A squad of twenty British Paratriathletes has recently returned from its first ever winter training camp. The squad spent two weeks in Lanzarote (16-30th January), with a key focus on bike miles, led by British Paratriathlon Manager, Jonathon Riall.
Paratriathlon will make its Paralympic debut at the Rio 2016 Games and the British squad has just received a boost with confirmation of an increase in UK Sport investment over the Rio 2016 funding cycle.
Great Britain currently has the most successful team in the world with six world champions having been crowned at the ITU World Championships in Hyde Park in September 2013.
The winter camp was designed to bring the squad together in preparation for the season ahead to further professionalise the set up with just over two years to go until Rio. It also provided an opportunity for visually impaired athletes to work with guide athletes full time.
Each day consisted of a group warm up in the dark on the pool deck led by the team physio therapist, Penny Macutkiewicz, followed by a 90minute swim. Different groups then went out on the bikes before returning for rest and an evening run on seaside trials.
Riall commented: “This is the first time that we as a squad have attended a warm weather camp. The aim is to ensure that athletes are doing a decent amount of training and early in the year getting the support they need to set them up for the rest of the season.”
He added: “We have plans this year to professionalise even more and we’ll have athletes who start to centralise and train together as a squad. We are competing against other nations who now have funding and have staff in place so we can’t rest on our laurels.”
The full interview with Jonathon Riall is available below:
The key events for 2014 are the ITU International Paratriathlon event, part of the free-to-view ITU World Triathlon Series event in Hyde Park (31 May – 1 June 2014), the ETU Paratriathlon European Championships in Kitzbuhel, Austria in June and the ITU Paratriathlon World Championships at the end of August in Edmonton, Canada.
