Triathlete Tom will again compete against the cream of the country's top young performers

Hughes has attended a performance assessment weekend arranged as part of British Triathlon's National Youth programme.

The annual Super-Series is a key part of the UK’s triathlon pathway and pits the best high-performing athletes from across the country against each other in highly competitive races.

All athletes with aspirations to race in the Super Series had to attend the weekend event with the results setting the order of entry for the next races. The assessments included a 400m swim time-trial at the University of Nottingham followed by a combined bike (6.25 miles) and run (1.5 miles) at the new venue of Kendrew Barracks, Cottesmore. Hughes competed in all 6 events last year in the Youth A Category, finishing 37th overall. This year, and now in the Youth B Category, he can take part in 8 events, with the next round in Llanelli in May. Fifty of the country’s top 16-17 year old athletes took part over the weekend with Hughes finishing 23rd in the swim in 4:40, just 29 seconds behind the leader. Hughes was the 6th fastest (17.20) on the bike section moving him up to fourth overall, but with competitors all around him for the short and fast run, he finished 11th overall in a total time of 30.31. He ran the 1.5 miles in 8.31.

Three PACTRAC athletes opened the season at the Basildon Aquathlon. Jaap Flikweert was lying in 28th place after the 400m swim, but pulled back 19 places on the 3.1 mile run to finish 9th overall.

Youngsters Byron Stother and Hugo Flikweert took part in Tri-star races.