The triathlon stars of the future have today (16 August) raced in the British Youth and Junior Triathlon Championships as part of the ‘triathlon festival’ taking place at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series event in Hyde Park, London.

Sophie Coleman, 19 years-old from Hove in East Sussex won the Women’s Junior race with a time of 1:03.13. She led the young triathletes around the 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run course beating second placed Vicky Graves by 29 seconds.

Coleman who is part of the British Triathlon Olympic Development Squad was happy with her result commenting:
“Yes [it was] good [to win as] it is probably my last year as a junior so it is good to claim the title for the last time. On the bike there was a group of us working pretty well which is good to see. On the first lap of the run I tucked in behind Vicky and took it steady and then put the gas down on the second lap. I have got the run ability and I just wanted to be able to show it [on the run].

European bronze medallist, Vicky Graves from York, Yorkshire added another medal to her tally this year with silver in the British Junior Championships. Graves added:
“It is a good result, I have never got a national medal before in triathlon so that is good”. When asked her place in the Junior GB team that will travel to the Gold Coast ITU Triathlon World Championships she added: “I am looking forward to it, I fly out in two weeks and it should be a good trip, I have never been to Australia before so should be good”.

Lois Rosendale, from Yorkshire who is based at the same training camp as yesterday’s winner Alistair Brownlee finished in third place and commented on what it is like training with Alistair:

“He trains up in Leeds where I train. It is really good as I get to see him train and then I am training with him. It is quite inspirational if I see how good he is and I always think if I trained that hard, that is what I could achieve”
In the Men’s Junior event it was Alex Young who claimed victory with a time of 58.09 and was delighted to claim the title commenting:
“The race went well, I was a bit nervous with this being the first non-wetsuit swim for me. But I got in a good pack and my bike pack worked really well so we caught up [the leaders] with half a lap to go and just tried to stretch my legs on the run. When asked about the race yesterday he added: “I watched it all yesterday, it was really inspiring and it is always nice to compete in the big events”.

Josh Cardwell finished in second place with a time 58.35 and was delighted with his performance commenting:

“I had a great swim and was trying out my new tri-suit in the swim, [which] felt really good in the water. I came out a few seconds behind Rob which I was pleased with because my swim has been a bit on and off this year”.
Rob Bowles finished in third place and commented when asked about his race:
“[It was] mixed really the swim was really good, I felt very strong but didn’t push particularly hard and managed to get a gap. I was attacking to try and get away but no one was coming through. [On] the run I tried as hard as I could but I didn’t quite go with the top guys”.

The event is part of the triathlon weekend in London’s Hyde Park, which featured Alistair Brownlee winning gold and Helen Jenkins finishing in third place in the Dextro Energy Triathlon – ITU World Championship Series event on Saturday 15 August.