BTF Youth Supersprint

1st July Eton

Report by Les Watson

The BTF Youth Sprint (400m/10km/2.5km) served as a British team qualifier for the European Youth Relay Champs in Finland during July so Luke and Jake opted to compete at Eton rather than the Pembs Tri that was on the same day. Judging by the weather reports from Pembs it was a good move as, despite having a similar forecast, it remained largely dry but with a stiff breeze.

With one team member pre-selected for the British team Luke knew he must be in the first two to gain selection, a tall order but given his Blenheim performance it was a realistic possibility……..if all went well. The boys were both in the same event as by a quirk in the age group category for the Youth Champs, Luke and his peers fell back into the Youth age group by virtue of birth year.

A good swim was key and this went well with Luke exiting the water in seventh and only as many seconds down on the leader. T1 was good but those few seconds were enough that the first group of four were away on the bike and he spent 7km of the 10km chasing them about 100m down and on his own.

Jake came out of the water in the mid-20s but seemed to forget about taking his wetsuit off. Once he realised the bike might be quite tough with it on he quickly got shot of it down to the ankles and then one stamp freed his first leg……..wow has Jake finally mastered T1………uh oh leg number two proved a little more tricky. Nevertheless a wee struggle and he was away albeit a fair way down the field.

Halfway through the second of two laps a couple riders caught Luke and together they worked to haul in the leading bikers and six entered T2 just 15 seconds down on a breakaway leader. Luke went to the front of the group as they chased down the leader which they managed after a few hundred meters. There was a tough battle between four of them before one got away and shortly after a second overtook Luke to push him into 3rd place and, unfortunately, just out of the two qualification slots. A great race and great result nonetheless.

Now then, Jake struggled on the bike and came in to T2 at the back. However he rallied on the run despite a feeling of acute nausea and managed to pass a number of runners finishing in 35th place.

Full race results can be found at:

http://www.humanrace.co.uk/btfqual/index.html