British Triathlon Launches Talent ID programme
SubscribeBritish Triathlon 16 July 2009
British Triathlon has launched a new talent identification programme called ‘trigold’ and is looking to recruit existing high calibre athletes, who have the drive and determination to move into triathlon and win Olympic gold in London 2012.
With just three years before the Olympics, British Triathlon are looking for male and female runners who meet set performance criteria (see notes to editors), are aged between 18 and 30 and also have a history of competitive swimming at club or county level. Athletes who meet these requirements are invited to apply for ‘trigold’ at www.trigold.org.
Director of Performance at British Triathlon, Heather Williams believes ‘trigold’ has real potential to deliver a gold medallist: “The chance to compete and win Olympic gold is a unique opportunity and ‘trigold’’ has the potential to bring high quality athletes into a new sport and develop them into gold medalists. The race for gold won’t be easy and will require 100% commitment from the athletes, but with the support of a World Class Performance team here in Loughborough they will have everything they need to be on top of the podium in 2012.“
Applicants will be invited to a three day initial assessment at the National Performance Centre in Loughborough where athletes can get their first taste of triathlon and meet the elite performance team.
Following the initial assessment, successful athletes will be invited onto an intensive three month training programme before then moving onto a nine month fully funded scholarship with British Triathlon providing a training, development and performance programme to develop the athletes swim, bike and run skills.
Head of Athlete Development at UK Sport, Chelsea Warr, said: “We have seen many examples of athletes successfully transferring from one sport to another and achieving great success in short time frames. The UK Talent Team have advised and will continue to support British Triathlon on the TriGold project to ensure they can benefit from the lessons we have learned from our own recent initiatives to give these athletes the best chance of making a successful switch to triathlon.”
Winning gold at Olympic level requires a huge amount of commitment and desire. Athletes also need to make the right choices when it comes to which sport they focus on when making that dream of Olympic gold a reality as Dame Kelly Holmes, adds:
“I am totally committed to helping athletes achieve their dreams, including making the right decision regarding their event or even sport! British Triathlon’s ‘trigold’ programme is an exciting new initiative and I look forward to watching the progress of the athletes through to 2012.”
Making the transition from running to triathlon has been achieved successfully before. Andrea Whitcombe, a highly successful track athlete who competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the 5km made the transition to triathlon and is a highly successful member of the Great Britain triathlon team. Whitcombe believes that ‘‘trigold’ has huge potential.
“Making the decision to move sports is never easy and will require a lot of courage, determination and support,” she said. “However moving to triathlon which is such an exciting sport was perfect for me and I’m sure it could be for many more athletes. As an athlete I know how valuable a World Class support system is and it’s great that through ‘‘trigold’ athletes who make the transition will have exactly that.”
