As I close on 2023, I thought I’d write a post on a review of the year, through the various places and emotions my sport’s bought me, the highlights and new levels of racing I’ve experienced…
XC – Way back at the beginning of the year, I was running cross-country through January-March months, where most national races were. I had some good county champs races, becoming Sussex Schools and county champion. Unfortunately, I got covid in the close lead up to and during UK Inter Counties Champs at Loughborough and had English Schools the following weekend, after qualifying at the Sussex champs respectively. After some small training I was at English Schools, so as much as I wanted to try and get on the SIAB team for another year, I didn’t want to set too much expectation, based on a non-ideal build up. Anyway after a great start and then my legs getting the better of me and moving down to 40th-50th I manged to wind my way back up and slowly speed up in progression through runners getting through 30th and finally down to 19th across the line.
Before getting ill however I raced at the English XC champs in Cheshire, on probably one of the only flat places in the area, surrounded by hills. With a flat, fast course I needed a decent start. Getting some good starts this year has helped a lot, not having to make up as many places as previous years, so I was at the front for the first half of the race, at least. The pace was pretty tough and I started to fall just behind the front group, but didn’t want to just let go, with a 1/4 or a 1/3 to go. I managed to hold on and finish 7th, getting a good top 10 result I was aiming for.
I also finished 3rd at the Southern XC Champs at Beckenham after staying with the top 3, losing a gap to the top 2 and then closing it on the final downhill for a sprint finish, ending up 3rd.
This end of the year and the ’23-’24 xc season I’ve had some pretty solid county league races and some good battles too, now in the Under17 category, as well as close finishes. ’23-’24 season (so far) Results:
- Sussex XC Relay Champs – 1st
- Sussex League Rd 1 – 1st
- Sussex League Rd2 – 2nd
- Sussex League Rd 3 – 2nd
Cross country and off-road has always been my favourite side of running so hopefully I can bring and put in some solid racing into what 2024 has to offer.
Triathlon Season/British Triathlon Super Series
April 01/02 – Now old enough to race in the British Triathlon Super Series I started my triathlon season with the Performance Assessments in Nottingham/Loughborough racing a swim time trial in the pool, followed by a bike/run on the following Sunday. Swimming being my weaker discipline of the three, I had a decent swim finishing the 400m in 5.12, but had quite a lot of time and positions to make up the next day. On the bike leg, I managed to make some early gains but was just off the main group. The group I was in wasn’t working that great and it was just me and a couple others on the front for the majority, plus there wasn’t any real chance to bridge a gap since the 5km course had just two dead-turns on the out and back course. I had a run to make some more time, but came off the bike with quite heavy feeling legs and so picked up the pace progressively over the first lap of two run laps. I managed to work my way through and in the end finished 24th Youth A, gaining me a place in the first Tier race at LLanelli, Wales in May, next month.
At Lllanelli the swim was open water like the rest of the series and I had a great swim for my standards and was in a good position to be in the front pack. After a clean transition I got onto the bike and on the fully flat, 3 lap course was just off the back for a lap and a half eventually getting on. On the run I just couldn’t go well and had some stomach pains so unfortunately couldn’t gain as many places as I could but still finished 9th, in a much better position than PA’s.
Over the course of the series I finished 9th at the next race (Mallory), again, in a heats and finals format and 3rd at the Aquathlon race in Worcester. After a very late change to the swim course, meaning we wouldn’t be swimming in the lake, at the aquathlon, but in more like a large pond, my first race began with a longer swim and a short run (800m swim/500m run), and then progressed through 2 more in 400 swim/1km run and finally 300 swim/1.5km run. I finished race 1 in 9th, race 2 6th and race 3 1st, so overall finished 3rd with my best result of the season.
I travelled up to Sunderland, in August to race the series on the same weekend as the World Triathlon Series. Our race was put right back to a 7am start on the Saturday, so was up early. After a decent swim I was in a group on the bike but didn’t really move my way up to the front so lost a lot of time, and energy, and after some trouble in T2 losing even more time, I began the run, but took a bit of time to get going and didn’t run greatest. I finished 12th and as soon as I crossed the line I was sick. After the weekend quite a few people were ill/sick and found out it was due to E.coli levels several thousand times higher than a safe amount, so as with most open water sea/river swims here, it isn’t much of a surprise quite a few were ill.
My last race was the Grand Final, however it didn’t go that well: I had a poor swim and was out last but gained places on the bike and was a couple seconds or less off the group so I kind of tried to slingshot my way through the chicane and into a dead turn not too long later, to get on the back. I took a straight line and unfortunately collided with another athlete before hitting a cone, coming down myself and going over the bars. I managed to get up quickly but by then the group was too far ahead. I had a good run and gained a good amount of places to finish 24th, which was definitely not what I had in mind but managed to keep going at least.
The super series has been a new level of racing for me and 2024’s should be good too, so I look forward to what that holds.
September —>
English Schools Fell Champs
Towards this end of the year I raced in the English Schools Fell Champs in Settle. After placing 2nd last year, my first time, 1st was what I had in mind this time round. After me and last year’s winner leading pretty much the entire race, I made an attack just before the final downhill, with less than a kilometre to go. I managed to make it stick and won and set a course record to go with it, so was a good race run well.
Cyclocross
Racing bigger races this season and training, I’ve had less opportunities to race with various events clashing, but I raced my first national trophy in December, despite racing cross since I was about 7. After starting on the back row, due to minimal ranking points I could really only go forwards in position. After getting caught up in riders towards the beginning I worked my way from around 70th to 26th, so a decent position but I learnt some helpful things to take forward.
Cyclocross results ’23-’24: ● LCCA Coombes Farm – 2nd / ● LCCA Somerhill – 4th / ● National Trophy Round 5 Cyclopark – 26th / East Kent League – 1st
2023 Highlights/PB’s/Achievements:
- 5k PB – 15.41
- BT Super Series Overall – 11th
- BT Super Series Worcester – 3rd
- English Schools Fell Running Champs – 1st
- Southern cross country champs – 3rd
- English Champs XC – 7th
2023 has been a great year, teaching me a lot to take forward, from counting laps correctly to ways of racing, whilst progressing and getting some great results through the season. I’ve enjoyed some good racing and training with strong competition and am looking forward to some exciting things to hopefully happen in 2024. Thank you for the support I’ve received from various people and Moda Bikes for the amazing support in getting a road bike, at the beginning of the season, helping me this season to a quicker bike leg. https://moda-bikes.com/
Thanks for reading.
My Triathlon Journey 
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