Local people making their corner of rural Britain unique
This week
Saturday 12 July Repeated Thursday 17 July
Open Country’s Matt Baker embarks on triathlon training across the Leicestershire landscape, taking inspiration from Britain’s number one triathlete Tim Don and the non elite athletes who are up for the challenge too.
Loughborough is home to The British Triathlon Federation and the surrounding Leicestershire countryside, with it’s fresh water leisure sites, historic country parks and picturesque villages, provides a range of landscapes that top atheletes use as their training ground.
Triathlon is a multi-discipline sport involving a continuous race over various distances in the three disciplines of swimming, cycling and running. It’s a relatively new sport which first made it to the Olympics in 2000 at Sydney, but it's popularity is growing fast with around 350 affiliated clubs across Great Britain alone.
As part of Matt’s triathlon experience he joined Olympic hopeful Hollie Avil for an early morning swim at Bosworth Water Trust, cycled through the rural villages of Quorn and Mount Sorrel with with ametuer enthusiast Alistair Hutchinson , ran over the hills of Bradgate Country Park with British Triathlons East Midlands Development Officer Jonny Raill, and wound down, strolling with triathlete and fine artist Vanessa Raw.
Matt concludes his odessy by comparing notes with Britains top triathlete Tim Don as he prepares for Beijing.
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