Marshall pleased with Euro performance

STRATFORD AC’s Charly Marshall was on international duty at the weekend, representing Great Britain in the European Triathlon Junior Cup in Tábor, Czechia.

The event is Europe’s elite competition for under 20s and the 19-year-old produced one of her strongest performances in the event last year.

Marshall had an exceptional 750m swim in Tábor’s beautiful lake which was an enticing 21C and when she left the water she was among the leaders with a swim time more than a minute faster than the previous year.

Starting out with determination on the 20km bike ride, Marshall had a strong first lap around a challenging course with many steep ascents followed by fast, technical descents. The Stratford teenager had a large slide and near collision at pace on one such descent losing several places but then had a faultless transition to the 5km run which involved three circuits of a city course which included a total of 100m ascents.

She consolidated a solid race with an 18.56 run time and finished with an overall time of 1.08.40 for 24th place.

Marshall said she found it challenging working in the bike pack as there was no communication and it was difficult to predict the actions of other athletes. Having recently come off at speed, she was cautious to avoid a similar event, but she added that she was pleased with the time which was similar to last year but with clear improvements on the swim and it had meant more European competition experience.