Isle of Man triathlete Dr Richard Callow enjoyed a successful trip to Norway to compete in the 2025 edition of the Lofoten Extreme Triathlon last week.

The geologist from Union Mills, who now works in the Scandinavian country, crossed the finish line in first position after more than 11 gruelling hours of action.

Also known as the Arctic Triple, the events consists of four kilometre open water swim in the harbour of Svolvær, then a 181km bike ride around Gimsøy and around Fiskebøl and Laukvik before return to Svolvær and finishing with a 42km run.

Unusually amongst long-distance triathlon events, the run included two mountain ascents, each of which had to be climbed twice.

For those not familiar with Norwegian geography, the Lofoten Islands is an archipelago of seven islands connected by either bridge or tunnel, within the Arctic Circle.

Callow attended Queen Elizabeth II High School in Peel before studying at Oxford University where he obtained a doctorate in earth sciences. He is the son of Howard and the late Mary Callow.

He competed for many years in the annual End-to-End MTB Challenge as well as other local mountain biking events.

Now living in Norway, he took up triathlon a few years ago and has competed in events in Norway, Canada, Copenhagen, Wales and, in 2024, the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.

Last week’s Lofoten Triathlon, which took place on Friday, had an international field, with entrants from the host nation as well as Netherlands, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Germany and India.

The weather was poor for the whole event, with heavy rain and gusty winds making the roads treacherous at times.

It also meant that his support team – his wife Jen, who is expecting their first child - was forced to seek shelter in various cafes for most of the 11 hours while Richard was ‘enjoying’ himself swimming, biking and running!

After finishing the swim and being asked how he found it, his answer was ‘cold’.

Afterwards he also commented that the event had been a good challenge but ‘you don’t usually have to climb two mountains twice when you run a marathon’.

Callow completed the 4km swim in a time of 1 hour and 15 minutes, before clocking up 18km on the bike in 5 hours and 44 seconds.

He then rounded off the event by completing the 42km run in four hours and 51 minutes.

This gave Callow a total race time of 11hr 15min which was a comfortable 27 minutes and 16 seconds ahead of second-placed finisher Jens Rubner from Germany.

September is shaping up to be a bumper month for the island’s triathletes, with two events taking place at Mooragh Park in Ramsey.

First up is the 1886 Triathlon Championships on Sunday, September 7 which is a highlight of Manx Tri Club’s sporting calendar.

Sprint athletes can choose between a 400m or 750m swim, followed by a 20km cycle and 5km run, while the standard race features a 1,500m swim, 40km cycle and 10km run.

Later in the month, Manx Tri Club’s rescheduled aquathlon takes place on Saturday, September 27.

The event, which will also be based at Mooragh Park and starts at 9.30am, offers three different swim and run distances depending on the age of the competitors.

Entries can be made online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CXVMWTH and close on September 21.