Kent’s Dave Bowden, representing Great Britain for the fourth time at long distance triathlon, commonly referred to as ironman,  secured the silver medal at the European Championship in Madrid.

A veteran of ironman racing Dave said “ everyone had underestimated the course and the conditions, me included”.

The swim, 3.8km was at 1000m altitude in the Sierra Maridluena mountains, was followed by 180km including 2900 metres of climbing, passing a ski station at nearly 2000m altitude dropping down towards Madrid where the temperature was around 37 degrees C.

This was followed by a tough 42.2km run in Madrid city centre in temperatures reaching 44 degrees.

“I’ve done some tough races but that was the toughest finishing 3 hours slower than my personal best at ironman distance ” said Dave.

Despite losing all of his nutrition before the first mountain claim, Dave finished the race in 12 hrs 52 mins, almost 45 minutes ahead of third place.

“I am delighted to win the silver medal. It’s made my season after finishing 13th whilst suffering from a virus during the World Championships in Denmark in July”

Dave has qualified for both  European and World Championships in 2019.