Always present en masse wherever competition is held, the Great Britain Age-Group team took advantage of home soil to proudly fly the red, white and blue on Saturday at a very successful ETU Sprint Triathlon European Championships, part of Glasgow 2018.
Home to the Commonwealth Games four years previously, the stunning surrounds of Strathclyde Country Park in North Lanarkshire welcomed the best in Europe over three days of racing. The Sprint Distance Age-Group competition was held on Saturday, ahead of the final Elite race of the week, the Mixed Relay Triathlon European Championships.
The opportunity to compete in an ETU Championship race on home ground had attracted a British entry of more than 600 through the qualifying process, and they were joined by hundreds more athletes from a further 20 European countries on the challenging course, which finished on the same blue carpet and finish archway in front of the grandstand as all of the Elite races.
The British team were clearly in fine form, taking the first Gold medal of the day from wave one (Eden Schiller, 16-19), and as racing progressed through the morning, a flow of medal winning performances continued. Once the day was completed and the results accumulated, a total of 67 podium finishes with 22 Gold medals was the final result.
British athletes would prove to be the fastest on the day overall too, across all categories, filling the top five positions for both men and women.
Donald Brooks (40-44) continued his fantastic season. A World and European Champion last year, he was the fastest athlete overall which matched his feat from three weeks ago in Tartu, Estonia, over the Standard distance.
The fastest female time was also from the 40-44 division where Trish Deykin combined the fastest bike and second fastest run time of the day, to finish more than two and a half minutes quicker than anyone else.
There were plenty of close finishes during the day too with medals decided on the blue carpet of the finishing straight. In the women’s 20-24 category, Hannah Dodwell took the Gold medal by just five seconds from Brooke Gillies, while in the 70-74 division, Pam Oliver came up just ten seconds short of catching Germany’s Inge Stettner, the crowd watching the race unfold around the edge of the loch.
As with the women, the closest men’s finish was also in the 20-24 category, where William Kirk had to produce a fine run to catch and pass David Pearson by just four seconds.
Some other notable results included Michael Smallwood, who extended his record of ITU and ETU Championship medals to 26, more than four minutes clear in the 70-74 division.
In the women’s 60-64 category, Joyce Mark continued her stranglehold on this championship, by winning her seventh consecutive Gold medal, since first winning in Eliat in 2012.
With Bronze in the 65-69 division, Julia Hector continued an interesting run on GB colours. That was her tenth podium finish from ten international championship starts, her first having come 11 years ago in Hamburg.
As well as Donald Brooks, there were several other British athletes who completed the Tartu / Glasgow double with European Championship Gold over both Standard and Sprint Distances. These were Alison Mackenzie (30-34), Peggy Crome (75-79) and Chris Goulden (60-64)
Overall, a fine set of results from a fantastically organised race where the Age-Group athletes were very much integrated with the Elite European Championship event. Congratulations to the athletes, organisers and of course the amazing volunteers who were present in huge numbers.
Many of the athletes who raced in Glasgow will now be preparing for the ITU Triathlon World Championships, which take place in Gold Coast, Australia, next month.
For a full listing of Great Britain Age-Group medals from Glasgow click here.
For full results from Glasgow click here.
