PITVILLE pool in Cheltenham hosted the annual Tri in the Park Triathlon on Saturday, July 23, and this year it included both a children's and youth age group category.

Local personal trainer Ade Clift (47yrs) from Randwick had encouraged his son Nathan (14yrs) to enter with a few of Nathan's friends Drew Mead-Day (15yrs), Joe Wright (15yrs), Luke Watson (15yrs) and Luke's younger brother Max Hannam (10yrs).

Max was first off and started well with a much improved swim section, a quick transition and bike section and strong run to finish seventh in his age group.

Nathan was next off and started with a strong swim section; a great transition then saw him pass lots of competitors on the fast, flat 6km bike course bike course before he finished with one of the fasted run sections of the day to take the podium in third place (Tri-Star 3 age group).

Drew, Joe and Luke all started in the same heat for the youth age group and battled it out in the pool Luke being first out of the swim in a new personal best time for the 400m, Drew was out next out, also in a new best time and Joe followed only a few seconds behind.

All three boys had great transitions and strong bike sections before Luke showed great class to pull away on the run section and win the youth age group in 39mins 19secs.

Drew and Joe also finished strongly to place third and fourth with 43mins 54secs and 44min 16secs respectively.

The old man of the team (Ade) was last to go in the Vets (40+ yrs) category and started with a respectable swim time of around 5min 40secs to lead the race and then followed it up with a very fast bike section, he found the 2.5km run section a bit tough (9min 2secs) eventually finishing the event with 34min 44secs in 2nd place, just 1 second behind the winner.

All the kids did brilliantly and they're already talking about doing another triathlon; a big thanks to all the parents and grandparents for their support and encouragement; it was a great day in the park!