We have seen the best Junior triathletes France has to offer.
Then came the cream of the current German crop.
This weekend it is the turn of the top talents in Great Britain.
Most of the best young British triathletes will be taking part in a performance assessment weekend under the watchful eye of British Triathlon. The primary purpose of the assessments is to set the order for the subsequent British Super Series (for both Junior and Youth categories).
To kick things off, the athletes will take on a swimming time-trial on Saturday at the University of Nottingham. The next day, they will tackle a bike-run against the clock at Prestwold Hall Circuit.
The British tests, then, are halfway between the French and German versions. They have the same two-day format as the French and the same bike-run element as the Germans.
To be eligible to race, Junior athletes must provide a swimming entry time in the 800m under 11 minutes 30 seconds. Meanwhile Youth athletes must have supplied a 400m entry time under 6 minutes. The British Triathlon website does not appear to make a distinction in entry times between men and women so the times look like they are a catch-all.
Any athletes that have not previously competed in a performance assessment weekend and are not a member of a British regional academy will also be required to attend a bike session at their nearest regional academy. The rationale for this is to ensure all competitors at the tests are able to compete safely and confidently within a bike pack.
More importantly, this point confirms a question about the bike part of the test: it will be draft-legal like the German test.
As for the tests themselves, the Juniors will be swimming 800m and then completing the classic Sprint distances of a 20km bike and a 5km run.
Youth athletes will cover half the distance with a 400m swim, 10km bike and 2.5km run.
In terms of the division between Junior and Youth, Juniors cover those born in 2004 and 2005. Athletes born in 2006 are “Youth B” in the British system while those born in 2007 and 2008 are “Youth A”. (Yes, the fact there are athletes born in 2008 pushing to compete at the elite level makes all of us feel old.)
So, with the rubric of the tests laid out, who are the athletes to watch?
On the women’s side, there is an obvious candidate to keep an eye on.
Bethany Cook was the British Junior champion last year and won the British Junior Super Series. In addition, she finished 9th at the World Junior Championships in Montreal and placed 7th at the European Junior Championships. With a number of athletes having aged up at the world and European level, Cook can be expected to figure in the race for the medals at this year’s World Junior Championships.
However, there is also a question mark over whether she will actually participate. Cook is enrolled at Queens University in Charlotte, USA. She is currently slated to race at the Americas Cup in St Peters (USA) in mid-April so a trip back over the Atlantic may not be on the cards.
In the potential absence of Cook, the women’s field is a little more open.
Isla Hedley will arrive in form. Last weekend, she finished 4th at the European Junior Cup in Quarteira. To go with that, last year she earned two wins in the British Super Series (Youth B) including the Final in Sunderland.
Joining Hedley will be Millie Breese. Breese, too, raced in Quarteira and finished 8th. In 2022 she also won the British Super Series (Youth B) title after taking three wins and two silvers from six events.
On paper, then, Hedley and Breese look like they will be among the top British Junior women this season.
Another name to watch is Isabella Hayes. Whereas Hedley and Breese were born in 2005, Hayes is a year older. Now a student at Loughborough University, she is one of the more experience athletes in the field and has been training within an elite set-up. Last year she was the runner-up behind Cook at the British Junior Championships and finished 6th at the European Junior Cup in Holten.
More recently, she raced over the 5km alongside Cassandre Beaugrand, recording a time of 16:52.
Another few names to watch will be Ellie Van der Merwe, Madeleine Cooper and Lily Scott. All three have raced internationally in European Junior Cups and have notable domestic results.
On the men’s front, any one of a number of athletes could triumph at the tests.
Thomas Hattee raced at World Junior Championships last year but was lapped out of the race. Lawrence Martindale has raced four European Junior Cups with a best finish of 15th. Solomon Okrafo-Smart finished 8th at the European Junior Cup in Quarteira in 2022 and recently finished 14th at the 2023 iteration.
Okrafo-Smart was also the only one of the trio mentioned above to medal in last season’s British Junior Super Series as he won two bronze medals.
Among the younger contenders, Christo Chilton won British Super Series (Youth B) in 2022.
Likewise Oliver Conway won three races and a bronze medal from his four Super Series (Youth B) appearances. Conway also finished 9th at the European Junior Cup in Holten last summer and took a bronze at the European Junior Cup in Bled later in the year.
Furthermore both Chilton and Conway performed well at last year’s tests in their category so could be favoured to repeat.
On paper Conway might be the pick of the field however there doesn’t yet appear to be a dominant figure in the British Junior men’s ranks. With plenty of potential on display this weekend, the outcome of the assessments will likely come down to fine margins.
