The British domestic triathlon calendar commenced at the weekend with the Junior performance assessments. Concurrent tests also ran for Youth and Senior athletes; in this article we will cover the Junior performances while the Youths (also see below) and Seniors will be in a separate piece.
As a reminder, the Junior athletes took on a 800m swim on the Saturday. The next day, the Juniors completed a bike-run of 20km and 5km.
As anticipated in the preview, reigning British Junior champion Bethany Cook did indeed remain in America where she is based for university. Meanwhile, Isabella Hayes was ruled out with stress fractures. Having recorded a 5km run time of 16:52 and swam 17:48 in the 1500m (50m) already this year, Hayes would have no doubt been among the favourites on the women’s side.
Swims
Junior Men
| 1 | Tom Hattee | 8:40.37 |
| 2 | Struan Bennet | 8:40.59 |
| 3 | Lawrence Martindale | 8:42.67 |
| 4 | Harry Courtney | 8:47.95 |
| 5 | Oliver Mills | 8:52.74 |
| 6 | Michael Gar | 8:54.35 |
| 7 | Joshua Cumberland | 9:03.00 |
| 8 | Solomon Okrafo-Smart | 9:04.40 |
| 9 | Will Bloom | 9:11.70 |
| 10 | Liam Edwards | 9:12.76 |
Racing over short course, Tom Hattee took the lead of the assessments in the swim. 8:40 is a very strong time at any time of year and would mark Hattee out as one of the quicker swimmers in most international fields.
His advantage, though, was only a couple of tenths over Struan Bennet and a little over 2 seconds over Lawrence Martindale. Both Bennet and Martindale put in great efforts and likewise their times would not be out of place in most world-level Senior races.
With Harry Courtenay, Oliver Mills and Michael Gar also having good swims, the top-6 really separated themselves in the water.
With gaps of only a few seconds to make up, some kind of front group could be expected to form on the bike on the Sunday.
Junior Women
| 1 | Lily Scott | 9:11.90 |
| 2 | Olivia Logan | 9:34.71 |
| 3 | Daisy Burton | 9:36.84 |
| 4 | Alexandra Palotai-Avella | 9:38.04 |
| 5 | Madeline Cooper | 9:38.50 |
| 6 | Eve Whitaker | 9:41.56 |
| 7 | Antonia Jubb | 9:45.82 |
| 8 | Isla Hedley | 9:53.27 |
| 9 | Charly Marshall | 10:00.76 |
| 10 | Millie Breese | 10:04.69 |
Lily Scott was brilliant in the water, out-swimming all bar nine of the Junior men.
Her swim had looked good at the recent European Junior Cup in Quarteira (where she was third out of the water) and so it was no surprise to see her lead the way at the test. What was a little surprising was how big her advantage was.
Scott managed to gain over 20 seconds over the next best swimmer, Olivia Logan. Logan by no means had a bad swim; her time of 9:34 itself showed a lot of potential in the water. Rather, Scott’s time was simply outstanding.
However, with six women in a cluster separated by a little over 10 seconds behind Scott, she would have her work cut out holding them off on the bike.
Bike-Run
Junior Men
The athletes returned on the Sunday to take on the the bike-run portion of the test. With the order staggered based on performances in the swim, the athletes would run to T1 to start the test. How the “Start” and “Start to T1” segments were determined is not abundantly clear however the main information lies in the bike and run splits.
Martindale and Hattee pulled clear on the bike and by the time they arrived into T2 they were over a minute ahead of the field. The bike segment was draft-legal which allowed the duo to work together and maximise their chances of making their efforts on the bike stick.
Such was their gap, no one would come close to them for the rest of the race. With 5km to determine the winner, Hattee and Martindale ran together. It was Martindale that had the better finish in the end and he earned the victory by a little over a quarter of a second.
From behind, Liam Edwards and Solomon Okrafo-Smart overcame deficits in the swim to move through the field. While they were not able to match Hattee and Martindale, they were among the better cyclists in the test. Where Edwards and Okrafo-Smart excelled was the run, as the produced splits of 15:48 and 15:46, respectively.
Seven of the top-10 Junior men actually out-ran Martindale and Hattee. On the one hand it indicates how hard the lead pair worked on the bike. On the other it points to an aspect of their skillset that both men may need to work on ahead of stepping up to further international competition.
Junior Women
| Pos | Name | Total Time | Start | Start to T1 | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eve Whitaker | 51:16.02 | 00:30.99 | 00:33.81 | 00:50.02 | 32:04.30 | 00:23.44 | 17:58.24 |
| 2 | Olivia Logan | 52:24.55 | 00:23.61 | 00:26.93 | 00:44.27 | 32:11.82 | 00:28.15 | 19:00.30 |
| 3 | Isla Hedley | 52:27.75 | 00:43.26 | 00:46.30 | 01:04.04 | 32:42.79 | 00:24.23 | 18:16.67 |
| 4 | Millie Breese | 52:41.51 | 00:54.34 | 00:57.25 | 01:15.53 | 32:29.05 | 00:23.80 | 18:33.11 |
| 5 | Charly Marshall | 52:52.32 | 00:50.08 | 00:53.30 | 01:13.11 | 32:31.32 | 00:30.86 | 18:37.02 |
| 6 | Antonia Jubb | 52:56.75 | 00:34.56 | 00:38.06 | 01:00.97 | 32:49.14 | 00:25.68 | 18:40.95 |
| 7 | Madeline Cooper | 53:28.96 | 00:28.26 | 00:31.80 | 00:50.63 | 32:04.63 | 00:26.05 | 20:07.64 |
| 8 | Gabrielle Hodson | 53:50.82 | 01:11.63 | 01:14.66 | 01:34.84 | 32:22.85 | 00:27.17 | 19:25.95 |
| 9 | Hannah Mitchell | 54:18.11 | 00:59.27 | 01:02.65 | 01:21.95 | 32:33.15 | 00:26.86 | 19:56.13 |
| 10 | Lily Scott | 54:52.03 | 00:00.45 | 00:03.93 | 00:22.81 | 32:32.69 | 00:25.02 | 21:31.50 |
Scott enjoyed a substantial lead when she started the race but, in a draft-legal test, was always going to suffer when the athletes chasing could form a group to hunt her down.
So it was when Madeleine Cooper, Eve Whitaker and Olivia Logan eventually caught her.
Another thing to note is that the Senior women appeared to take part in the test alongside the Junior women (whereas the men’s tests were separate). None of the Senior women got close to Scott in the swim which meant that the pack behind her on the bike was bolstered by some non-Junior athletes.
Following the bike, Scott lost time on the run and slipped to 10th. While her run is not yet a point of strength, it should be acknowledged that the set-up of the test seemed to penalise her as a stronger swimmer more than a stronger runner would have been.
After all her hard work on the bike, Cooper, too, seemed to pay for it on the run as she slipped over the 20 minute mark.
Up front, Whitaker proved to be the best runner in the field as she dropped a split of 17:58. That was the fastest run clocked by a Junior woman on the day and her split helped her to win by over a minute.
Having only been born in 2005 and with another year in the Junior ranks to come in 2024, Whitaker’s showing was very impressive.
Olivia Logan came 2nd. After logging the second fastest swim of the test and third best bike split, she ran a 19:00 5km. Logan has run considerably quicker over the flat 5km. This suggests that the course at the assessments could have been a little long but also serves as an indication of the effort the lead group put in on the bike.
After her 4th place in Quarteira, Isla Hedley used a fast run to propel herself to 3rd. In the end, she ran out of room to catch Logan after running almost 45 seconds quicker.
Like Hedley, Millie Breese put together a balanced showing on the Sunday to make up ground lost on the Saturday. She was the third fastest runner of the Junior women (behind Whitaker and Hedley).
View the full results here.
