Saturday 7 September saw British Triathlon pathway athletes compete to be crowned Inter-Regional Championship winners and Youth and Junior Super Series and Senior Super Series champions at the British Triathlon Big Weekend.
Youth
The first races of the day saw the curtain come down on the Youth and Junior Super Series. This final race of the series, these were worth points and a quarter, mirroring the format of the ITU World Triathlon Series Grand Final.
The male race was split into two tiers, with both races proving to be thrilling from the start and attacks made on the bike and run.
After an impressive run to take the tape in the Youth Male Tier 2 race, Harry Holdaway reacted: “My plan was to get out in the front pack on the bike as I know my swim is the weakest, then just give it my all on the bike."
Osian Perrin ran through the field today to take the win in the Tier 1 race, with a 00:07:31 2.5km.
The Youth Female race was a close battle with a large bike pack forming at the front of the race. A tactical move saw a group of three breakaway, holding this through to the run, with Isla Britton coming out on top with a phenomenal finish to her race, "I had a good T2, and then on the run, I just went hard from the beginning and went as hard as I could the whole way."
Following today's racing, Bethany Cook and Osian Perrin were crowned the overall Youth A Super Series winners, with Barbara de Koning and Hamish Reilly the Youth B champions.
Junior and Senior
Next up, the juniors and seniors raced together, with the individual series ranking points being allocated according to their category.
A competitive male race saw a large group leave the water together to leave a large group all working together throughout the bike leg. This set up an exciting race to the finish from T2. Josh Ferris, one of the Australian guest athletes for the weekend, came through the run to claim the race victory.
In the female race, the swim spread the athletes out to leave various groups forming on the bike course. The lead bike group built a good lead featuring the eventual Junior and Senior race winners Sophia Green and Erica Byram. Onto the run, the two then broke away before being caught up by Jennifer Manners with Byram taking the tape.
Ellie Hobbs won the overall female Junior Super Series; and, with a strong performance out on the course, Jonathan Oakey claimed the overall male series win.
Reintroduced to the calendar for 2019, the winner of the female Senior Super Series was Olivia Matthews. Harry Leleu took the title in the men's series.
Inter-Regional Championships
Day one was brought to a close with TriStar 2 and 3 athletes representing their regions in the Inter-Regional Championships. Up to 12 athletes from each region took to the course, with the top ten results counting towards the points total. 2018 saw Scotland take the win, with Jersey and North West England second and third.
2019 saw the South East team claim the victory, with North East second followed by East in third.
The action continues at the British Triathlon Big Weekend on Sunday with the TriStar mixed relay, Youth and Junior mixed relay, and British Triathlon Performance Centres competing for the Accenture Mixed Relay Cup.
