UK Sport

We use cookies to track and analyse visitors to our website

These cookies help make the website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation. They are necessary for our website to function and cannot be switched off.
These cookies gather information to understand how visitors interact with the website, such as how many people are using our website of which pages are popular to help us improve user experience. Switching off these cookies will mean that we cannot gather information to improve the user experience.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by a third party provider whose services we have added to our website. Switching off these cookies mean that areas of our website cannot work properly.

Cookies are small text files that can be used by websites to make a user's experience more efficient.

The law states that we can store cookies on your device if they are strictly necessary for the operation of this site.

For all other types of cookies we need your permission.

This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third party services that appear on our pages.

You can at any time change or withdraw your consent from the Cookie Declaration on our website.

Learn more about who we are, how you can contact us and how we process personal data in our Privacy Policy.

Skip navigation
the national lottery
Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram LinkedIn
  • About us
    • Our Directors Team
    • Our Board
    • Panels
    • Strategic Plan 2021-31
    • Our partners
    • English Institute of Sport
    • Accessibility
    • Contact us
    • Media centre
    • FAQs
    • Working at UK Sport
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Talent identification
    • Coaching
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Leadership, development & governance
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • Canoeing
    • Curling
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • Para-Rowing
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Annual reports
    • Board minutes
    • British Cycling independent review
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • High Performance System Advisory Group
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports
    • Privacy policies
    • Publication Scheme
    • Recruitment framework
    • The Whyte Review
    • Tenders
    • Transparency and open data
    • Welsh language scheme
  • Jobs in sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Jobs in sport
    • Submit a job
  • About us
    • Our Directors Team
    • Our Board
    • Panels
    • Strategic Plan 2021-31
    • Our partners
    • English Institute of Sport
    • Accessibility
    • Contact us
    • Media centre
    • FAQs
    • Working at UK Sport
  • Our work
    • Investing in sport
    • Investing in events
    • Talent identification
    • Coaching
    • Powering positive change and social impact
    • International relations
    • Leadership, development & governance
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
    Olympic sports
    • Archery
    • Artistic Swimming
    • Athletics
    • Badminton
    • Basketball
    • Bobsleigh
    • Boxing (Amateur)
    • Canoeing
    • Curling
    • View all
    Paralympic sports
    • Boccia
    • Goalball
    • Para-Archery
    • Para-Athletics
    • Para-Badminton
    • Para-Canoe
    • Para-Cycling
    • Para-Equestrian Dressage
    • Para-Rowing
    • View all
  • Resources
    • A Code for Sports Governance
    • Organisational Health
    • Annual reports
    • Board minutes
    • British Cycling independent review
    • Complaints and whistleblowing
    • Eligibility
    • Fraud, corruption and bribery
    • High Performance System Advisory Group
    • HR policy templates
    • Pregnancy guidance
    • Reports
    • Privacy policies
    • Publication Scheme
    • Recruitment framework
    • The Whyte Review
    • Tenders
    • Transparency and open data
    • Welsh language scheme
  • Jobs in sport
    • Explore career pathways
    • Jobs in sport
    • Submit a job
Press Enter to Search
News

British Triathlon launch paratriathlon training hub thanks to National Lottery funding

Published 15 May 2014

British Triathlon has launched a new paratriathlon hub at Loughborough University thanks to UK Sport and National Lottery funding.

The hub will give paratriathletes access to full-time, world-class coaching and facilities for the first time as they set their sights on their sport's Paralympic debut at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

The 28 athletes on the new Talent and Performance Programmes funded by UK Sport and Sport England were all invited to the launch of the facility, which will be led by Jonathon Riall, Performance Manager for the Paralympic programme at British Triathlon. Riall will be supported by the squad's new full-time coach, Steve Casson, who has worked part-time alongside Riall for the past two years, along with a strength and conditioning coach, physiotherapist and sports science support.

"We were fortunate enough that UK Sport increased our National Lottery funding, which has enabled us to open our first full-time centralised programme of world-class coaching and world-class facilities," said Riall.

"The main reason behind us doing it is to drive improvements in performance. We trialled it last year with a six-week summer programme where athletes based themselves here full-time and the difference in performance between when they came in and when they left six weeks later was quite drastic. So we are hoping that will be the case on a bigger scale."

Casson believes the launch of the facility is an important step on the road to Rio: "I've been fortunate to be involved in the evolution of the British Paratriathlon programme over the last few years," he said. "Now I have the privilege of providing full-time coaching support to the best squad of Paratriathletes in the world as we take it to the next level for Rio 2016."

Riall expects six athletes to move to Loughborough to use the facility full-time immediately, and for others to use it in addition to their existing arrangements.

"We will have athletes who move to Loughborough and use the performance hub daily as their main point of contact,” he said. “Then there are the athletes who are not based at Loughborough for whom the performance hub will be a service centre for any additional needs, for example someone based in Cambridge who comes to Loughborough for three or four days per month for assessments and coaching."

The number who attend the centre full-time may well rise, though, over the summer once the details of the paratriathlon event at Rio are known. "We find out the categories for Rio by July and when we know exactly which athletes are able to go to the Paralympic Games, I expect we'll have more who will be here," Riall added.

Once the programme for Rio 2016 is announced, thoughts will turn to qualification, and Riall sees the new format for this year's ITU World Paratriathlon Series as a dry run for next year's qualification process.

"The event programme has changed a lot this year and it works very similarly to the Paralympic programme," he said. "If we fast forward 12 months we'll be fast approaching the Paralympic qualification period, so this year is about learning how to work the points system in order to best prepare us when we are into the 12-month Paralympic qualification period."

"The profile of paratriathlon has risen recently and I can only imagine that will continue to progress as we build towards the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games."

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
News
Team of Tomorrow image with lined up athletes from left to right, Ben Cumberland, Megan Farrer,  Thomas Young, Tom Hattee, and Ellie Challis.
UK Sport launches Environmental Sustainability Strategy to protect ‘Team of Tomorrow’
28 March 2023
five athletes sat on stage in mid disussion
International Relations Seminar 2023
21 March 2023
Eilish crossing the line celebrating with her arms in the air
New research shows British public support athletes speaking out and driving social change
8 March 2023
Sport jobs in the UK
Find & advertise UK based sports jobs here
Read more
Funding Partners
  • DCMS
  • TNL partners
Strategic Partners
  • British Olympic Association
  • Paralympics GB
  • english institute of sport logo
  • Sport England
  • Sport Northern Ireland
  • Sport Wales
  • Sport Scotland
Sitelogo
Sitemap
  • Homepage
  • About us
  • Our work
  • Events
  • News
  • Sports
  • Resources
  • Jobs in sport
  • UK Sport editorial policy
  • Freedom of Information Act 2000
  • Website terms
  • Accessibility
  • Cookies policy
  • FAQs
Contact
UK Sport
6th Floor
10 South Colonnade
London
E14 4PU
E: info@uksport.gov.uk
T: +44 (0) 20 7211 5100
Follow us
Twitter Facebook Youtube Instagram LinkedIn

© Copyright UK Sport 2023