Three Worcester Tri members competed at the national and inter-regional championships held at Parc Bryn Bach in mid September.
Having qualified through their performances earlier in the season, David and Helen Jubb raced for the West Midlands team in the Youth and Tristar 2 categories respectively. Cold and wet conditions meant that the younger competitors had their race changed to a duathlon but Youths and above were made to brave the open water!
Helen Jubb set the pace in the first race, leading out of T1 before being caught and passed by stronger cyclists on the climbs and fast descents of the bike course. Despite this, she came out of T2 well placed and re-passed several rivals to finish only four seconds outside the medals in fourth place. Brother David – whose prayers for more rain and wind to change his race into a duathlon went unfulfilled – spoilt a good swim by missing the turn into T1: he was more pre-occupied with getting his wetsuit off than removing his misted up goggles! As a result, he was unable to latch onto a pack for the bike and, despite a strong run, was forced to settle for 22nd place.
The last event of a full day was the Elite National Championships and final race of the British Triathlon Super Series over a 750m, 20k and 5k course. The field included such notables as the Brownlees, Stuart Hayes and Tim Don. For Worcester, Tom Watts finished 5th in the Junior category and 26th overall in a time of 1.04.05. This result ranks Tom as 4th Elite Junior in the country at the end of the British Triathlon Super Series and 24th overall amongst the senior elites for the season.