Youths and Juniors Dominate European Championships
Tuesday, 26th July 2005
Olly Freeman British Triathlon's World Class and 2012 Scholarship Holder successfully defended his European Junior title on Saturday, as Great Britain's youngsters dominated the European Youth and Junior Championships in Alexandroupolis, Greece. Winning 4 medals in all bronze in the Junior Girls for Rosie Clarke, and gold and silver respectively for the Youth Girls and Boys Britain headed the Championships' medal table en route to their best ever results.
Following the successes of last weekend when Britain's senior triathletes won both the men's (Tim Don) and women's (Andrea Whitcombe) legs of the Corner Brook ITU World Cup, then men's (Andrew Johns) and women's (Helen Lawrence) leg's of the Holten ETU Cup, and a bronze medal (Helen Tucker) at the U23 European Championships the Youths and Juniors demonstrated their long-term potential and the investment return on the World Class Programmes.
The medal haul began on Saturday when Rosie Clarke younger sister of World Junior bronze medallist, Will Clarke took bronze in the Junior Girls Championship, set up by a stirring bike ride, behind defending Champion, Daniela Ryf (SUI). Running 1st out of the second transition, Clarke finished the 750-m swim, 20-km bike, and 5-km run in 1:02:28 hrs, 50 sec behind Ryf and just 8 sec behind silver medallist, Charlotte Bonin (ITA), for her first international medal.
Like Ryf, Freeman was defending the title he won in Lausanne last year, and took the Junior Boy's Championship in 55:37 min ahead of the German pair, Sebastien Rank (55:39 min) and Jonathan Zipf (55:41 min). Freeman's win was far from straight forward, being badly blocked in the swim and momentarily falling off his bike, before remounting, catching up, and beating his rivals on the run.
Success continued on Sunday, when the Youth Girls unexpectedly won the U17 Championships over the 3 x (400-m swim, 8-km bike, and 2-km run) relay format. With 15-year old Kirsty McWilliam taking the lead from the gun, before passing over to Jodie Stimpson and Sophie Coleman, the British trio were never headed, finishing in 1:25:58 hrs, 27-sec ahead of Italy and Russia in 2nd and 3rd.
The Youth Boys were faced with stiff competition from 15 other countries in trying to regain the title they held in 2003, and ran neck-and-neck with Russia to the final leg. Aaron Harris and Devon King matched their rivals stroke-for-stroke, before handing to National Youth Champion, Phillip Graves. Despite his powerful cycling, Graves was unable to shake the Russian from his wheel, finally succumbing to his quicker running, and finishing in 1:16:00 hrs, just 22-sec adrift. Italy rounded out the podium.
Great Britain's World Class athletes will next be in action on Sunday July 31 when the World Cup circuit stops in the UK for the Countryside Properties ITU Salford World Cup over the 2002 Commonwealth Games Course. The race will act as the selection race for Britain's 2005 senior European and World Championship Teams, and for the Scottish and Welsh Commonwealth Games.
Race reports can be found on British Triathlon's website (www.britishtriathlon.org), with full results from the European Youth and Junior Championships on the ETU website (www.etu-triathlon.org). World Cup information can be found on the ITU website (www.triathlon.org).
British Triathlon's World Class Programmes are proudly supported by Trek Bikes, Lucozade Sport, and Orca Performance Wear.
Article Source: By Press Release, British Triathlon, 25 July 2005