For the first time, the British Triathlon Under 20’s Festival spanned two days of competition, seeing mixed relay racing make it’s debut at the Championships.

Following a day of individual action for Britain’s top junior talent, Sunday 16 September featured the sports newest and arguably most exciting discipline, where four athletes team up and each compete over short triathlon distances in a relay format.

Youth and Junior

The Accenture British Triathlon Youth and Junior Relay was first up, featuring regional squads made up of two males and two females battling it out in Mallory Park. Each athlete faced a 315m swim, 5.8km bike and 1.4km run before tagging their next teammate to take over.

Having demonstrated their prowess in the discipline earlier this month at the 2018 School Games, the East Midlands quartet stated their dominance once again to take gold in 1:24.04 ahead of Scotland and Yorkshire. 

Elspeth Grant got the team off to a strong start and commented: “I prefer racing as a team as it’s much more exciting than racing as an individual, plus it’s really good that we can share the victory together.”

It was then turn for Xavi Salcedo to continue the squad’s lead. He said: “It’s good fun; I really enjoy the team environment and working with a team to get a better result, especially considering I had a bit of an awful race yesterday. It’s quite nice to win a medal.”

Libby Coleman, who has just been selected for the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires later this year, added: “It was quite nerve racking going third because we already had a lead and I didn’t want to get caught, so I kind of just had to stick with it.”

Fyn Batkin was left to bring the team home. He said: “I suppose in such short racing that the time gaps and people leading just changes really fast so it’s kind of just about holding your position, working together and enjoying it really. It was great fun.”

Team Scotland finished a mere nine seconds adrift in 1:24.13 after a strong all-round performance.

Sophia Green from the quartet, said: “I just think the team did really well, we all know each other really well so I think that helped as well knowing each other’s strengths, so it was a good race.”

For full results of the Accenture British Triathlon Youth and Junior Relay click here.

TriStar

The afternoon made way for the Accenture British Triathlon TriStar Mixed Relay, allowing Britain’s youngest talent try their hand at mixed relay over a shorter distance of 150m swim, 2.9km bike and 1.1km run.

With the TriStar title to be decided in a similar format to the IRC championships it was South Central's strength in depth that saw them take the win overall ahead of Scotland in a narrow affair.

Taking the tape in wave two for South Central Felix Clacy said "It felt brilliant to take the tape and so good to have that feeling today."

Whilst teammate Madeline Cooper added "When you’re in a team it’s amazing, you don’t want to let your team down and so you just try your best, it’s really good, I love relays."

The fastest team time of the afternoon was posted by runners up Scotland, with a team comprised of Melissa Turnball, Alex Robin, Struan Bennett and Anna Hedley taking the tape in wave one in a time of 56:26.

Hedley, pleased with the team’s performance, said: “I just want to add a thank you to Triathlon Scotland for brilliant coaches and atmosphere and to British Triathlon and Mallory Park for making it happen - we’ve all worked really hard for this so it’s nice to see it pay off.”

Accenture British Triathlon TriStar Mixed Relay Standings

1. South Central
2. Scotland
3. South West
4. South East
5. Eastern
6. Jersey
7. North West
8. Yorkshire
9. London
10. Wales
11. North East
12. East Midlands
13. West Midlands

For full individual team results and timings visit here.