Twin brothers, Tom Bishop and David Bishop are set to compete at the Aguilas ETU Triathlon U23 and Youth European Championships this weekend. Non Stanford and Lois Rosindale complete a strong U23 line-up and Britain’s top Youth athletes will battle for team relay medals.
Whilst Alistair Brownlee and Jonathan Brownlee made history this summer as the first brothers to win Olympic medals in the same event, twin brothers Tom and David Bishop, 21, hope to make headlines of their own in Spain.
Tom Bishop was a bronze medallist at the ITU U23 Triathlon World Championships in Beijing last September, and is a former world junior silver medallist. However, this is the first time that David has been selected to race alongside him in a major event.
David Bishop said: “I've been on a training camp to Aguilas before and really enjoyed it out there. Hopefully it'll be a hard and honest race. It will be good to race alongside my brother, it’s the first time we have lined up together at an international championship event.”
The brothers from Derby face a line-up that includes Olympian Richard Varga, former ITU World Junior Champion, Fernando Alarza, and Andrey Bryukhankov, who is the younger brother of current world number two, Alexander Bryukhankov.
Non Stanford and Lois Rosindale have high hopes in the women’s race. The pair, who are both based in Leeds, have been racing on the senior ITU World Triathlon Series for the last year and will call on those experiences as they try to make their mark at U23 level.
Sunday’s relay events will see both U23 and Youth events take place. The Youth team relays have provided a stepping stone for many of Britain’s top triathlon stars, including the Brownlee brothers.
The GE Great Britain Team are defending champions in the men’s race, and Miles Burton, 16 from Bath, returns to the team following gold medal success with Gordon Benson and Marc Austin last year.
Sophie Coldwell, 17 from Nottingham, also raced last year in Tours and won a silver medal. That experience will be invaluable as this year’s team aim for medal-winning success.
The individual U23 events take place over the standard distance of 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run on Saturday. The U23 triathlon mixed relay (two men and two women) covers a super sprint distance on Sunday. The men’s and women’s Youth team relay events both take place on Sunday over the same super sprint course.
GE Great Britain Team – European U23 Championships
David Bishop
Tom Bishop
Lois Rosindale
Non Stanford
GE Great Britain Team – European Youth Team Relays
Miles Burton
Greg Chambers
Anthony Haynes
Kate Curran
Megan McDonald
