Sport Wales has revealed its six-strong triathlon squad for this summer’s Commonwealth Games, with Non Stanford and Helen Jenkins unsurprisingly headlining the women’s team, joined by 22-year-old Holly Lawrence.
The men’s team includes Liam Lloyd, a sports science student at Leeds University, Alex Matchett who studies medicine in Bristol, and Loughborough student Morgan Davies, who came eighth at last year’s junior men’s race at the WTS Grand Final in London.
It is the women’s team which is expected to dominate in Glasgow next month though, despite missing former Ironman world champion Leanda Cave, who wrote on her personal blog last week that she had been left out of the Welsh squad, apparently due to her lack of suitability for the super-sprint distance format of the team relay event.
Like Alistair Brownlee last weekend, Non Stanford has indicated that she no longer plans to challenge for this year’s WTS series title, as injury has prevented her from accumulating enough points. "I have to let go of that hope of defending my world title," she told Sport Wales. "But it does mean I can put all of my focus into the Commonwealth Games and hopefully deliver the goods."
Sport Wales has set an “unashamedly ambitious” target of 27 medals at this year’s Commonwealth Games, including six in swimming, three in cycling and one in triathlon. Wales scooped 19 medals in Delhi four years ago, including golds in athletics, boxing and lawn bowls.
The triathlon events will be held over Olympic distance at Strathclyde Country Park, with the men's and women's finals taking place on Thursday 24 July and the mixed relay being held on Saturday 26 July. Triathlon tickets sold out in less than a week, although the organisers have told 220 that they will launch a ticket resale programme next month via the Glasgow 2014 ticketing website.