Loughborough Aquathon 2001

While the Ironmen (and women), including our own Frank McShane, battled it out on the lavafields of Hawaii , the best of the British kids were at Loughborough University fighting their own battle. Six Scottish kids + 2 coaches made the long trip (why does all the world and his wife take to the roads on Fridays?) and proudly returned with a silver, a bronze and a 4th place!

The main event of the day was the British Youth Aquathlon Championships - 15/16 year olds. Emma Munro from Galashiels took bronze, supported by team-mates Rachael Hughes from East Kilbride and Anna MacRobb from Stonehaven. Blair Cartmell from Inverness had the hardest task as there were so many entries for the boys event (including at least 5 already wearing British Squad kit) that it was run in 3 waves, with a half-distance preliminary race before the rest of the races to sort out the seeding.

Surprisingly, the race for the oldest age group (17/18) was cancelled due to lack of entries - presumably this is a bad time for students just starting university, and coming to the end of a long hard season.

However the two youngest members of the squad - Hatty Floyd from Helensburgh and Thomas Leonard from Newton Stewart both did extremely well in the 13/14 races, coming home with a silver medal & 4th place respectively.

Breakfast briefing!

Blair Cartmell from Inverness in the preliminary heats for the boy's Youth Championship race

A 200yd swim followed by 1500m run - the two fastest boys in each heat, plus the two fastest 'losers', were seeded into the fastest heat in the final.