The European Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championships took place in Balikesir, Turkey over the weekend of 4^th – 6^th August. After winning the qualification race and racing as part of the British team, NTPCW athlete Tilly Anema (U23) competed in the combined U23/senior women's field over three days of racing across super sprint distance heats, finals and mixed team relay. During the heats on Friday, Tilly comfortably qualified for the A final crossing the line in 5^th position. On Saturday in the final, Tilly once again showed her swimming class by exiting the water just 2 seconds behind the eventual race winner to put herself in an excellent position for the bike and run. Tilly produced a near flawless race performance in her first individual championship event to cross the line in 9^th place overall and 5^th U23. If two days of racing in 39-degree heat wasn’t enough, Tilly was then selected to compete for Great Britain in the mixed team relay the following day. Joining Hamish Riley, Sam Dickinson and Jessica Fullagar, Tilly as the 2^nd leg athlete, delivered an excellent leg to keep them in the race and contribute to the team being crowned European Relay Champions for 2023! Our Pathway Head Coach, Vicky Johnston, was also out in Balikesir providing coach support to the junior athletes.

The last month has been full of success for Tilly as she was called up for the World U23/Junior relay team (and reserve for the elite World Series mixed relay) in Hamburg in July where they finished 6^th. A few weeks later, after finishing 2^nd at the Sunderland British Super Series race, Tilly qualified for the U23 World Championships, due to take place at the end of September in Pontevedra, Spain.

Tilly has been part of NTPCW since beginning her degree at Cardiff Met in September 2020 and has shown huge progress across both the bike and run over the past 3 years. We look forward to watching Tilly continue to develop over the coming years!