Tenola’s Ambassador Tom Radley Season Review of 2020

“if at first you don’t succeed tri tri and tri again”

Despite the challenging year that we have all faced it has been good to look back over my results and progress that has been made. Quickly realising that covid was going to put a pause to international racing allowed me to target some of the stronger domestic races in the UK that were taking place.

Although there have been limited opportunities to get a number on and race, it’s been positive to see tangible progress in my results. With pools being shut for a large part of the year, I have put a big focus upon my bike training this year - something that has allowed me to be fighting at the front of many races this season.

With the first triathlons of the season taking place in August it was great to hit the ground running with a 2nd place finish in the new forest, following up with 3rd at the Brighton international triathlon a couple weeks later. I then went on a frustrating run of three 4th place finishes in Halesowen, Dawlish and Minehead. Despite missing the podium on each occasion, when looking at the results, I am much closer to the overall win at these events than previously. A late entry to the Odd Down duathlon (run-bike-run) in Bath finally gave me the win I had been working for and was a good way to end my multi sport season.

Away from multi sport racing, my running has also progressed in 2020. I began the year by running a big 10k pb (34:18) in Chepstow and ended the year with a 5k pb in Hereford (16:13). My performance at the Gloucestershire cross country championships also meant that I gained selection to represent the county at the inter counties championships in Loughborough. Despite the race not going quite to plan (losing my shoe in the mid with 4K left to run) it was great to share the course with some of the countries top runners.

So 2021... something I think we have all learnt this year is to be flexible with our long term plans. However, providing this stick to plan A My main focuses will be as follows.

• World sprint distance triathlon championships in Bermuda October 2021
• European sprint distance championships date TBA
• world duathlon championships in Amsterdam September 2021

Read more about Tom Radley here >