The Welsh Triathlon squad heads to Glasgow on Monday (21 July) in order to complete their final preparations for the Mixed Relay at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games
Welsh Triathlon squad heads to Glasgow with high hopes
The Welsh Triathlon squad heads to Glasgow on Monday (21 July) in order to complete their final preparations for the Mixed Relay at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The young squad of athletes has prepared specifically for the super sprint relay format event, which takes place and is free to view in Strathclyde Park on Saturday 26 July. The Mixed Relay event is new to the Games and promises to be one of the most exciting and closely fought events at the Games.
The Mixed Relay involves four athletes, two male and two female, completing a short, fast triathlon covering a 250m swim, 6k bike ride and 1.6km run before handing over to their team mate. At the recent World Championships, Great Britain won the world title in Hamburg in front of 250,000 spectators and a record local TV audience of 1.6million viewers on the same day as the FIFA World Cup Final in Brazil.
A very young French team, with three junior athletes under the age of twenty, finished in the silver medal position and Hungary were the even more unexpected bronze medallists. The format lends itself to young talent and teamwork. The results in Hamburg have buoyed the Welsh squad, which has similar aspirations to upset the pre race favourites and post a strong result for Team Wales.
Liam Lloyd, 20, from Llanelli, Camarthenshire, heads to Glasgow having won Sprint and Super Sprint events in Parc Bryn Bach and British Universities Championships (BUCS). He trains at the British Triathlon Performance Centre at Leeds University, and commented: ‘I’m looking forward to wearing the Welsh kit with pride when we get to race day on Saturday.’
Liam will be joined on the male side of the relay team by current British Triathlon World-Class Performance Squad athlete Morgan Davies, 19, who hails from Porthcawl and trains in Loughborough.
Holly Lawrence, 23 from Swansea, will provide valuable experience to the Mixed Relay team having recently helped Great Britain to the bronze medal at the ETU European Championships in Kitzbuhel. Holly took on the challenging opening leg of that relay, a position that she may also take at the Commonwealths. Racing at her first senior international championship she also finished 11th in the individual race at the European Championships.
Holly stated ‘I’m really excited to be representing Wales at the Commonwealth Games next Saturday. Since I’ve been selected I’ve been able to gear all my preparation to the Super Sprint distance and I’m sure my race experiences in Kitzbuhel will hold me in good stead.’
Holly is joined in the relay squad by Carol Bridge, 29 from Cardiff, who won the Welsh Triathlon Super Sprint Race in Parc Bryn Bach..
Alex Matchett and Eli Thorogood will also travel to Glasgow as reserves and vital squad members.
Rich Brady, Welsh Performance Coach said: ‘The squad has had a good couple of months preparation leading up to the Mixed Relay event and I’ve got no doubt that we are going to be able to deliver our best performance on the day. It’s a young team that is full of pride and excitement to represent Wales and I’ve no doubt that all our hard work is going to pay off.’
Will Thomas, Performance Director of Welsh Triathlon added: ‘The whole of the Welsh Triathlon community wish the team well in Glasgow. We are obviously disappointed to lose two World Champions in Non and Helen to injury. They are both inspirational athletes to our young relay squad, who are absolutely focussed on delivering an exceptional performance for Team Wales.'
He added: ‘The individual medal prospects may have slipped away from us through injuries, but we have always kept a focus on fielding our best team possible and challenging for a medal in the Mixed Relay. We have asked the athletes to focus on the shorter distance format and they have responded to this challenge with the singular objective of achieving their best possible performances at the Commonwealth Games. We will obviously have extremely high calibre competition, but the decision to not race our athletes two days before on a tough course in the individual race will give us an undoubted performance benefit.’
