Edgar Top 20 at Birmingham 2022
James Edgar has completed his second Commonwealth Games at Birmingham 2022, finishing sixteenth. Edgar was in the mix after a strong swim and travelled with the large chase pack throughout before heading onto the five kilometre run.
Read all about Team NI at the Commonwealth Games here.
How it Unfolded
Some of top triathletes in the world were among the large 48 athlete field. A quick start for the 750m swim at Powell’s Pool in Sutton Park got the action underway. With the water temperature a balmy 19.1 degrees celsius, wetsuits were optional.
Out of the swim, Hayden Wilde, Taylor Reid and Jamie Riddle were first to leave T1, forming a lead bike group and holding a 15 – 20 second gap throughout the four laps of the 20km technical bike course.
James Edgar was ninth out of the water, just 8 seconds from the lead swimmer. Edgar got into the main chase pack who worked together throughout to close the gap to the leaders.
Coming into the second transition James Edgar was in 18th at the back of the chase pack, with a 21 second gap to then leader Hayden Wilde.
An exciting finish saw Alex Yee catch Hayden Wilde in the closing stages of the run, just as Wilde learned he was to serve a ten second penalty. Yee (ENG) took the top spot at his home Games, Hayden Wilde (NZL) second and Matt Hauser (AUS) in third.
Edgar picked up a couple of places on the run to finish in 16th, 2:28 from 2022 Commonwealth Games champion Alex Yee.
Speaking with Team NI Media after the race, Edgar commented;
“I was expecting a lot more, coming here the aim was top eight. I was 22nd last time, I was 19 and it was my first major Games. This time with more experience, more racing, an extra four years in my legs, top eight was a realistic result.”
Is there anything that James has learned from the experience going forward?
“Probably not yet, it’s probably a bit raw but we’ll go back, we’ll look at it probably not tonight, probably the next few days. Then figure out where we go from here, what we need to work on and build from there.”
Next Up
Next up are Oliver Gunning with Guide Kyle Duncan, Chloe MacCombe with Guide Catherine Sands, and Judith MacCombe with Guide Anne Paul in the Para Triathlon PTVI events on Sunday.
Coverage starts at 11am and will be shown on BBC. As with this morning, we’ll be live tweeting so make sure to follow along on our twitter account.
