Young star Byron blasted his way to an excellent second place to cap a great year for PACTRAC athletes

Byron competed for the East Midlands against the East, South East and London regions in a race for the top 9-10 year-olds in the country. They raced over a 600m run, a two-mile bike course and a further 600m run with the local lad finishing second, after a five-athlete sprint for the line, in 11:58.

Btyron overtook four rivals after recording the second fastest run of the final discipline of 2:32.

Both Byron and clubmate Ophelia Goodale won the East Midlands Regional Junior Series in their respective TS1 (9-10 year old) and TS2 (11-12 year old) categories.

Points were awarded from eight separate events throughout the season, including triathlons, duathlons and an aquathlon. Both athletes based their seasons around the series, with Ophelia winning all eight of her events to triumph by a wide margin.

Byron competed in seven of the eight events, winning two outright at Nottingham and Derby and standing on the podium in six of them, while being the first athlete from the East Midlands Region in all seven.

Another PACTRACer Hugo Flikweert competed well in the TS3 category for 13-14 year olds, taking part in seven of the events with a best position of a sixth at Belvoir Castle.

Other successes from the PACTRAC Juniors this year include Max Beckett winning his age category at the Belvoir Tri Club Triathlon and Alex Moran winning his age category in the Oundle Super-Sprint.

Other young athletes training with the group included Bentley Anthony who won the Junior Frostbite League race at Ferry Meadows recently competing for Hunts AC.

A couple of athletes who have moved through our junior ranks in recent times and are still competing are Jonathan Oakey (who took a bronze medal overall in the Irish National Sprint Triathlon Championships) and Katie Tasker (second lady from 455 in the London Standard Distance Triathlon).

Meanwhile, head coach Simon Hoppe has qualified for both the World (Hamburg) and the European (Kitzbuhel) Triathlon Championships next season. Simon will also be competing in the World Multisport Aquathlon (swim, run) Championships in Abu Dhabi in a fortnight.

Coach Jaap Flikweert still competes and won his age group at the Duck and Dash Aquathlon in Hitchin. Scott Lloyd completed the team of coaches, while GB athlete Sophie Robotham is looking to join the team next year.

The PACTRAC Junior squad train fortnightly on Sundays at Stanground, with the first hour spent in the swimming pool before moving on to some run, bike fun on the grass. Young athletes from 6-15 years old can sign on to the sessions at pactrac.clubpal.app

** Senior PACTRAC athlete Darren Coley competed in the Challenge Vieux Boucau Triathlon on the Atlantic coast in Vieux-Boucau-les-Bains, France.

He swam 1.2 miles in a saltwater lake, cycled 56 miles and ran 13.1 miles in a time of 5:33:08 which was good enough for 45th place in his age group.