Donald Brooks of Teignbridge Tri’ers qualified to represent Great Britain at the European Triathlon Championships, held in Tartu, Estonia, as part of the Great Britain Age Group Team.

Saturday, July 21 saw some 278 British Age Group triathletes, alongside their European counterparts, battle the Olympic distance course (1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run) all in the hope of collecting an elusive European title.

With a total field of approximately 600 competitors the swim took place in the river running through the city center which then followed on to the predominately flat and fast bike course, which took the athletes out of the city on a two-lap circuit. This was followed by a fast and flat run course alongside the river, finishing under the gantry on the famous blue carpet.

Tartu has been experiencing the same heatwave conditions as the UK, which provided some hot conditions for racing and had increased the temperature of the river to a level where wetsuits were not allowed.

This favoured Brooks, coming from a swimming background where he showed his strength and came out the water in first place in his age group wave (40-44) gaining a sizable lead on the majority of his competitors.

He then extended this lead on the bike course and further throughout the run to finish in a time of 1.50.41, nearly six-and-half minutes ahead of the second placed competitor within his age group. This also gave him the fastest overall time of the race across all age groups by a margin of 57 seconds.

Already the European and World Champion in 2017, he retained his European title to add to his British Championship won at the AJ Bell Triathlon, held in Leeds in June.

Full story and more pictures in the Friday, August 3 edition of the Mid-Devon Advertiser