Laura Needham, Ben Stephenson and Lucy Wainwright were announced as winners of the practitioners award at the UK Sport PLx awards.

The annual awards ceremony was expanded to seven categories with the British Triathlon team recognised under the practitioners that made a special impact on high performance. 

Launched for the first time in 2019, the PLx awards recognise those individuals, teams and sports who have made a significant contribution to the high-performance community, are achieving great things and having a special and positive impact across coaching, support services, innovation, collaborating and team working, and social impact.

The PLx awards winners were announced as part of a special virtual ceremony hosted by UK Sport Chair Dame Katherine Grainger and accomplished broadcaster Hazel Irvine.

Needham, Stephenson and Wainwright have been working on a heat and humidity strategy since 2016 as part of British Triathlon’s plans to prepare for the conditions at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games. This work proved vital as the British team claimed nine medals at the Tokyo Test Event in August 2019.

Wainwright said: “We have tried to immerse ourselves in what athletes will face and how it will feel and then tried to build strategies where we can understand how each individual will cope with that environment. We have set up processes that support each of our individual athletes to be on the start line with the confidence that they can deal with whatever the conditions are and that they can still perform to their best on the day.”