Athlete case studies Athlete development is a main priority of the triathlon Scotland performance pathway. Through many years of hard work and investing in the ‘potential’ of athletes, triathlon Scotland are now in a position to provide examples of athletes who have come through the pathway and are developing into Senior international athletes.

The case studies below allow an insight into what path’s athletes have taken to get to an international level of the sport.

Major achievements to date 3rd European Junior Triathlon Championships, Alanya 2013 2nd World Junior Triathlon Championships, London 2013 3rd Geneva Continental Cup, Geneva 2013 3rd Australian Youth Olympic Festival, 2013

Favourite session Swim ­ 10x400 off 5mins holding sub 4:40, trying to lift the last few reps Bike ­ long 4 hour ride in the trossachs Run ­ 3 laps of the Uni loch(2.5k) with 90 secs recovery, holding best average pace

Key People on the journey James Leach Stefan Todorov Blair Cartmell John Dargie Chris Volley

The journey so far……. Early years ­ Marc started his sporting life by attending swimming lessons and paying football. He also ran, because there was a running club at school and his parents were also keen runners. Marc began swimming for a club aged 10/11 and swam 4 times a week under the guidance of James Leach. James encouraged Marc to do his first triathlon, where he qualified for the IRC team and met John Dargie for the first time.

Age 13 ­ James Leach left the position of head coach at Marc’s swimming club and was replaced by Stefan Todorov, who had himself been an open water swimmer and also had an understanding of triathlon. At this point Marc began to commit to triathlon a bit more and also started to cycle.

Age 14 ­ Marc swim coach left and he didn’t make that years IRC team. These two things combined made Marc more determined. At that point also Chris Volley began to add a bit more structure to Marc’s training. He began by going through to Stirling once a week to train with the squad.

Age 15 ­ Marc began to compete within the British Super Series races and won the British Aquathlon Champs. It was at this time he was also put onto the Scottish Development Squad.

Age 16 ­ Marc continued to race the supersieries, achieving a few podium finishes, but not at that point making any GB teams. As a result he decided to take that winter really seriously, being more consistent in training and attending his first winter camp abroad.

Age 17 ­ During the following season Marc qualified for the European GB junior team and World Champs GB junior team. He found a lot of what he achieved that year was unexpected and on occasion struggled to feel prepared for races, however still felt happy at where he was at in the sport. He credited the success of his season to Blair Cartmell who had began working with Marc on a more structured basis.

Age 18 ­ Together Marc and Blair concocted a winter of training. Marc felt there was great value of training with other senior athletes and athletes his age from around the country in a camp environment as it enabled him to broaden his understanding of the sport and how to train for it.

Age 19 ­ After another solid and focused winter, Marc felt the fittest he had ever been. He put in some good early season performances and then in a camp in Spain managed to suffer a stress reaction. He found that period very stressful and felt he didn’t handle it well, but the injury soon healed and he returned to fitness and proceeded to have a pretty seamless rest of the season, achieving his best season to date.

Major achievements to date 13th Yokohama WTS 2014 12th Auckland WTS 2014 15th New Plymouth sprint World cup 2014 3rd Alicante World Cup, Alicante 2013 3rd World Junior Championships, London 2013 6th European champs, Alanya 2013

Favourite sessions Swim ­ 40 x 100m off 1:20 Bike ­ Hill reps up big hills Run ­ 6 x 600m with 200m jog rec (Aim to descend each rep)

Key People on the journey Blair Cartmell Chris Volley Frank Jones Andy Figgins

The journey so far…….

Age 13 ­ Started swimming and specialised in fly and distance freestyle. Coached by Frank Jones (Blantyre Amateur Swimming Club), he was someone who taught grant the art of hard work. At this time Grant also played a number of team sports amongst which football was his favourite.

Age 14 ­ Grant grew tired of swimming and started to explore the possibility of triathlon. He continued to swim and also ran in various x countries for school. At the same time Shona Girdwood organised a few triathlon and aquathlons, which Grant competed in. This was also the first time he competed against Marc Austin.

Age 15 ­ Grant went to TriathlonScotland foundation squad trials where he mat Blair Cartmell and Chris Volley for the first time. Every athlete attending was already on program and Grant wanted to join them and claim a place on the squad. Upon being accepted to the squad, Grant attended various camps organised by Blair and Chris. He remembers them being extremely challenging and looking up to people like Cameron Milne and Andrew Hood, who in his eyes were superstars. Grant thrived on the satisfaction of giving everything he could in training and with that his passion for the sport grew.

Grants first taster of draft legal racing came at Blenheim palace triathlon. He managed to muscle his way to the front of the swim, only to be lead the wrong way by the lead canoe. Upon realising it was too late and the lead pack had gone and he found himself racing in the chase pack for the majority of the race.

Age 16 ­ Frank Jones decided to leave the swimming club and at that point, Grant felt he needed to move to a club that would allow him to progress further with his swimming. He moved to East Kilbride swimming club to be coached by Andy Figgins. At this point too, Blair began to add more structure to his training, however Grant was still based in his home environment. Throughout that season Grant suffered a number of setbacks in races, due to crashes and injuries, but despite the frustration he felt it made him more determined.

Age 17 ­ Grant took the decision to go to university a year early to pursue triathlon and started uni alongside Marc Austin and Duncan McAuthur. At that point training got a lot more focused and this was reflected in race results. Blair was now his full time coach and being immersed in a structured environment is something he was very much enjoying. However at this time Grant also battled with pushing too hard in training and on training camps, leaving him either ill or injured going into some races.

Age 18/19 ­ Training during the 2012­13 winter went well. There was good consistency and good progress made. However much like last year grant still struggled in the early part of the season to find the balance of how hard to push, especially in a camp environment. After rushing back to fitness he qualified for Euros and finished 6th. The mission was then to carry momentum through to the worlds in London. Divonne Les Bains was the first camp where Grant came back and felt healthy and fit. He felt confident going into worlds qualifiers and managed to qualify with a race plan he concocted with Gordon Benson whilst on camp in France. Grant went to worlds feeling quite a lot of pressure to do well and was happy to have performed under that pressure. To finish the season off, Grant went to Alicante to compete his first standard distance world cup race. Going in with a mentality of get to the front and stay there as long as possible paid off as he finished 3rd.

Major achievements to date 15th Cozumel ITU World Cup, Cozumel 2013 26th Alicante ITU World Cup, Alicante 2013 34th ITU World Triathlon Grand Final, London 2013 29th ITU World Triathlon Stockholm, Stockholm 2013 5th Tiszaujvaros ITU Triathlon World Cup, Tiszaujvaros 2013 22nd ITU World Triathlon Kitzbuehel, Austria 2013 3rd Larache ITU Sprint Triathlon Africa Cup, Larache 2013 14th Quarteira ITU European Cup, Quarteira 2013 16th Alanya ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup, Turkey 2012 14th Holten ITU Triathlon Premium European Cup, Holten 2012

Favourite session Swim session consisting of the following 5 x 300m off 4:15 ­ The aim of the set is to hold the best pace possible. Natalie would usually hold 3:38’s for this set. Key People on the journey Blair Cartmell Chris Volley Scott Urquhart

The journey so far……. Age 7 ­ After working her way through various swimming grades, Natalie began swimming with her local swimming club 1­2 times per week.

Age 13 ­ Natalie was taking swimming a little more seriously and after various trials, moved to Perth swimming club, where she would train 6 times a week. At the same time she was also a member of her local athletics club. She enjoyed the combination of both swimming and running and always looked forward to challenging herself in training.

Age 14 ­ At this point Natalie was finding it hard to achieve the balance of both swimming and running and so decided to commit fully to swimming and stopped attending athletics sessions.

Age 16 ­ At age 16 Natalie had her first experience of triathlon. After years of encouragement from then coach Scott Urquhart, Scott managed to convince Natalie to do the Scottish Schools National Triathlon. It was an off­road triathlon and whilst at the time Natalie didn’t particularly enjoy the experience, there was something about the sport that left her wanting more.

Age 17 ­ Natalie then left Perth swimming club to commit to triathlon. At the same time she went to a foundation squad trial day in Glasgow. It was there she met John Dargie and officially began her triathlon journey. At the time she didn’t have a road bike and had managed to complete her first road triathlon on her mountain bike. As a result her parents bought her a road bike which at the time was invaluable as it meant she could really start to get stuck into training. As Natalie had left Perth swimming club she had being using the University of Stirling as her training base. It was here that she first met Chris Volley who planted the idea of not only training at Stirling, but also studying.

Age 18 ­ At this point Natalie had started her first year of uni and also committed to her first year of training at the centre. At this point she was coached by Chris Volley. She found she was making great progress with her swimming and cycling, but really struggled to achieve consistency on the run due to regular occurrences of shin splints. Natalie also raced a few domestic races and cites Blenheim as being a big learning race, where she lead with swim and was in the lead pack on the bike, however wasn’t aware of the correct number of bike laps and came in a lap early.

Age 20 ­ This was yet another development year for Natalie, she continued to race on a domestic level and had a change in coaching set up moving from Chris Volley to Blair Cartmell. Whilst this year was another year spent training for triathlon Natalie still had an ongoing battle with shin splints.

Age 21 ­ Another year in the bag and Natalie was beginning to make headway with her best result to date, where she finished 4th at Strathclyde park SuperSeries race. Her 2011 season continued in a positive direction, however the ongoing issues with shin splints prevented her from achieving the consistency she needed on the run.

Age 22 ­ After racing 3 years of domestic races, Natalie used the 2012 season to take a step up in race standard. She raced 3 ETU cups, which were by her own admission very daunting and scary, but enjoyed the step up in race standard. She found on a European stage she was performing well on the swim and bike, but needed to work on her run in order to remain competitive at the front end of the race.

Age 23 ­ The 2013 season brought about a number of changes for Natalie, firstly through gaining a better understanding of her body she was able to push the limits of her running further than she ever had done before. She decided to revert back to being coached by Chris Volley. She found great value in having another female added to the group, going by the name of Florie McLeish. Finally she was competed in 3 of the worlds biggest races. What is clear from the 2013 season it that Natalie has been pushed through barriers she previously thought were impossible to break, she has been constantly pushed outside her comfort zone and yet still managed to achieve some of her best performances to date, she is still even at the age of 24 making massive leaps forward in the sport and most importantly despite nearly 20 years involvement in sport she is hungrier than ever to get the best out of herself.