Tristan Narraway had a third-place finish among the 15-year-old females in the USA National Youth and Junior Age Group Triathlon Championships in West Chester Township, Ohio, at the weekend, although she was not able to receive her award because she is not American.

Narraway was part of a seven-member team from the Tri-Hedz Junior Triathlon Club who competed among 850 athletes in the two-day event, which, for the first time in the event’s history, was sold out.

Several members of the Bermuda team achieved personal-best times, with Narraway earned a podium spot after placing third in her age group.

Not eligible to receive the award, she presented it to the fourth-place finisher, Nicole Tanner from Alpharetta, Georgia, who shared the honour with Narraway by inviting her to stand on the podium with her.

“Triathlon is such an individual sport, I am always trying to better my own performance event after event,” Narraway said. “My goal was to do my best in the swim, concentrate on the bike, as this has been the focus of my training, and hang in there for the run, which is my weakest discipline.

“I felt good on the bike and worked hard to move up my placement, but had no idea of my positioning until I was close to finishing and could hear my team-mates yelling at me to ‘run top three’?”

The rest of the Bermuda contingent consisted of Megan Hand, 10, Caleb Ingham, 11, Nicholas Pilgrim, 11, Amber Simons, 11, Nicholas Narraway, 12, and Jessica Godfrey, 14, with notable finishes from Hand, who had a fifteenth-place finish in the ten-year-old girls’ age group and Pilgrim, who placed ninth in the 11-year-old boys’ age group and was 47th overall out of the 302 participants in the 11-15 category.

The age group event, which began late on Saturday owing to thunder and lightning, featured competitive distances, ranging from a 100 metres swim, five-kilometre bike and a 1km run for ages 7 to 10 to a 200 metres swim, 10km bike and 2km run for athletes ages 11 to 15.

The swim was in fresh water and presented a challenge as the athletes usually compete in salt water. They overcame this and showed great strength on the bike course, holding their own on the flat run. In addition to the race, the Bermudian athletes had the opportunity to participate in the event clinic last Friday, which featured USA Triathlon-certified coaches taking 100 youth athletes through swim, bike, run and transition stations on the racecourse and offering advice for race day.

“This was a great opportunity for our athletes to familiarise themselves with the course and learn some tips from top coaches before racing got under,” Deborah Titterton Narraway, the Tri-Hedz president, said. “I think the parents and athletes would agree that this trip was an amazing experience.”

n Tri-Hedz Junior Triathlon Club of Bermuda is group of more than 30 juniors, ranging in age from 7 to 15. For more information on the club, e-mail trihedz@gmail.com.