My Triathlon Journey

Into 2023, and the first race of the year, for me, was Sussex Cross Country Champs. The same day or weekend each county in England has their own county champs race. I’m not sure if others do the same but top 4 in this race qualified for UK Inter Counties in Loughborough at the beginning of March.

The race was at Bexhill as usual and it rained most of the week leading up to the Saturday, and on the day as well. The course got muddy pretty quickly after course walks and some races, plus the wind didn’t hold off so made it a bit harder when running against it.

The start was at the bottom of a hill and was two laps long. I was at the front after the start and was feeling pretty good, I think there was a gap of a metre or a couple so I decided to try and go on my own early on in the race. Fortunately it played out in my favour and I stayed ahead. After just less than a kilometre I had a 4-5 second gap and managed to get out of sight and extend the lead. After two laps I came into the finish with a 40 second lead, to win the Sussex Championships as an U15 in 2023. Team points and a team overall are accounted for as well, so it was great when we won the team gold. I was in the Brighton and Hove A team, but the Brighton and Hove B team came second as well, so we took a strong overall.