The 2024 events season is well and truly underway and last weekend (20th-21st April) was a big one for Welsh athletes at home and abroad. Let’s recap…
The weekend kicked off on Saturday with Iestyn Harrett winning Challenge Mogán Gran Canaria. This was Iestyn’s first ever international victory, following several World Triathlon podiums in short course events, including as the first leg of our Commonwealth Games medal-winning relay team. He took to his Instagram saying:
“After dedicating a winter to training specifically for the longer distance, it’s been very rewarding to open the season with a victory. It may only be my 3rd middle distance race, but I feel like I’ve really found the event that suits my strengths as an athlete. Looking forward to the rest of 2024!”
Another of our Welsh professionals, Ben Goodfellow, also put on an impressive performance in this race to finish in 11th place.
Remaining on the long course theme, we also had several of our professional athletes taking part in Ironman 70.3 Valencia on Sunday. With 91 men on the start list, it was a high-level and hectic race. NTPCW athletes Joshua Lewis and Ollie Turner took home 7th and 39th place respectively, and another of our Welsh-based pros Lewis Donovan came 46th.
Josh commented on his race via Instagram, saying:
“Really pleased with where everything is at after a solid winter, and despite coming away with the same result as this time last year, I feel like it was a far better performance and something I’m very proud of. 7th for me in the biggest field I’ve lined up in, with a ton of great runners in there too.”
Well done to all three athletes, and all of the Welsh age-groupers out there competing!
It was also a busy weekend for our Performance team on the short-course side, with the British Triathlon Performance Assessments taking place in Nottingham and Loughborough. This event represented Stage 1 of the British Super Series for youths and juniors, as well as the qualification event for the remainder of the season across all categories, including seniors. There were 36 Welsh and Performance Centre athletes competing in total, 8 of whom were making their debuts at this level.
There were a huge number of outstanding performances from our athletes, with a host of personal bests during the swim leg on Saturday, setting them up well for the bike-run pursuit format race on Sunday.
Welsh programme athletes Katie Rodda and Osian Perrin took fantastic victories in both senior races, with NTPCW athletes Michael Gar (2nd senior), Deri McCluskey (2nd junior), and Jasmine Cooper (3rd senior) also hitting the podium, and Academy member Millie Hannant claiming 3rd in the Youth B category on her Super Series debut.
Well done to all athletes competing – this weekend sets the team up perfectly for the kick-off of the main triathlon events at Llanelli on 11-12th May!
Rhys Jones added to the weekend success on Sunday. Rhys, alongside his guide Toby Nisbet, finished 5th place at the Para World Cup in Yenisehir, Turkey!
His next race will be the Para World Cup in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on 18th May
Last but by no means least, the Dyfi Dash Triathlon took place in Machynlleth on Sunday. It looked like a great event with some amazing performances from the athletes. Well done to everyone that participated!
A special mention to the top-3 Open and Female athletes:
Open
|
1st |
Dylan Lewis |
|
2nd |
Matthew Davies |
|
3rd |
Peter Jervis |
Female
|
1st |
Anita Saycell |
|
2nd |
Ffion Evans |
|
3rd |
Elly Blackwell |
