Sarah Russell reports live from the Merrell ICEMan.

Near-perfect racing conditions met athletes lining up for the Merrell ICEMan Duathlon in Frimley, Nr Farnborough, Hants. With no ‘ICE’' in sight, unseasonably warm - almost spring like weather - greeted the 200 runners and duathletes ready to challenge themselves on the grueling hills of the Merrell ICEMan.

In the initial 12k off-road run, David Chapman (Tri Talk) and Gary Blesson (Total Racing Inc/Sigma Sport) had a real ‘ding dong’, swapping places many times, before Chapman finally took the win in 46:27 with Blesson only one second behind in a superb sprint finish. Darren Bird was 3rd in 52:21. In the women’s race Clare Mullenger (Wimbledon Windmilers) took the win very comfortably in 52:48 and an excellent 8th place overall, with Clare Weldon (a former Oxford lightweight rower) in second in 53:04 and Bryony Britten taking 3rd in 54:52. There were 92 finishers in the run.

The Merrell ICEMan Duathlon was a 10km run, 15km mountain bike and final 5km run on challenging track and trail of an Army training ground. Organisers Human Race, had promised pain, hills and fun.. and athletes weren’t disappointed. Colin Dixon led from start to finish, and was once again the winner with a stunning performance in a time of 1:33:42. Jim McConnel (XTerra Pro) was only seconds behind, having been breathing down his neck the entire race, taking 2nd in 1:33:58. Dixon proving, once again, his supremacy as one of the UK’s top offroad duathletes. Sylvain Garde (Addiscombe CC) was 3rd in 1:39:22, but considering it was his first ever duathlon, he’ll be one to watch in the future. In the women’s race Maddie Horton (ex GB runner and World mountain runner) racing as ‘Team Certini’ again led from start to finish and never looked in any danger, taking the win in a superb 9th place overall in 1:46:05. Second over the line was Aileen Anderson (Mudman Winner from November) in 1:54:08 and 3rd was Nikki Barron (Ashford Tri) and former Ballbuster winner, in 2:02:49. There were 78 finishers.

Summing it up, athletes found it tough, grueling but brilliant fun. XTerra Pro Jim McConnel said ‘These races are great sharpeners for the season ahead, you really find out how your fitness is and what you need to work on’. Paul Davies (8th place overall) had a great time ‘It was my first race back after injury, so I was pretty pleased’ he said ‘I had a lot of fun on the bike, the course was great, you could really get stuck in.. I’ll definitely be back for more’.

Results (provisional) from the duathlon are available here and the run results are here.

COMING UP… MERRELL MudMan Duathlon and Run. Saturday 7th March, Guildford, Surrey. Duathlon is 7.5km run, 15km bike, 7.5km run. If you don’t fancy the full duathlon, there is also a 7.5km trail run. See www.humanrace.co.uk for more info and to enter online.