Britons Chris Perham and James Teagle both delivered strong performances as the junior men’s world triathlon championship came down to a sprint finish in Edmonton.
While France’s Raphael Montoya was edging out Australia’s Jacob Birtwhistle for victory in 56:27mins, Perham and Teagle were working their way through the 67-strong field to finish 15th and 22nd respectively.
It represented commendable returns from the Loughborough-based duo, who both only qualified thanks to podium positions in an ETU Triathlon Junior Cup race in Nottingham a week ago.
“It was good for my first championship,” said 19-year-old Perham. “I accomplished what I wanted to do and got in all the right positions on the swim and the bike. I kept building up on the run, gradually picking off people and was really pleased with the end result.”
The two breakaway leaders from the 750m swim were quickly reeled in by the chasers on the 20.4km bike leg so a large front pack arrived at T2 ready for a sharp 5km run.
“The bike was a lot slower than I thought it was going to be,” Perham continued. “Nobody really wanted to take it on from the front, so then the run was a lot quicker, and the pace was on from the start.
“I loved it, though. We were the first race on and now I get to watch all the others, and learn and progress from there.”
Teagle, who at 18 has another year of competing in the junior ranks, was equally upbeat. “I’m happy to have made it here, that was the season’s objective,” he said. “The race was really hard. I don’t think I had enough to eat going into it, but apart from that it went to plan. Now I go away for winter training and work on getting a top 10 next year.”
Image: David Pearce/British Triathlon
