On our New Year bike + run this year we were honoured to be joined by one of Britain’s rising Multisport stars of recent years, Ros Viner. The opportunity to find out a little more about Ros was too hard to resist and after sharing a bottle of bubbly at dinner the night before, 30 miles on the bike and a rapid run around Emberton Country Park, we felt it was time to get to know her a little better!

Born in Edgbaston in 1973, Ros had an active childhood leaving Birmingham University with a BA (Hons) in Classics. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Ros worked in practice in the UK and US before taking a four year career break as a Personal Trainer. Taking up running aged 25 and racing over distances up to Half Marathon, her claim to fame remains “beating Sally Gunnell at the Great North Run!”

Ros used her multiple talents as a personal trainer, qualifying to take circuit training and spinning classes, and started her own running club of which she is justifiably proud. “Assisting people from a no running background through training to completing their first marathon is one of the greatest personal achievements one can claim.”

Introducing rowing into the mix, Ros posted an outstanding 7:36 for 2k, finishing 3rd in the National Indoor Rowing Championships.

As she turned 30, Ros “needed a new challenge!” and took on her first triathlon, “swimming breast stroke and riding a mountain bike!” After just two swimming lessons Ros started to teach herself front crawl and, transferring her silky smooth running efficiency onto the bike - in this instance, incredibly, a Dawes touring bike - she qualified for the World Duathlon Championships in Corner Brook, Canada in her breakthrough season of 2006.

That year closed with a stunning performance in Rimini at the European Duathlon Championships, finishing 4th. Missing out on 3rd place, and therefore a medal, by a matter of seconds, Ros took herself away to work on both her confidence and stamina and was able to put things straight by winning a silver medal for her 2nd place at the European Championships in Serres, Greece in 2008.

Ros has now represented Great Britain at Duathlon on 6 occasions; 3 at European and 3 at World level; in successive seasons with an impressive haul of results:

2006 World Duathlon Championships, Corner Brook, Canada 12th
2007 World Duathlon Championships, Gyor, Hungary 7th
2008 World Duathlon Championships, Rimini, Italy 9th

2006 European Duathlon Championships, Rimini, Italy 4th
2007 European Duathlon Championships, Edinburgh 6th
2008 European Duathlon Championships, Serres, Greece 2nd

Between all this international travel, Ros has finished fourth in the National Duathlon Championship and has secured 1st lady at the Marlow Duathlon and 1st in Age Group at the Thruxton Duathlon.

During the 2008 Great North Run, Ros not only posted an impressive 1.04:42 pb for 10 miles but finished 2nd out of 779 in her category, was 7th AG lady to finish and would have been 18th amongst the Elite!

Whilst establishing herself as a Duathlete, Ros has also kept up her swimming, recording overall victory at the Hereford Triathlon and Age Group wins at Tidworth, Stratford, Cheshire and Bounemouth triathlons. An excellent set of results from someone so new to the sport.

Ros manages to fit her training in around the day job as Trade Account Manager for HMV where she leads a team of 9 managing supplier accounts. Ros cites cooking, musicals and cinema as her hobbies alongside patiently awaiting Mr Right to come along whilst preparing for this year’s athletic challenges. “I aim to carry on whilst I can achieve, continue to improve and am still enjoying myself. Perhaps I can win gold this year!” she exclaimed. It can only be a matter of time!

A brief summary of results for Ros during 2008:

March	Clumber Park Duathlon	7th female	2nd in cat
	Marlow Duathlon	1st female
April	Swindon Duathlon	14th female	4th in cat
	National Duathlon Championships	12th female	4th in cat
	Asbourne Duathlon	6th female
May	Stratford Triathlon	3rd female	1st in cat
	European Duathlon Championships	8th female	2nd in cat
June	Cheshire Triathlon	3rd female	1st in cat
	Wantage Triathlon	2nd female
	Marlborough Fast Twitch Tri	4th female	2nd in cat
July	Hereford Triathlon	1st female
	Henley Triathlon	2nd female	2nd in cat
	Tidworth Fast Twitch Tri	4th female	1st in cat
September	Faringdon Tri	2nd female	2nd in cat
	Bournemouth Fast Twitch Tri	2nd female	1st in cat
	Lichfield Triathlon	2nd female
	World Duathlon Championships	30th female	9th in cat
October	Thruxton Duathlon	3rd female	1st in cat

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