King's Triathletes in fine form

King’s Elite Triathlete Richard Higgs has qualified to represent Great Britain’s 20-24 age-group men’s team for the upcoming European Middle Distance Triathlon Championships. Richard, 23, an MSc Physiotherapy student who is currently undertaking his two-year pre-registration course at Guy’s Campus, will travel to the island of Mallorca in October to take part in the middle distance event which features a 1.9km (1.2mile) swim, 90km (56 mile) cycle and 21.1km (13.1 mile) run.

The selection news comes barely three weeks after Richard celebrated success in the Windsor Triathlon by winning the 20-24 age group category at the event.

Here, on the 14th June, racing in a standard or Olympic distance format where athletes complete a 1.5km [0.93mile] swim, 40km [25mile] bike and 10km [6.2mile] run, the King’s student, representing his Evolution Tri Windsor club, started well, emerging out of River Thames following the swim phase in second place over direct competition. Building on this momentum with a strong turn on the bike, Richard was able to push up into first place before completing the 10km run through Windsor town centre in the shadow of the Royal Castle in 37 minutes 49 seconds. Upon crossing the finish line, the clock stopped in a total of 2 hours 7 minutes 1 second not only wrapping up 1st place in the 20-24 age-group category but also placing Richard 9th overall out a field of 1600 competitors.

Richard will now be looking to replicate his racing form in the Olympic format at Windsor over greater distance for October’s event. In building for this event last season’s experience and results at both the British Middle Distance National Championships (2nd place – U24), and in particular the Ironman 70.3 World Championships where Richard placed 24th overall in the U24 field , show that the King’s athlete has the endurance to leave a mark on the competition.

Meanwhile also highly apparent on the results sheet at the Windsor Triathlon was another King’s student, this time racing directly for King’s College London Triathlon Club!

Postgraduate medical student Katherine de Rome only took up the sport in 2011 upon arrival at King’s, having previously been a swimmer up to national level. Since then she has enjoyed a remarkable rise through the ranks of the sport to the point where only 2 years after beginning she was on the start-line of the Internal Triathlon Union’s (ITU) 2013 World Triathlon Grand Final, held on the London 2012 Olympic triathlon course in Hyde Park. Here, amongst top-class international competition, Katherine finished 11th in the 20-24 age category for the Olympic distant event. Remarkably, she went even better in the parallel aquathlon race run alongside the same day, highlighting her swimming credentials to achieve a further 2nd place finish in the 20-24 age-group.

Fast-forward to Windsor this year and Katherine was once again in the front runners of the women’s field, finishing the course in 2 hours 21 minutes 4 seconds to take 1st place in the 20-24 age-group and 2nd place on the overall podium.

Supported this year through the King’s Elites programme, Katherine’s success has been achieved against the demanding backdrop of studying medicine, a minimum commitment to 20 hours of training per week and her involvement in running the student triathlon club at King’s where she has variously been both Club Captain, President and swimming coach. Having shown a stalwart commitment to training and representing the university triathlon team during the year, Katherine’s ambition will now be to try and gain qualification once again for this year’s World Championships which take place in Edmunton, Canada.