Gordon was born and grew up in Hong Kong. He started swimming with Harry Wright International at the age of 10, and is still going strong. Growing up his main event was the 200m Backstroke, but he occasionally raced in the 1500m Free. In his younger years, Open Water Swimming was more of a social scene for Gordon, mostly racing in the Clean Half relay and the Revolution Asia races. He took the leap over to distance swimming when he moved to Ellesmere College in September 2015 to train under Alan Bircher (Open Water World & European silver medallist). Nine months after the move he was selected to represent Great Britain at the World Juniors Open Water Championships in the Netherlands.

Q: What influenced your decision to move from the pool to OWS?
 
I’ve always had quite efficient stroke technique, and a reasonably quick 1500m time. When I moved to Ellesmere College to train with Alan Bircher, a World and European 10km silver medalist, the transition was only natural. It was early 2016, with the GB Open Water trials coming up in June and a possible spot on the World Junior squad it was a no brainer. It was at the 2016 World Junior Championships that I fell in love with the sport and have since been selected for the Junior squad for two European Junior Championships, two European (LEN) Cup legs, and two smaller competitions in Maderia, Portugal and Mallorca, Spain.
 
Q: Is there a difference in terms of team bonding in a distance/OWS team?
 
I would say that for the majority of my swimming career I have been a distance swimmer. I can say from experience there is nothing harder than witnessing your coach writing up on the white board - 5km max time trial for the distance swimmers, next to a 16 X 50m set for the sprinters. Yet ironically, this only brings the Distance group closer together as we quite literally go through hell together. It is for this reason that I think on all the camps and teams I have been on with British Swimming the atmosphere is very relaxed, because everyone knows that no matter what, we will get the job done.  
 
Q: What do you want people to know about Open Water Swimming?
 
There is a lot of stigma around Open Water Swimming, often generated by pool swimmers! Unfortunately OWS can be looked down upon and seen as ‘failed’ pool swimmers looking for an easy option. This is due to two main reasons; lack of publicity and a small ‘pool’ of professional athletes. In my opinion, I think it takes a very special type of athlete to train the marathon distance. An athlete who is able to put their mind and body on the line for two hours straight and race through the toughest of conditions. It is a misunderstood sport. However as it grows in popularity people are starting to see it as an event that puts a unique twist on swimming. Whilst in its own right it is just as complex and as hard to train and race for as traditional pool swimming.
 
Q: What would a typical training week look like for you?
 
Balancing full time education with 18 hours of training a week is pretty standard for all aspiring athletes around the world. I was averaging 55-65km per week, and as a Distance/Open Water swimmer the majority of the work was pull. Sometimes totaling 8km of max effort pull in one day. The task of fitting in 9 pool sessions, 4 land based conditioning sessions per week, whilst somehow managing to keep your grades high can be very challenging. This extreme form of character building however was what it took for me to qualify for my first World Juniors. Yet for me that was only the first step, and hopefully moving back and swimming with Harry Wright International this November will allow me to progress further.
 

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​Q: What are the main training aspects that you look for as an athlete when deciding where to train?
 
Every program is different, and for good reason too, as every coach and athlete is different, whether that be personality or training requirements. This is why for me the relationship with your coach is the most important. There needs to be a certain amount of ‘friendship’ as you will be seeing each other an awful lot, but more importantly a sense of mutual respect and the willingness to learn together is key! At the end of the day it is not about the facility it is about how you use it.
 
Q: How do you think Hong Kong can attract or encourage more Open Water Swimmers?
 
Hong Kong has some incredible scenery, and in some places amazingly clear water. I do think it is a shame that there aren’t more races that take advantage of what Hong Kong has to offer for the sport. Ultimately, it is down to increasing publicity and adapting races to become more spectator friendly. Races are exciting to watch if people have the access. For example I have seen very little advertising for the upcoming FINA OWS World Cup leg on 15th October, which is unfortunate as many of the worlds top swimmers will be here.
 
Q: I'm a pool swimmer joining my first Open Water race, what valuable advice can you give me?
 
It’s very cliché, but with Open Water swimming, especially as you start to do the longer distances, you have to enjoy it! If possible I would suggest making it a challenge amongst family and friends by doing an iconic race like the New World Harbour Race, or if you’re feeling brave the 15km Clean Half team Relay! Then if you enjoyed it, get out there and race! Like any sport it’s about finding the balance between a realistic feat, and also a challenge that will push you out of your comfort zone. The more fun you keep your training, the more enjoyable it will be!
 
Q: Most important question - have you ever seen a shark?
 
I wish! It would have made swim faster!

Here are my top 6 areas of focus to transform HK into a competitive triathlon nation.

    1.  Hire an International performance director - Most successful sporting nations hire a performance director who will work with the head coach on all issues related to performance. In our situation we would need someone who can focus on development as well as high performance. Our current HK setup has a self-selected committee who sets policy on all aspects of elite sport such as selection. My experience over the years have seen many head coaches overruled in many sports by these committees and triathlon is clearly suffering from the same scenario. Everyone appreciates all the committees time and effort put into the sport but a shift in focus is needed from them, into areas other than elite sport and development.

     2.  Transparency - Basic and fair selection policies should be transparent and posted on the Hong Kong triathlon website well in advance of selection events. Clubs and schools are avenues for advertising and promotion. A clear development pathway needs to be identified. Many of the big International Federations have clear athlete development pathways which give athletes clear goals and the opportunity to set the bar high, with the aim to race internationally.  Once a good objective framework is in place athletes can be self selected via their race results. This is common practice and has shown to produce results consistently. Over the past few years I have seen no committee meeting minutes, no time trial results or no selection race results posted. Selection criteria are sometimes posted but are usually to subjective and posted to late for athletes and coaches to train towards. The ICAC have guidelines on their definition of fair practice in HK. An example document of British triathlon guidelines for recent major events can be found here.

     3.  Recruitment - Countries throughout the world recruit from other sports. Swimming is a prime example as there are huge numbers in Hong Kong who are never going to make it as Elite swimmers but could make it as Elite triathletes. Our current Junior Asian Champion is a great example of an athlete who was not suited to swimming. Swim coaches need to be educated that cross training can actually improve swim performance, especially if it's increasing the weekly training load. Internationally swim coaches have become more receptive to allowing triathlete’s into their squads. Mainly due triathletes  strong work ethic and high standard of distance swimming which help motivate and are great contributors to squad moral. The recruitment process itself is very simple, but will not work if triathlon is not an attractive sport to be a part of. Nobody will leave their current sport if there is no objective pathway or transparent information for them to get to an Elite level.
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         4.  Promote the clubs  - Encourage clubs to produce elite athletes and reward them for doing so. Making it worthwhile for clubs to nurture athletes will produce a strong pool of youth and juniors who feed into senior ranks. The pool must be big at youth and junior level in order to produce athletes of elite level as seniors. The current practice of forcing fast athletes out of clubs to train with official TriHK programmes (even if its not best for the athlete) has encouraged clubs to focus more on age-group athletes where they can make consistent income with less effort. Training development athletes is very labour intensive. Currently there are only 11 junior athletes and 4 seniors in HK who are eligible to race ITU under our own self-inflicted guidelines. This will never be enough depth to create truly world class athletes. Incentives are needed for clubs and their coaches to start producing athletes and encouraging athletes to train where is best for them. This will produce better results and create role models for upcoming athletes. One such incentive is allowing logos on National squad uniform which have been banned in recent years. ​

     5.      Coach Education - Hosting continual professional development for coaches will give them                            confidence and expertise to train athletes to an Elite level. By rewarding clubs and their coaches who produce athletes will motivate them to put in the hard work necessary. We should be offering coaches yearly opportunities to gain international qualifications via the ITU. Only once has an ITU level 2 course been offered in HK. A framework should also be set up whereby development officers or the head coach visits local club coaches to give advice on their programmes. The coaching industry is booming worldwide yet in HK most coaches I know are only functioning on a part-time basis. Setting up monthly education seminars conducted by the head and guest coaches is a simple example, of what can easily be implemented. 
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      6.    Competitive race series - there are no training sessions that can quite match a race. By racing and experiencing race conditions at a variety of events throughout the season. Athletes learn to deal with pressure and get the opportunity to practice all the skills needed to race hard. Within Hong Kong Juniors and seniors must race together to create a more competitive environment with a bigger field. Race results should then be used for team selections for international races rather than the time trials that are currently used as these do not simulate a race experience or show the selection committee how well an athlete will cope under race conditions. Our juniors do not have enough competitive races and they suffer when racing outside of Asia because of it. A competitive environment is what drives and motivates athletes to reach the next level. This can only be created with better local races or allowing all junior athletes to race ITU events internationally.

​To improve our international status and results, HK needs to create a competitive, fair, and favourable environment for athletes to train and race. Barriers to entry need to be reduced as do the many requirements and difficulties that are faced by athletes and coaches in HK. We could have an influx of potential athletes immediately if they could see the benefits of taking up triathlon. Make policies transparent, objective and based on results and we could have an immediate influx of potential athletes who want to take up triathlon. If combined with educating coaches on how to develop these potential athletes, HK triathlon will surely have an Olympic qualifier in the next cycle. Elite sport should be left to professionals with international experience, specific to triathlon. I hope to see some positive changes in future as well as a full development plan written by industry professionals. Once and for all we need to put triathlon on the pathway to success.

This was held around Loughborough on the weekend of the 16th/17th April 2016. Athletes took part in swim time trials and then bike and run in the order based on their swim finishing time.

I wanted to tell you a little bit about my introduction to UK triathlon since moving back here last year. We arrived too late for the tri season last year, so my prep training was a winter season of cross-country in the freezing wet and mud (but I qualified to race for Kent County and my school team came third in the English School Nationals), with swim training at school and biking in Richmond Park when the weather is OK. Training in the warm HK weather and open waters never felt so far away :(. So my first taste of competition was the Windsor Duathlon a couple of weeks ago, and I wasn't prepared for the speed of the event at all! It was a 2.5k run, 10k bike and 1.15k run with the best times around 8.30, 18.20 and 4.00. about 32mins all in with a big field of 58 competitors. My lack of form really showed with a time of 38.57. Well I could only do better from this point!

So we just returned from the British Triathlon trials held up in Loughborough over the weekend. It was a great experience and I got to meet and race with the elite youth group (15-16) of England Triathlon, and I recognised most of them from the Windsor Duathlon. This was an important first step into learning about how triathlon is managed and run in the UK, how to get into an English Regional Academy, qualify and enter for the big races, the type of training required and for me to see how I can compete with these guys!

The whole weekend was very well organised with plenty of educative presentations on the Saturday morning by some of the top coaches and senior officials in the country like Rick Velati - England Talent Head Coach, Thom Phillips - England Talent Doctor and Dan Salcedo- BTF Performance Pathway Manager. We were briefed on the ethos of triathlon competition in the UK (commitment, fun and professional, trust and respect), as well as how to stay fit, eat properly and avoid injury. There was also a session on balancing racing and training with schooling and uni exams. I found myself thinking that I had heard much of this before thanks to 26 Coaching's own commitment to comprehensive education and training. 

In the afternoon we had the swim time trials, 400m with 5.45 cut off. The cut off was not a problem but your finish time then dictates the order of start for the bike/run the next day. So the fastest swim time was 4.13 and mine was 5.31, which meant I had to start the bike 1min18sec behind the leaders. On Sunday morning (after more briefings), we had the 10k bike and 2.5k run on an excellent private race track outside Loughborough. The older and more experienced youth group knew the form, including the new bike roll-off rules, so not only was I starter at the back of the pack, but my bike was heavily restricted! Anyway the bike/run/and 2 transitions  was 28.39 and I came in 49th overall, and since I am still the youngest in the group I have this whole season and all next year to get up the ranks! All in a fantastic experience and I have realised the steep learning curve ahead if I want to compete fully at this level. 

As you mentioned before, UK triathlon at youth level is all about speed, with the longer distances not permitted until after Junior age group who still race sprint distance. But my path into UK elite triathlon could not have been even remotely possible without the amazing tuition and training at 26 Coaching, which has given me the best foundation into the ever more popular and increasingly competitive world of elite racing in the UK. Thanks Andrew, Kate and team for all the coaching and great times, and see you in Liverpool!!

​Results here 

Ingmar Gunn 

Both personally (as a parent of two girls) and professionally (as Director of Sports and Activities at CIS) I have a very strong interest in successful Youth development in sport, not only Long Term Athlete Development, but in providing exciting and motivational memory-making experiences that fuel a life long love of participation in sport.


This weekend Gold Coast Triathlon in partnership with Triathlon Australia launched the Rising Stars Youth Development Program; an initiative designed to provide a platform for the emerging young guns of the sport, from across Australia, to compete against each other on the same weekend as their idols – triathlon superstars from around the world.


In my opinion, Triathlon Queensland and Triathlon Australia put on a near perfect 3 day experience for the 45 young Rising Stars of Triathlon aged 13 – 15 who were accepted into the program based on race results and recommendation from their coach, club or school. 
My daughter Imogen was fortunate enough to gain a place.


The 3 day event was held in conjunction with the Gold Coast World Series triathlon and the Rising stars were given VIP status at the event to take a look behind the scenes, meet the heroes of the sports and learn from some of the best coaches in Australia  - Dan Atkins, Triathlon Australia Head Coach for the National Performance Centre and Craig Johns, Executive Director, Triathlon ACT. The finale was a special wave start for the Rising Stars in the Luke Harrop Memorial Triathlon, which provided a chance for the young athletes to race against each other and the highlight for Imogen.


I hope you enjoy reading about our experiences at what I think was a really superb experience for young triathletes and their parents.


Kellie Alexander 


Day One  - Friday 8th April


Kellie’s view - The 45 Rising Stars from all over Australia, UK and Hong Kong met at the race site for check in and welcome. They heard from  Coaches Dan Atkins and Craig Johns and were treated to a meet and greet with two of Australia’s best  triathletes, Aaron Royle and Ashleigh Gentle.
Everyone was really excited but I could tell that the kids were all sizing each other up and really nervous.

Day Two  - Saturday 9th April – Professional Race


Kellie’s view – We were up early again this morning to ride to the race venue. The Rising Stars were given the opportunity to rack their bikes in transition ahead of the other 2000 competitors for the Luke Harrop memorial triathlon.
Transition opened at 6:30am especially for the kids and they were all lined up by 6am ready to get the best spots on the unnumbered racks. Imogen was a bit shocked by the bike kit that some of the kids had, including some impressive wheel sets, but when racking her bike, we were happy to see that perhaps she was a bit more familiar with her machine anyway.

Watching the professional race was exciting for me. It must have been phenomenal for the kids. Coach Craig was with the kids all day and giving them tips about what the pros were doing. Olympic selection was up for grabs for many countries and there was only one place available in each of the male and female events for the Australians with the criteria being that they had to finish as the top Australian and in the top 10.
Racing highlights and learning experiences for me were watching Ashleigh Gentle lead the chase pack on the bike with no assistance from any of the other girls to take the lead, which must have been very frustrating for her. Also, getting to meet some of the athletes after the race – they were so nice to their fans, taking photos, signing autographs and chatting on their way to the cool down pool, even after very hot racing conditions.


Watching Jonathan Brownlee get the wobbles in the home straight and collapse over the line right in front of us, put my heart in my throat, but made us all realize that even pros push themselves really hard and struggle in hot conditions. There was no shame in collapsing over the finish line. It was amazing to see Mario Mola hang around to meet the Rising Stars kids many hours afterwards and then hang out in a nearby café. He is one fit guy!

After the race, the Rising Stars hit the pool for a 90-minute session and another 90 minute run session with the two top Australian Coaches and the top Australian Juniors  - the Hedgeland sisters and Matt Hauser
I didn’t watch the session, but Imogen said that all the kids were really eager to race and all sizing each other up. Nice healthy competition!

The elite race organization was superb and the way the Rising Stars were treated on the day was amazing. Imogen went home feeling really inspired and pumped to race. We were organized for the race very early and in bed by 7pm ready for a 4am start.

Imogen’s view:
Watching the race was really amazing. I was cheering for Ashleigh Gentle who we had met the day before and Ryan Bailie. Both of them were trying to get selected for the Rio Olympics. Emma Moffat and Ryan Bailie were the athletes that were selected. Emma was the only Aussie girl to finish in the top 10 but 3 Aussie guys finished in the top 9. It must be pretty devastating to make part of the selection criteria (top 10) but have someone beat you. It’s amazing to see that since there are only 3 Olympic spots, getting to the Olympics for triathlon is really, really hard even for those, like Ashleigh Gentle, who are really at the top of their game. While watching the race, our coach Craig Johns, sat with us and gave us tips. I learnt about how the pros do such fast transitions and also what they get penalties for. One of the Aussie guys got a 15 second penalty after his bike fell over when he left transition. 


At the bike racking and check in I realized what good coaching I have had in Hong Kong. Some kids didn’t know how to let air out of the tyres. (We had to let the air out because our bikes would be sitting in the hot sun all day so we wanted to make sure they wouldn’t burst before the race.) I also knew how to set everything up and had already learnt most of what the coaches taught us about open water starts, sighting, transitions, and the order to do things in transition.


The best part of the day was making friends. Some of the kids knew each other prior so hung out together but many of the girls and their parents were so nice and easy to make friends with. I ended up spending the day with two girls from Tasmania, Zia and Ava, who were close to my age. I think that I have made two really nice friends who I can stay in touch with in the future and maybe race with again one day. I’d love to have them come and visit Hong Kong and maybe race here.

The other highlight of the day was meeting Mario Mola who was cooling down in the pool where we went to train after winning his race. He was really nice and took a photo with us.

Day 3: Sunday 10th April  - Race day


Kellie’s view: Imogen had been waiting for race day since the start of the program and I kept telling her to make the most of the initial days despite her eagerness to race. She was determined to get to bed early again and lights were out by 7pm (5pm Hong Kong time) so I was awake by 2:30am on race day! I was slightly disappointed not to be racing myslef, but I was keen to be team manager at this event so was doing the checklists in the wee hours, including how to drive to the race venue during the road closure. All went well with great planning and we were safely parked at the race venue by 5:30am, 90 minutes prior to race start as instructed by the Australian Head coach. Imogen had time to set up transition, including pumping her tyres back up and do a really good course preview of the run course, transition and have a good swim warm up. 

In the race there were three incredibly talented girls who led the field by quite a bit from the very start but it was really impressive to watch such talented kids overall race against each other. They’d obviously chosen the participants really well because of all the female Rising stars, 10 of them including Imogen, finished in the top 20 of 344 racing that distance in various age group wave starts. 
Of the 24 male Rising Stars, 12 of the top 14 of 328 who raced super sprint (enticer) were Rising Stars. 

We went back to our hotel after the race and ended up side-by-side at tables with Richard Murray (South Africa) and his girlfriend Rachel Klamer (Netherlands). Richard had crashed his bike in the men’s pro race the day before and had been hospitalized.  Rachel came 5th in her race and was really happy with her results. 
There were two really amazing things about meeting Richard. The first was that he had a very positive attitude despite having a broken collar bone needing surgery and two broken bones in his hand and some tendon damage in his foot. His hometown, Cape Town, will host the next in the WTS so of course he is disappointed about not being able to race in front of his home crowd but he is keen to do some media. 
Richard had a chat to Imogen about race strategy and told her that the day before his race, he had spoken to the lifeguards at the race site and asked about the current. He felt that local knowledge had really helped him with his swim. He told Imogen that she could have asked the lifeguard on race morning about depth and current. It felt like great advice from a really experienced and talented guy.


Imogen's view: My race start was less than perfect with some local girls gaining about 8 body lengths on the rest by dolphin diving their way out to the first buoy in a shallow section. I swam very well to make up some positions but still came out of the water in 8th or 9th position despite thinking that perhaps I might be the best swimmer in the group. I had a great transition and a very good bike leg but, in a no drafting race, the girls were very spread out and I didn’t have much pack support. My run was OK and although I was able to make some gains on the two girls ahead of me, I didn’t gain any extra places. I felt great over the course of the race and was pretty happy with my effort. I was hoping to break 40 minutes for the course and did a 40:08, still a PB by 3 minutes for the super sprint. I came 11th of 18 girls in the Rising Stars program.

One thing that I noticed was that most of the kids in the Rising Stars program really wanted to win.  I think that most of the kids thought they could win and were probably used to winning or, at very least, getting a podium. I placed 11th, it was my very first race, so racing against such talented girls was a really great experience and, since I might go to university in Australia in about 4 or 5 years, it was really great to see what talent there is in Australia and how competitive they are. 
It has been really motivating for me because it has been a challenging year for me being away in Hangzhou and I haven’t had very much opportunity for bike training. The Aussie kids have also just finished their season and this was my first race since the Hong Kong ITU in October, so I am really happy with how I did. Overall the experience was really positive.
​I loved meeting Richard Murray. He was really nice to speak to us for so long and really friendly.  It was interesting to hear him speak about the heat of the day and how it affected Johnny Brownlee. 

Summary of the program


Kellie’s view: The scope and caliber of the program was superb enough to warrant spending the money to travel to Australia and take time off from work and school. It was a memory making experience and learning opportunity. 
It was also a chance for a reality check and to see the Australian talent that is out there. Overall I think it was really well done and worth attending. This is the first year that they have run the program and Ironman and Triathlon Australia have plans to make some positive additions during the coming years. There is even talk of allowing the kids to race on the elite course which could be a really great experience. I would highly recommend a program like this and I am thrilled that Imogen was blessed with this opportunity. I am hugely thankful to Andrew Wright, Kate Rutherford and Henry Wright for recommending Imogen to this program and to her schoolteachers who recognized this opportunity as being worth time away from school.


Imogen’s view: I love racing and the highlight was doing just that. Racing against such a strong field made it really great, as it was eye opening as to how good the Aussie kids are. The weekend really solidified the fact that I love this sport and want to develop my skills and ability over the coming years. Soon after the race, there was some media attention on Ryan Bailie who gained the Aussie spot for the Olympics. He came to triathlon having to work on lots of aspects of the sport, but has been a really hard worker over 8 years and trained hard with complete commitment and it’s paid off. I think I’m a hard worker and I have great coaches so I’m motivated to continue to work hard on the YDP when I return from Hangzhou and especially commit to getting more experience on the bike, which will definitely make me a better triathlete. I can’t wait to go to Subic Bay next weekend to see what I can do and then I am really keen to train hard over the summer. 

Well done to all the athletes who raced over the weekend in the numerous events around HK. Lots of fast racing and PBs achieved. 

Hugo Ward Mens 1500m - 1st Place - 4.10
Oscar Coggins Mens 1500m - 4th Place - 4.16
Mahan Malhotra Mens 1500m - 20th Place - 4.32
Mark Russell Mens 1500m - 33rd Place - 4.43 
Rafe Man Mens 1500m - 41st - 4.52 
Jasper Coggins Mens 1500m - 56th Place - 5.36
Glen Cox Mens 400m - 16th Place - 52.41
Mario Tremblay Mens 400m - 62nd Place - 1.06
Cade Wright Womens 1500m - 5th Place - 5.15
Camden Richter Womens 1500m - 6th Place - 5.16
​Jade Saunders Womens 1500m - 17th Place - 5.48 


Oscar Wong - Cookie Run 5km - 1st Place 
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Swiss Duangthip - Panasonic 3km - 1st Place Boys 11-12 Years 


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Zoe Yip - Hysan Run  1st Overall Girls 
Pauline Courret - Hysan Run 2nd overall Girls