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Seonaid Thompson is Most Promising Triathlete for 2013
Scottish triathlete Seonaid Thompson was crowned winner of the 2012 British
Triathlon Super Series title, Britain’s premier elite triathlon race series, at
the London Triathlon in September. She performed consistently in the season long
series, finishing in second place at the Toshiba Windsor Triathlon in June and
delivering two strong performances at the GE Blenheim Triathlon and GE
Strathclyde Park Triathlon. Her 7th place finish at the London Triathlon, the
final event in the series, earned her enough points to take the title.
This result is particularly impressive as she only switched from track running
to triathlons last year. She has however already highlighted her capabilities,
not only with the Super Series title but also by winning the Scottish Aquathlon
Championship and taking silver in the British Aquathlon Championship.
These impressive performances have earned Seonaid a place on the Triathlon
Scotland Development Squad for 2012/13 and means she is able to benefit from
coaching from Jack Maitland and Malcolm Brown, who helped coach the Brownlee
brothers to Olympic success.With these early achievements and the support of the
British Triathlon development programme Seonaid looks likely to have even
greater success in the near future.
Sportsister contributor Helen Russell spoke to Seonaid to find out about her
meteoric rise, to whom she spoke
" I joined my local athletics club, Macclesfield Harriers, when I was 11 years
old and the swimming club, Satellites of Macclesfield, a couple of years later.
I competed in both athletics and swimming events but I was better at running –
my favourite event was the sprint hurdles. I gradually moved up the distances
until I went to Durham University where I focussed on 800m. I continued to swim
but only once or twice a week as cross training for my running.
My boyfriend (now husband) entered me in The London Triathlon in 2009 – I
wouldn’t enter myself as I thought it was too expensive. I wore my husband’s
wetsuit, cycled his bike (wearing my trainers) and ran in my swimming costume
with shorts over the top. I was still training for 800m on the track at the
time, but despite my lack of equipment and training I really enjoyed it and
decided to do a few more. I continued to train for 800m though and didn’t switch
to triathlon training until 2011.
My best result in athletics was winning the 800m at the Celtic International in
2010. I was so happy to be running for Scotland that I didn’t even feel nervous.
I think my best result in triathlon so far was my 7th place at the London
Triathlon this year. I enjoyed the race, but the best part of the day was
finding out that I’d won the British Triathlon Super Series (The London
Triathlon was the fifth and final event in the series).
I don’t consider this year to be a break through year as I’ve only been training
for triathlon for a year and a half. Quite simply, I am better at triathlon this
year than I was last year because I’ve done more training. Training at the Leeds
Triathlon Centre has also made a difference though. I certainly wouldn’t have
improved as much if I was just training by myself without a coach.
At the moment, a typical week’s training involves five sessions of each
discipline (swim/bike/run), two strength and conditioning sessions and regular
stretching and foam rolling.
On her blog she wrote:
 Pendle
triathlon on Sunday was my first UK triathlon of 2013. The weather forecast was
terrible, 7°C, heavy rain and strong winds. Luckily this turned out to be
inaccurate and it was really more like light rain and moderate winds. Even so, I
laid out my bike jersey and gloves in transition- after Skipton, Wetherby and
London triathlons last year I didn’t want to do another triathlon where I
couldn’t feel my hands and feet.
The swim was a 750m pool swim, a bit unusual as normally sprint distance tri
pool swims are only 400m but it suited me, as normally in an age group triathlon
the swim ends up being my strongest discipline. There was a bit of a run up to
transition, round the building, up a hill and round another building and my
transition took a bit longer than normal as I put on my helmet, bike jersey,
race belt and gloves!
Onto the bike and I was so glad to have my extra layers on, especially for the
down-hills. The bike course was good, two laps of a hilly loop with marshals all
the way around. I’m always reassured to see marshals in a non-drafting race as
it makes it much fairer for everyone, discouraging some people from drafting. It
was also reassuring to know I was going the right way.
The run course was also nice and very well marshalled. It was more like a cross
country race than a normal triathlon run though as we ran through fields, over
stiles, up hills, along farm tracks and along a canal towpath. The last
kilometre felt much longer than a kilometre, so I was happy to see the finish
line and collect my finisher’s Mars bar!
After a warm down jog, shower and change the presentations took place. I was 1st
woman and 5th overall in 1.13.50, a time I was quite pleased with given the
nature of the course. I was disappointed however that the men and women were
given different prizes. Only the 1st woman won a prize while the top 3 men got
prizes and only the 1st man and 1st local man won large shields.
Overall this was a great triathlon though, very well organised with interesting
bike and run courses, especially if you like the hills!
Credits:
Dated 10 May 2013
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