Catch up with the pros and find out how they have been coping with the vast changes to the race season due to COVID-19 and how their training and race approach may differ to that of the age groupers in this Pro lock-down panel, featuring;
Ruth Astle
Having achieved her goal of first Age Grouper overall in Kona 2019, Ruth is excited to embark on a new journey to pursue triathlon professionally.
Having juggled triathlon alongside a very intense job for the last 4 years, she’s looking forward to going down to working one day a week to give more time for training and sleeping!
Nikki Bartlett
Nikki was born and raised in Cheltenham, where she spent her school years at Cheltenham Bournside School and Sixth Form Centre.
She filled all her my spare time doing every sport possible, mainly concentrating in Athletics and Hockey.
Nikki graduated from the University of Birmingham, gaining a First Classification with Hons, in 2008. This is where she fell in love with rowing, gaining multiple GB University Medals.
In 2009 she tested on the Girls For Gold Initiative by UK Sport (to find future Olympians), and from here was selected onto the GB Rowing World Class Start system. A successful career ended in multiple rib-stress fractures and she fell into Triathlon through a friend suggesting a Half Ironman, then a full (IM Bolton in 2011) for charity.
Quickly gaining the 'tri bug' Nikki switched sports in 2012. Going 'Pro' was always the aim, and in 2015 after winning the European AG Championships and coming 2nd overall (as an Ager at IM Wimbleball 70.3) in 2014, she made the jump into Pro life.
George Peasgood
George represented ParalympicsGB at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and was due to compete in Toykyo later this year. He is based at the Loughborough Triathlon Performance Centre.
George has won two GBR Paratriathlon National Championships (2015, 2019) as well as competing at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in which he placed 7th. George has recorded several ITU and ETU medal winning performances, including bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Test Event and gold at both the Lausanne and Yokohama ITU Paratriathlon World Cup (2018).
George first started triathlon in 2009 following a leg lengthening operation. Two years later, in 2011, he was classified as a Paratriathlete at a British Triathlon Talent ID day. In 2013, he won his first major medal, a bronze at the ITU World Championships in London - at 17 years old - that made him one of the youngest paratriathlon medallists. George went on to his first Paralympic Games as the youngest member of the paratriathlon team in Rio 2016. He was first out of the water and led during the bike section. He was overtaken during the run, his weakest discipline due to his impairment, and finished seventh.
Most athletes in his classification have arm, rather than leg impairments. This means that George usually gains a lead during the swim section of races, but he is at a disadvantage during the run due to his leg impairments. This makes his classification particularly exciting to watch as the faster runners come through in the latter stages.
Will Munday
Sport has always been a huge part of Will's life - Growing up he played rugby, cricket and is akeen skier.
As a child he competed in a handful of kids races but he didn't really get into triathlon until the summer of 2013, after his final season of playing rugby.
2014 saw his first proper season of racing, where he predominantly raced sprint distances along side a couple of standard distance triathlons. Now he has taken the leap into the age-group elite and finished as the fastest British age-grouper at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in 2019.
Presented by TTH Coach, Diogo Custodio
Triathlon Coaching started for Diogo in 2010 when he was invited by Sporting Lisbon to start coaching the Triathlon School. Realising that coaching with only the level 2 wasn’t enough, Diogo decided complete his degree in Physical Education and Sports. While at University, Diogo started to coach at some training camps in the South of Portugal and was soon an integrated part of the coaching team for the Junior Portuguese National Team at both events and camps.
After completing his degree, Diogo was invited to join the Portuguese Triathlon Federation as the Coaching Development Director, organising several Coaching Courses and CPD’s. At the same time, Diogo has been joined several High Performance athletes through World and European Triathlon Cups and Championships. In 2017 he did his Level 3 coaching qualification in Madrid, Spain giving him an impressive insight to the world of high performance sport and how to find the extra edge. The experience gained at many levels of triathlon gave him a very understanding on how the triathlon world works as well as how to get the very best out of all athletes, from beginner to the very top level elite athletes.