NOTTS COMPETE IN NATIONAL TRIATHLON EVENT

With the majority of students hunched over their lecture notes and downing bottles of Rescue Remedy, it may come as a shock that the Notts Triathlon Society’s season is just getting started.

The Tab Sports Team spoke to club captain Joe Perkins ahead of this weekend’s National Sprint Triathlon Championships in Nottingham, where over a thousand athletes are expected to compete.

Perkins pushing the pedals

The race is a qualification event for the impressively named ‘PruHealth World Triathlon Grand Final London’ and competitors will have to swim 750 metres before cycling 20km and then running 5km on what is set to be one of the hottest days of the year.

The Triathlon season doesn’t seriously get underway until May, yet Perkins is delighted with how it’s all started: “The season has gone very well! Although I have only competed in a couple of pre-season races so far, I managed to place second in my age group in a local race at East Leake, despite a little crash, and the University fielded its highest number of entries ever at a BUCS sprint down in Calne, near Bristol.”

Although exams have obviously caused some disruption to his training, Perkins is still feeling confident for the big race: “Training over the last few weeks has been inconsistent, but I feel in pretty good shape for tomorrow. There are over 1200 entrants so it should be buzzing, especially as lots of people will have travelled hundreds of miles to compete.”

Tri-ing hard now…

“I don’t really have any superstitions when it comes to training or racing apart from sleeping well and always rocking up with clean kit. The only thing I do to prepare for a race (and I get a lot of stick for this) is shaving my legs.”

“It doesn’t make me any faster, but it gives race day a different feel to a training session and gets me psychologically ready to race, silly as that must sound to people!”

Triathlon may sound intense but the Society is keen to let people know that it is completely accessible to everyone, no matter what level you are.

“There is no handicap in races so anybody can enter and, in terms of training at the club, a member can do as little or as much training as they want, which makes balancing work and training pretty east compared to other sport societies. Look out for us at Fresher’s Fair next year!”

The event will be taking place at the National Water Sports Centre throughout Saturday and it is completely free to park and watch.

Follow the Triathlon society @NottsUniTri