Two N1 triathletes represented Great Britain at the European Duathlon Championships in Soria, Spain, writes Garry Perratt.

Both were competing over the sprint distance of 5k run, 20k cycle followed by a leg-searing, lung-busting 2.5k run.

Soria sits high in the mountains, so the courses were not only extremely hilly, but at 3300ft of altitude, the thinner air added to the challenge. Three days before the event it was zero degrees and the town had even seen some snow!

Thankfully on race day temperatures had lifted to a pleasant 12 degrees.

In the ladies’ field of 145, Ellie Dominey started conservatively to finish the first 5k run 11th overall and fourth in her age group.

The hilly bike course suited her as she loves a good climb out of the saddle, and she moved up to eighth overall and second AG before digging deep for the final run which saw her pull herself up to sixth female overall and maintain second place in her age group, meaning she earned some well-deserved bling and got to stand on the podium as the European Championship silver medalist.

This result also pre-qualifies her for next year’s Europeans in Ibiza, Spain.

Despite injury having hampered his run training this year, 18-year-old Jake Smith performed excellently in the men’s race with a field of 337 athletes.

He was seventh overall and first in his age group (AG) after the first run. Cycling isn’t his strongest discipline and he dropped to 47th overall and 10th AG after the ride, but pulled back with the third-fastest second run of the day to finish 64th overall and 9th AG.

He was pleased with his top ten age group performance at this level and learnt a lot from the experience.

The following day he flew home and stopped off to race a 3,000m race at Millfield School on the way, setting a PB of 8:48 in the process ... is there no stopping this guy?