You’re never too young nor too old to Tri is the message behind the latest success stories for N1 Tri Club athletes, writes Ellie Dominey.

Over the past fortnight, members a young as 11 and as old as, well, we’ll call them sexagenarians, have competed in Bath, the Cotswolds and overseas in France.

At the start of the month, N1 chairman, Dennis Elliot, and his wife and N1 secretary Liz took on the half Ironman distance in Aix-en-Provence.

Despite being May in the South of France, the weather was so inclement the swim got cancelled due to the risk of competitors getting hypothermia!

Dennis and Liz toughed out a very wet, windy and hilly 100km bike course and a half marathon distance run, both completing in under six-and-a-half hours, both claiming top ten spots in their age categories, with Liz even managing a superb third place and podium finish in her age group.

The following weekend saw an improvement in the weather and N1’s junior triathletes took centre stage.

On the first Saturday in May, eleven-year-old Ollie Beech competed in the Bath duathlon, which this year incorporated the South West championships. For Ollie’s age group the distances were a 1500m run, a 6km bike and another run of 600m.

Ollie paced himself like a pro, working his way through from Eighth after the first run to second in his age group by the finish, taking a hard earned podium spot and a silver medal in the South West junior duathlon championships.

The following day, two of the N1 talented teenage squad took on the Cotswold Super Sprint triathlon.

This involved a 400m lake swim, a 20km ride and a 5km trail run around the lake. Jake Smith is an extremely talented runner and it was no surprise that he posted the fastest run split for his age group; what was a surprise was that he posted the second fastest run of all the athletes, including the seniors, covering the 5km in just over 15 minutes.

With a solid swim and decent bike this gave him second place in his age group on the day. Ollie Caute posted the fastest bike split in his age group and also had a strong swim and run, though a few mishaps in transition cost him a podium place, Ollie finished just outside in fourth place in his age category.