As the Great Britain Age-Group Team celebrated its first gold medals at the TransCanada Corp. World Triathlon Grand Final Edmonton yesterday in the ITU Aquathlon World Championships, many team members will have been lending their support to their fellow Brits before they themselves embark onto the World Championship stage in Hawrelak Park.
The Great Britain Age-Group Team has almost 400 members in Edmonton and with the triathlon racing beginning tomorrow (Friday 29 August) with the ITU Sprint Triathlon Age-Group World Championships, the schedule is about to become action packed.
Great Britain has one of the largest and most experienced teams at the Championships with no less than six returning medallists. Joyce Mark (55-59) and Steve Mckeown (45-49) won gold in Hyde Park last year and Jacqui Phillips (45-49) and Peggy Crome (70-74) are reigning silver medallists.
Peggy has already been in action at this year’s World Championships winning silver in the aquathlon races yesterday and knowing Peggy we are sure she will be aiming to step onto that podium once more.
Michael Smallwood (65-69) is another athlete who competed in yesterday’s aquathlon finishing fifth and having won a bronze medal in the sprint distance race last year, will be one to watch. Michael will also have one eye on the standard distance race on Monday, in which he also competes.
The final returning medallist is Paul Ryman (30-34) who won bronze back in London’s iconic Hyde Park and like Michael, he will also be racing in the standard distance race.
Mike Griffin, who managed last year’s successful team in London, is managing the 195-strong sprint distance team. Mike commented: “The team is ready for the 'A' race of the season. We have a strong team of returning medallists and some defending champions. There is no doubt there will be strong representation from the host nation and I would expect a full capacity team from the USA.
“This will lead to some fierce competition and medals will be hard to win, however the GB team will rise to the occasion I'm sure; supporting each other and pushing themselves to the limit in pursuit of PB’s and hopefully medals galore! I am proud to be the Team Manager and look forward to assisting the team in achieving their individual goals.”
The standard distance race takes place on Monday 1 September and will also feature a number or returning medallists with Christopher Owens (60-64) our only returning champion. Arnott Kidd (80+) won silver in the 75-79 category last year and despite moving up age-groups is a regular medallist at major Championships and will be confident of another medal-winning performance.
Penny Rother (55-59) also competes having won bronze back in 2013 and joins a team of 166 athletes in action on Monday.
Ian Kitchen, who managed this year’s standard distance team at the ETU Kitzbuhel European Championships, is returning to Team Manager duty in Edmonton.
Ian added: “I am really looking forward to what should be a very competitive World Championship for the standard distance age-group athletes. Canada will undoubtedly be very strong with it being a home Championship for them but I also expect to see strong teams from the USA, Australia and New Zealand as well as others.
“I am confident though that the GB team will do well and bring home a good number of medals as competition at the three qualifying races for places on this team has been strong.”
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Photo credit: Janos Schmidt/ITU Media
