Young Athlete Update – A Tale of Two Weekends
Bitterly cold!
On a bitterly cold last weekend in April, the young athletes of the region were in action, racing at the Medway Duathlon. This was the second race in the 2018 Junior Race Series and saw lots of great competition.
The category winners included a few familiar names – well done to Joseph Carpenter, Emily Stone, Finlay Goodman, Ella Baker, Alex Dack, Gabriella Horne, Oliver Horne, Bethany Cook, Hamish Reilly and Katie Painter. The current series standings after two events are now on the BTF website. If you are a member of TESE and you include your membership number when you enter the race you will be automatically added to the series standings.
Again, we were lucky to have the region’s most experienced technical official team of Dick and Clare Donovan to keep everyone on their toes. Thanks to Andrew McClelland and his team of marshals from Medway Tri Club for hosting this event.
Next event is on May 20th at Kidstri East Grinstead. This is the first triathlon of the series, a pool swim event which is great for novice triathletes while still presenting the more experienced racers some challenges! And for athletes anxious to get all their races in the diary and not miss out on series opportunities, the last event of the 2018 series, Bri Tri Kids Triathlon in Steyning on August 18th, is now online and open for entries.
What a difference a week makes – Skills School visits CWTC Tristars in Chichester
Roll on a week and everyone was hunting for the Factor 50! On Saturday 5th May, we held a Skills School with 35 young athletes from CWTC Tristars, 4 coaches from the club and visiting coaches from Mid Sussex Tri Club and Horsham Amphibians.
On a scorching day, and when not keeping cool under the trees, the athletes had loads of fun learning about run paces and how they should use their arms when running. The bike session gave the athletes the chance to explore how to turn around a dead turn rapidly, and get back up to speed quickly. Finally, who thought duathlon orienteering would be so much fun (once the athletes and coaches had got the hang of it). This gave the athletes the chance to practice mounting and dismounting, running off the bike and making good decisions in transition while finding clues from an orienteering map. Any coach that is interested in finding out more about this session or would like to host a Skills School day at their junior club please drop me an email to skillsschoolsoutheast@britishtriathlon.org. Many thanks to CWTC Tristars Head Coach Nicky McCulloch for making the day happen and inviting other coaches from the county. This made it a brilliant day for the athletes and a valuable networking opportunity for all the coaches involved.
Dr Liz Scott
Skills School Lead South East Region
