Double delight for rider/coach Bowditch

ANN BOWDITCH and James McLaughlin have collected their final points requirement for the approved criteria set to qualify for next year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

Along with Daniel Arblaster, the Guernsey riders travelled to Kidderminster to compete in the National Time Trial (Rudy Project) Series on a sporting course and all three showed they are in fine form.

Held in the sleepy town of Martley on roads not too dissimilar to Guernsey terrain, the three Sarnian riders had to negotiate tractors and twisty, gravelled bends in the fifth round of the series.

The course started fiercely with a steep climb before calling on riders' technical skills to negotiate an interesting course.

Bowditch was first of the local contingent to set off in the women's category.

Also competing was Olympic silver pursuit medallist and teammate, Wendy Houvenaghal, who stormed to victory as she prepares for the track season with focus on the 2012 London Olympics.

Not having ridden the course had given Bowditch an added challenge.

Bowditch, now 38, was looking strong on the climbs having recently broken her eight-lap of Talbot road race record the previous week by a massive 13 minutes.