JACK POWIS, an 18 year old triathlete from Stroud, qualified for his second World Championships by coming second in the under 20s category at a Leeds national triathlon event.

Powis swam 1500 metres, cycles 36 kilometres and ran 10km on the streets of the Leeds city centre in a time of just over two hours. This excellent performance booked his place in the 2020 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada. Jack has already qualified to represent Great Britain at the Switzerland 2019 World Triathlon Championships.

Powis said: "I got out of the water in a time of 21:30, which took four minutes off my time from last year. This set me up really well for the rest of the race. The bike route was undulating, with lots of technical turns, which made it a really testing course. At the start of the run, my legs were feeling really heavy. A steep incline straight out of second transition didn't help. However, as it got into it, I found my running legs and posted a decent 10k run split. Considering it was only my second ever Olympic distance triathlon, I was very pleased with my performance.

"It was great to be able to finish on the same blue carpet as the elites, who competed later that day, which include the likes of the Brownlee brothers. I'm really looking forward to competing in Switzerland in September and it's great to have already booked by place in next year's World Championships.

"My coach Chris Frapwell has played a key role in my continued development in the sport."