Leeds Beckett students TRIumph at national and international championships

The students, who are all members of the Leeds Triathlon Centre, an initiative between Leeds Beckett University, the University of Leeds and British Triathlon, made up a team of 23 athletes from across both universities, seven of whom returned with medals.

Mick Hill, Senior Coach High Performance & Enterprise at the University, said: “We are delighted with the performance of all our students from last weekend - they all competed with distinction. These results, alongside those by athletes from the University of Leeds, highlight the success of the Leeds Triathlon Centre that must be one of the best, if not the best, in the world. It speaks volumes of the expertise of my colleague and Head Coach, Jack Maitland, his team of coaches and the support staff who deliver the programme throughout the year.

“The triathletes are fantastic role models for all our students.  They prove that with talent, dedication and the right environment, you can combine elite sport and academic endeavour and excel at the highest level.  As we are only at the start of the triathlon season we look forward to more success throughout the summer.”

Bronwen Owen, BA (Hons) Sport Exercise Science student, competed in the Junior Women’s category at the Quarteira ETU Triathlon Cup. On finishing sixth, she commented: “In terms of the race I think I did better than I expected. I was unsure of how fit I was going into it, especially with a lack of running over winter, so I was aiming for a top ten. Having said that, I'm slightly annoyed with sixth because I feel like I would've had a chance of a podium if I hadn't crashed during the bike. For the rest of the season I'm definitely wanting to go to Europeans and Worlds and want to consistently podium at ETU cups with high quality fields.”

Other notable placing’s included Callum Johnson, Elliot Smales, and Steven Sims, who finished second, 18^th and 23^rd respectively in the Senior Men’s category at the British Duathlon Championships, and Jordan Hull, who finished 14^th in the Junior Men’s category at the same championship.  Over 80 students competed in total.

Our University is already proud to have helped mould two champion triathletes as both Alistair and Jonny Brownlee are both members of the Leeds Triathlon Centre (Alistair graduated in 2013 with an MSc in finance from Leeds Beckett).

Based in Leeds since 2004, The Leeds Triathlon Centre provides a structured training and competition programme for athletes of all levels.