Perhaps one of the best things about the sport of triathlon is the ‘age group’ system it employs as it allows people to compete at a high level in their senior years.

Age group periods of five years are strictly adhered to and each year there is an opportunity for the ‘best’ to represent Great Britain in the Triathlon age group world championships.

This year they are in Edmonton Canada. Sprint distance races are over 750 metres of swimming, 12 miles of ‘non drafting’ cycling and finally, a 5km run.

This weekend The Big Triathlon staged at the National Watersports centre in Nottingham was a qualifying event.

To gauge the standard that two local N1 tri club club members were racing against the leading times for the event were around 14 minutes for the swim, 35 minutes for the bike leg or 20 miles-per-hour and then the run at 22 minutes.

The fact that is most interesting about these numbers is they are for women over 60 years of age!

Vanessa Glynn Jones is steadily working her way back to full fitness and just missed out by seconds in her bid to qualify for the GB team.

The good news is she will have another chance to improve and qualify in Sheffield later this month. For N1 Tri club secretary Liz Elliott it was a joyful day out as she came home in fouth place after a storming bike leg and for the second year running secured her place in the GB team.

Closer to home Jane Down, Cerri Henkus and Jacquia Rogers were at Taunton to race a sprint distance event.

A particular feature of the sport of triathlon is discovering ways to improve in the various aspects of the race.

All three had much to reflect on and be pleased with after a hard winter’s training.