Local hero, Sophie Coldwell, visited Greenfields Community School today to share her top sporting tips with the pupils, 100 days before the British Triathlon Mixed Relay Cup prepares to bring the city to life on Saturday 2 September.
Fresh from her return from Japan, where the 22-year-old managed a stunning fourth place at the ITU World Triathlon Series event in Yokohama, Coldwell returned to her home city to put the children through their paces. Now based at the Loughborough Triathlon Performance Centre, she helped lead a PE session, before allowing the youngsters the first glimpse of the Official Cup that will be presented live on BBC One in just over three months’ time.
Coldwell said: “I’m so excited at the prospect of competing in the city I grew up in. The British Triathlon Mixed Relay Cup will be a showcase of the top British and international triathletes and I can’t wait to be part of it.
“It’s been great to come and meet the pupils today and answer their questions about triathlon and how I got started in the sport. I hope they’ve been inspired to come along and watch in September and, who knows, there could be a budding triathlete amongst them.”
The fast and furious event is set to feature 20 triathlon quartets made up of two men and two women, each completing a short course triathlon before ‘tagging’ their teammate to do the same.
An expected crowd of 20,000 spectators and a live BBC One television audience will follow the action as some of the world’s best race around Victoria Embankment and Trent Bridge in this dynamic and exciting format of the sport.
The format, whilst relatively new to spectators in the Great Britain, is well-known overseas, with British and English national teams having won World and Commonwealth titles. The decision to include Mixed Relay within the Tokyo 2020 Olympics is set to be made in July.
Jack Buckner, CEO British Triathlon, said: “Our British triathletes have already experienced great success this year and we can’t wait to display the huge amount of sporting talent we have in an exciting new racing format in the heart of the city.
“Nottingham is a fantastic location for the event to make its debut and I know the city will get well behind the event by coming down to support in September.”
Cllr Dave Trimble, Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture at Nottingham City Council, added: “With 100 days to go, we’re really starting to feel the excitement for this major event coming to the city. We are proud to host these high calibre athletes. I would urge the public to grab a grandstand ticket if they haven’t done so already and support our local talent. There are also chances to take part in the mass participation event.”
The British Triathlon Mixed Relay Cup Nottingham will be supported by the City of Nottingham Triathlon. The mass participation event, organised by OSB Events and aimed at novice participants, offers an opportunity to experience closed roads racing alongside the River Trent on Nottingham’s famous Victoria Embankment and takes place just hours before the elite stars take to the course. To book your spot on the start line, visit here.
Capture the very best of the elite action by securing a spot in the grandstand, overlooking the finish line and the thrilling athlete-changeover point. Tickets start at £10 (plus booking fee) and are available at See Tickets.
About British Triathlon
British Triathlon is the Governing Body for the sport in Great Britain. It is responsible for raising the profile and delivering elite performance for Triathlon, Paratriathlon, Duathlon and Aquathlon in Great Britain. Triathlon is a fast growing, dynamic and modern Olympic and Paralympic sport with talented world class athletes, coaches and support staff, focused around delivering world-class success and inspiring participation.
Great Britain is home to double Olympic Champion Alistair Brownlee, 2016 silver and 2012 bronze medallist Jonathan Brownlee and 2016 bronze medallist Vicky Holland. In addition, British paratriathletes returned from the Rio 2016 Paralympics with one gold, two silver and one bronze medal courtesy of Andy Lewis, Lauren Steadman, Alison Patrick (Guide: Hazel Smith) and Melissa Reid (Guide: Nicole Walters) respectively.
We also have a strong squad of highly world ranked elite triathletes, and emerging talent from our youth development programmes https://www.britishtriathlon.org/media/statistics.
There are over 1,200 triathlon events conducted in Great Britain each year, a figure which grew by 63% between 2012 and 2016. British Triathlon is committed to being a leader in environmental awareness in sport, protecting the environment in which we operate today and in the future.
British Triathlon is a beneficiary of the UK Sport Lottery funded World-Class Programmes (WCP). The programmes focus on performance sport with the aim of achieving sporting excellence on the world stage. Further information can be found on the UK Sport website at www.uksport.gov.uk.
Visit www.britishtriathlon.org/media for downloadable image galleries, detailed athlete profiles, results, stats and information.