the winners and runners up from the awards please click here