IN her first full season of competing in triathlons, Michelle Parsons had a busy Bank Holiday weekend competing in events on consecutive days and producing some excellent results.

On Sunday in the Cosm-eston Sprint Triathlon in Cardiff, an event which incorporated the Welsh National Sprint Triathlon Championships, Parsons finished in a time of one hour 22 minutes and seven seconds to claim third place in the ladies Open race.

The event comprised of a 750m open water swim in Cosmeston Lake followed by an undulating 21K bike finishing with a 5K run around the lake and country park.

This was the Evesham girl's first competitive wetsuit swim and, being a relative novice, she produced exceptional bike and run legs to finish in third position.

On Monday, and a little closer to home, she competed in the Tri Team Glou-cester Sprint Triathlon at Brockworth.

This event was over a slightly different course of a 400m pool swim, followed by a 19K bike leg and rounded off with 6K run. Parsons completed the course in a time of one hour 11 minutes and seven seconds missing out on third place by only a matter of seconds.

Also competing was Adrian Mayhew of Evesham Swimming Club and Vale Cycles.

Mayhew, who is concentrating more on the longer distance event, sped round the course in a time of 57 minutes and 41 seconds but, due to a mix-up in the pool, he swam further than he should have costing him more than 40 seconds and ultimately a top three place finish.

Michelle's husband, Phil, also completed the events at Cardiff and Brockworth representing 5S Total Training and Vale Cycles.

At Cardiff he finished a creditable 12th in the mens Open event in a time of one hour eight minutes and 55 seconds and the next day he broke the hour for the first time when finishing in the top ten in a time of 59 minutes and 52 seconds.

Last Saturday, Calso Health and Fitness Club held its inaugural cross training challenge event in Kent, aptly named Calso Lucky 7s.

The event which comprises seven gym-based disciplines including a 1.7K static bike ride, 70 shoulder press repetitions at 15kg, 70 bench press repetitions, 70 step ups, 70 lateral pull downs at 40kg, a 700m row and a 700m treadmill run on a 7 per cent incline is completed against a running clock.

Local cross trainer Helen Barnett made the long trip to Bromley supported by her coach Michelle Parsons. This was Barnett's first open event having previously only competed in one intermediate vent in Luton earlier in the year.

Much to her delight the event went well and all of the hard training paid off as she completed the course in an exceptional time of 18 minutes and 12 seconds to claim second place overall against many experienced competitors.

Both Barnett and Parsons are training hard for the biggest Cross Training event of the year, DB Max, to be held at Bath Univ-ersity on Saturday, June 22 when all of the big cross training names should be in attendance.