Ben Jones’ Age-Group story

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Ben Jones discovered multisport whilst studying at the University of Exeter and has quickly risen to qualifying for three 20-24 Age-Group Championship races this year.

Jones has qualified for the 2021 Europe Triathlon Standard Distance Triathlon European Championships Valencia, the 2021 Europe Triathlon Standard Distance Duathlon European Championships Targu Mures and the 2021 World Triathlon Standard Distance Duathlon World Championships Almere.

“I joined a triathlon club in my final year of university. Before then I had always done cycling and running and I was part of those clubs in my previous years at university, but after I picked up a few injuries, I thought I’d give triathlon a go,” said Jones.

Despite never racing or being part of a club before he studied at university, Jones was a keen runner and had taken part in his local parkrun since the age of 14. He would also cycle regularly alongside his father, even cycling from John O’ Groats to Land’s End in 2014.

Deciding to combine his familiar disciplines and add swimming to his repertoire, Jones decided to give triathlon a go in October 2018, starting with a fresher’s week taster session, saying:

“At the start of the year, I didn't want to put my head under the water. I started completely from scratch, the coach was really good and there were a couple of other people as well who were complete beginners like me.

“With the support of everyone at the university club, I became more confident in the water and slowly increased my distances. I built it up from not being able to swim one length front crawl to, by June, being able to do my first sprint triathlon.”

Jones hailed the team spirit of Exeter Triathlon Club saying: “I really enjoy being a part of the club and having everyone supporting you. People can push you more than you can do on your own.”

Since his first foray into multisport, Jones has competed in triathlon, duathlon and aquathlon events, saying: “I did a duathlon in November, loved doing it, set off way too fast like most people and really struggled on the run at the end, but loved doing it and racing with other people and the support everyone would give you is really good.

“After I built up the swimming and became more confident, I did an aquathlon. That was the first time I did any sort of race for swimming and even then I had to stop at the end of each length and get my breath back a bit. I think it was only 600m or so but it took me about 15 minutes.”

Jones then entered his first sprint triathlon, organised by BUCS, which introduced him to open water swimming and following that, he travelled to Brighton for the standard distance Age-Group Qualifier.

“I remember seeing a few people in GB trisuits and thought that would be a great thing to do. I like pushing myself to see what I can achieve. I thought it would be really different and an amazing thing if I could qualify,” said Jones.

“On a bit of a whim, I registered interest in qualifying for the Age-Group team. I'd never swum 1,500m outside of the pool, let alone in the sea, so was aiming just to get around the course.”

Despite setting himself a humble goal, Jones put in a strong performance that saw him achieve qualification for the European Triathlon Standard Distance Triathlon Championships.

Each year, British Triathlon allocate qualifiers for World Triathlon and Europe Triathlon sprint and standard distance championships for triathlon and duathlon, with British Triathlon Home Nation members also able to submit times to qualify for longer distance and other multisport championships.

“It was only when I finished and saw my time that I realised I may be in with an actual chance of qualifying. I got the confirmation email the following week whilst cycling C2C [Coast-to-Coast], I had qualified for the 2020 Europe Triathlon Standard Distance Triathlon European Championships,” said Jones.

After experiencing the rush of the standard distance triathlon competition, Jones tried his hand at standard distance duathlon, travelling to Grafham Water in March 2020, saying: “I’d never done a standard distance duathlon, so I wanted to give it a go and use it as a practise race for the triathlon later in the season, but I also did that more for the qualification.

“I didn't get off to the best of starts but under 2 hours 30 minutes later, I'd finished, got my time and done the maths to realise I'd qualified for my second Age-Group event.”

Unfortunately, the European Triathlon Standard Distance Triathlon which Jones had qualified for was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak. However, not only does Jones see this as an opportunity to get fitter and faster, but it’s allowed him to qualify for one more event.

“It’s quite fortunate that I’m still progressing and improving so I’ve had more time to get better than if it had been last year,” said Jones.

“Little did I know at that time, but Covid-19 would completely disrupt the 2020 racing calendar and that I could use this result to qualify for the 2021 World Triathlon Standard Distance Duathlon as well. So, I'd qualified for three Age-Group events in my first two standard distance races.”

Looking ahead to 2021 with three Age-Group championship races to compete at, the first two years of Jones’ multisport journey have been spectacular, and his third year is set to be even more remarkable.

“I'm amazed how far I have come and would encourage anyone who is considering qualification just to have a go. Triathlon has already given me so many great friends and memories and I'm looking forward to making some more when racing next year.”

Jones joined multisport to improve his fitness and now finds himself with three World Triathlon and Europe Triathlon Championship races this year. Why not give Age-Group qualification a try, perhaps next year it will be you donning the GB trisuit.

To find out when and where qualifier races are taking place, click the button below.

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