Each of the Triathlon England regions run an academy to support their up-and-coming junior athletes in their development, with Blair Cartmell the lead coach of the South West region’s academy.

“'The role of the academy, during normal times, is to provide opportunities to the current group of athletes within the region that adds value in addition to what they are already doing in their home environments,” Cartmell commented.

“I am big believer in developing new skills and being exposed to challenge in a safe environment and creating memories whilst doing all this.

“The aim is to bring the athletes together throughout the year and expose them to different training opportunities and environments, obviously it’s been a bit different during the pandemic.”

With the athletes studying at school or college, Cartmell and the academy coaches would usually organise training camps during half term breaks and holidays to gather them together to help develop skills, confidence and build community within the academy.

“In a way there has been more contact and interaction with academy athletes than there normally would be,” Cartmell said. “In normal times we would have a camp every six weeks or so and there would be limited contact in-between.

“During the pandemic we have managed regular weekly online training sessions through Zwift, general catch ups on zoom, quizzes and some workshops ranging from psychology, training information and elite athlete Q&As.

“The biggest issue has been athletes learning to enjoy training for what it is, rather than training in order to race. you need both but right now it is about learning to love training.”

With restrictions looking set to be relaxed following the UK Government’s announcement, Cartmell and the academy are looking forwards to getting back to the racing environment, including plans to organise a training day at Bath University .

“We have a five week run in to the Bath Duathlon which has been confirmed, so it will be great to get the athletes together and for them to have a race focus on,” Cartmell added.

“Longer term there is a camp at Mount Kelly facilities in July. Hopefully, there will be some single camp days before then too. The athletes have really missed the social interaction with their friends and teammates.”