British Triathlon Selection Trials By Oscar Coggins, HK Junior Elite Triathlete

Last weekend I attended the British Triathlon Assesement Weekend at Loughborough University. The main features of the weekend was a presentation on the British Triathlon Selection Policy, a 800m swim time trial and a bike/run race. The weekend started with the presentation on British Triathlon Selection Policy, which was clearly defined for all levels of competition. For key events, athletes could qualify based on exceptional results last season or based of performance in a clearly defined selection race. In terms of other international events the only criteria that had to be met to enter was to finish within 5% of the winners time a selection race early in the year to prove performance standards (link to BTF Junior Selection Policy). Later in the day I completed my 800m swim time trial, I felt very good beforehand but struggled to get into a rhythm during my time trial. I still was happy with my time of 9:14 which put me in the top 15 for the next section of the performance assessment. For the bike/run race the start was staggered based on the athletes swim time, with the fastest swimmer starting first heading into T1 and the other athletes starting later based off the time behind as if they were exiting the swim of a triathlon. I was 23 seconds behind the fastest swimmer so I started 23 seconds down but quickly made up ground with a fast transition and strong start to the bike leg. I found myself in a front pack of around 8 athletes for the entire bike and we established a decent gap of around a minute on the next chasing group after working hard on the bike. I had a good T2 but struggled on the first half of the run as it was my first race of the year, however I felt better as the run went on and finished strong in 11th place (link to results). Overall this weekend was a good experience, allowing me see some of the elements and race against the athletes of one of the strongest triathlon nations in the world. I hope to build on this performance towards key events this year.

Selection Criteria Process