Tuesday 10th August saw a large Welsh contingent travel to Mallory Park for the next stage of the British Youth, Junior and Senior Super Series. Athletes’ raced across the super sprint and sprint distances in a series of individual races. There were some great performances across the youth races, and we look to build on these during our Academy summer camp next week and future Regional Training Days later this year. For this stage of the Super Series, junior athletes were racing within the senior field. Dom Coy finished in 10th overall, and 3rd junior to continue his run of good form over the season. In the junior women’s race, Eva Edwards continued to show her great form by finishing 7th overall, 3rd junior. There were some solid performances from other Welsh juniors ahead of the grand final in a few weeks’ time. In the senior races NTPCW athlete, Freddie Webb was the star performer taking his first ever podium finishing second with Dom, Ollie, Josh and Jamie all packing inside the top-15, while Tilly Anema continued her consistent run of form with another top-10 by finishing 6th.
We returned to the race circuit on Wednesday morning for another day of racing. The Tristar 2 and 3 athletes were in action in their individual races in the morning, with Welsh athletes once again producing some amazing results. Josie Hurst was strong across all three disciplines to finish 6th TS3 and Lucy Jones crossed the line in 16th after a strong swim at the front of the field. There were also some good results from other Welsh TS3 and TS2 athletes across both the boys and girl’s waves.
Wednesday afternoon saw the start of the mixed team relay races. First up were the youth and junior races where the team of Eva Edwards, Liam Edwards, Eleanor White and Deri McCluskey produced a great performance to take 3rd! Next up were the seniors with two, well-balanced Cardiff teams in action. Jenny Manners lead out the swim for one team, while Tilly stormed through on the run to put both in contention with Loughborough out in front. The advantage of having two teams was clear on legs 2/3 as the girls handed over to Josh and Freddie, then Jaz and Ellie who worked together to cut the deficit significantly and move the teams into 3rd and 4th, in striking distance of the South West team in second. Ollie and Dom finished the job as they moved both teams up a place to take second and third – both teams on the podium - the best result for the Centre since the Mixed Relay Cup began in 2017.
The final races of the day were the Tristar mixed relays. Once again, Welsh athletes were on fine form across the two waves of relays. In wave one, the team of Lucy Jones, Dewi Thomas, Josie Hurst and Finley Bruce raced amazingly to cross the line first with a huge lead on the rest of the field! There was also some great racing from our other two TS teams. Well done to everyone who raced! It was great to see so many great Welsh performances and everyone enjoying being back racing! To top off the two days of racing, Alex Yee, newly crowned Olympic Champion and silver medallist arrived at the venue to chat with the athletes!
